Top 10 Kitchen Gadgets
Any foodies weakness is kitchen gadgets. Gadgets that can help cut my cooking/prep time in the kitchen is a definite sold item to me but can also quickly add up and clutter up your kitchen if you're not careful. Here are my top picks for kitchen gadgets that help keep you minimal but also give multiple uses in the kitchen. And if you're a new cook or looking to gift a house warming gift consider some of these items listed below! Disclaimer: These photos are NOT mine, they are thumbnails to the links I have attached to help direct you to the products I have or products similar to the ones I have. Also at the bottom is a FULL list of my kitchen, gadgets, tools and organization I use in my home.
1. Spice Box For those who follow me regularly know I LOVE my Spice Daba (Box). It was gifted to me by my beautiful mom who had gotten it from Pakistan. I love it because I'm able to keep all my everyday spices I use on the regular in it without having to pull out my spice jars every time. Here's one similar to the one I have but slightly smaller in size. Although I may not consider it an actual gadget I do think it's one of my most used items in the kitchen and really does cut my prep/cook time by not having to go through and search for every spice I need.
2. Kitchen Sheers I use kitchen sheers for everything. I have 2 pairs, I keep one for kitchen items I need to open or cutting herbs from the garden and the other for my meats. I don't want cross contamination so I try to keep things for my meats completely separate. I love using my scissors to cut off the fat from my meat or just dicing up my chicken. It goes much quicker and this specific pair is great not only because it sits well on my left hand (which is really hard to find for us lefties) but also because it completely twists apart for easy cleaning to ensure washing and sanitizing.
3. Magnetic Measuring Spoons Measuring spoons come in handy for all recipes. Sometimes you're left searching for where half of them are in the drawer. These are great not only because they are magnetic but also two sided. One is a wider measuring spoon while the other end has a thinner scoop for those narrow jarred ingredients but also helps if you are baking, to separate measurements for dry vs. wet ingredients.
4. Meat Thermometer Everyone should have one of these. Whether your grilling, roasting or searing a meat thermometer will always come handy to know the perfect temp for your meat. This particular one I love because it has a cheat pen handle at the bottom to tell you what temperature is best for your desired protein. I've been using it for a couple years now and I love how compact and handy it is.
5. Foldable Bamboo Cutting Board -Cutting boards are great for entertaining as a serving board for cheese and snacks but also obviously to chop up ingredients for a recipe. I always keep separate cutting boards for my meat/poultry and for my veggies and fruit. I love this particular one for when I'm chopping up veggies to add to any dish. It has a silicon edge down the middle to help fold the cutting board to make it easy to drop in all your chopped veggies. Super convenient for little hands too. It's the perfect size for my boys to use and drop in whatever they are cutting into a bowl or pot without making a mess. I was able to snatch mine from Bloomingdales for half the price but couldn't find it on their site so I have attached the same one off of Amazon.
6. Medium Ice Cream Scoop This is probably another one of my most used gadgets in recipes. I use an ice cream scoop for everything. Ice cream (duh!), measuring equal portions for meatballs or kabobs, cupcakes, truffles, garlic/ginger paste discs, you name it, I use it! I have all 3 sizes, small, medium, large but I use medium the most. It's the perfect sized portion for my kids and really helps divide whatever I'm making equally.
7. Coffee/Spice Grinder I've given many tips on how you can use a pepper grinder or coffee grinder to grind your spices on Instagram. And I firmly believe freshly ground is best. The aroma you get in a dish from freshly ground spices is unbelievable. There are many electric coffee/spice grinders that work great but if you don't cook much a hand coffee grinder does the job. I have a couple coffee grinders and recently I picked up this new one World Market carries. I absolutely love it for quick spices like cloves, cardamom or cinnamon but also works great for pistachios or nuts in dessert!
8. Micro Grater -A micro grater or microplane is an amazing tool to have in the kitchen. Although the main use for it is zesting your citrus, it also can come in handy for grating garlic/ginger, fresh nutmeg or even grating Parmesan over some delicious pasta. The fine grater allows you to be able to get a fine grate to up your garnishing skills over a dish such as grated chocolate or nuts over dessert.
9. Hand Blender A hand immersion blender is like a blender only hand held. Making a soup? Purée it straight in the pot using this blender without having to deal with the mess of pouring your hot ingredients into a blender. I've puréed baby food, rice pudding, haleem and so much more using this gadget. It's also great for making condiments, dips and drinks like mayonnaise, pesto aioli and mango lassi. This particular one comes in low or high power along with a whisk and chopper attachment and a measuring cup.
10. Water Percolator This was gifted to me years ago by my beautiful sister in law and something I can't live without. I use it on a daily basis for everything. My tea, warming up baby bottles, hot water for cooking or for my pasta water. It's something that really comes in handy. A couple months back we had Hurricane Irma and I was able to take it along because it's so compact and we used it to make instant oatmeal or heat up/sanitize baby bottles while traveling which was so helpful.
Let me know if you like or end up trying some of these gadgets and here is a full list of all my kitchen appliances, tools/gadgets and organizations. Happy Cooking!!!
