Spending too much time in the kitchen prepping ingredients regardless of breakfast, lunch or dinner? Lucky for you, there are plenty of kitchen tools out there that come in handy. From small tools like bench scrapers and apple slicers to full-sized kitchen products such as food processors and stand mixers, it’s time to simplify your kitchen life with these 12 Handy Tools.
1) Bench Scraper
It may look like a simple tool but it sure comes in handy for different uses. This includes everything from portioning the dough to cutting soft cheese and butter. Not to mention the bench scraper is ideal for cleaning the countertop by scooping up the likes of crumbs and dried dough. And speaking of scooping, you can even use it to transfer chopped vegetables from the cutting board to a pot or frying pan.
2) Box Grater
When comes to shredding and grating cheese blocks, nothing beats the good old box grater. It’s easy to use too. All you have to do is hold a cheese block against the shredding holes and start shredding/grating it in upward and downward motion repeatedly. But there’s more to it than just using the box grater for cheese. You can also grate carrots, ginger, garlic and citrus fruit (e.g. lemon, orange) to make zest. Other than grating and shredding, there’s a side on the box grater (slicing holes) where you can slice the likes of cucumbers and potatoes.
3) Apple Slicer
Call it an apple slicer or apple divider. Whichever you name it, here’s a must-have kitchen tool for all apple lovers out there. Or simply for those who do not want to spend time cutting an apple with a knife. Using an apple slicer is easy: Just hold the dual handles with two hands and press it all the way down to core/divide the apple into numerous wedges while leaving the core in the middle.
4) Citrus Sprayer
Need to boost, say your fruit salad, with a citrusy zing? Here’s a handy kitchen tool for you: Simply grab any citrus fruit (e.g. lemon, orange or grapefruit), twist the drill into it and squeeze the pump down.
Tip: To release most juice out of any citrus fruit, give it a gentle roll under the heel of your palm before spraying.
5) Kitchen Shears
Forget the scissors. Here’s a pair of kitchen shears suitable for multiple uses. You can snip fresh herbs and even easily remove, say thyme leaves from their sprigs. Planning to make croutons? Snip through bread into cube sizes. Some of the other uses of kitchen shears include splitting a whole chicken apart and shred leafy greens.
6) Food Processor
Here’s the thing about prepping a meal from scratch: it can be both time-consuming and labour-intensive. Which brings us the many wonders of a food processor, a versatile kitchen tool that does all kinds of cutting, namely shredding, slicing and dicing ingredients like vegetables. If that’s not enough, you can use it to make a paste (e.g. curry) and nut butter (e.g. peanut, almond and cashew).
7) Jar Opener
We’ve all been there before — a familiar situation where we get frustrated over a jar that’s tough to twist it open. But why waste your unnecessary strength and energy when there’s a little kitchen tool to help solve the problem? That kitchen tool in question is a jar opener, which typically comes in the form of a gripper.
8) Multi-Cooker
As the name suggests, a multi-cooker allows you to cook different kinds of recipes. Some of them come with an easy-to-use, one-touch button of multiple preset menus. You can use it to steam, stew, deep-fry and slow cook, just to name a few.
9) Stand Mixer
Those who love baking at home should consider investing in a stand mixer. A kitchen tool that makes all your whipping and whisking a lot easier, a stand mixer proves to be versatile enough. This includes everything from whisking eggs and to whipping dough and batter (e.g. cake, cookie and pizza). And not to forget, you can use a stand mixer to knead bread dough as well.
10) Cookie Scoop
Unless you don’t mind uneven sizes of your cookie dough, a cookie scoop does come in handy. It allows you to scoop the cookie dough in uniform sizes. But this kitchen tool isn’t just designed for a single purpose. You can also use it to scoop ice cream and batters like cupcake, pancake & muffin. And yes, it works for meatballs and even melons too.
11) Food Chopper
Have limited counter space? Or perhaps you have a tight budget? If you spend most of the time in the home kitchen chopping and cutting ingredients, consider getting a food chopper. You can use it to cut vegetables, certain fruits, peeled garlic and even grinding meat.
12) Immersion Blender
If a full-size blender or mixer takes up too much of your kitchen space, consider an immersion blender instead. It’s portable and easy to use, where the single rotary blade attached on the bottom is capable of performing many tasks. You can use it to blend cream soups, whipped creams, smoothies, sauces and even mayonnaise. Sure, you can’t beat the full-sized variety but an immersion blender still its job pretty well.
