What’s Your Favorite Kitchen Gadget?
A few days ago, one of this blog’s regular readers contacted me to suggest a topic inviting other readers to discuss their favorite kitchen gadget. I thought this was a great idea, so here it is. She said hers is an immersion blender, and that gets my vote, too. We are not big fruit eaters (we prefer our veggies!), so making smoothies most days of the week is not a big deal with this hand gadget, and ensures that we get our requisite 2 servings of fruit per day. If I knew I had to wash a blender, food processor, or juicer every time I wanted a fruit drink, I probably wouldn’t make smoothies so often. With this, you just rinse the blade section, toss it in the drainer, and that’s that.
I also love that you can just stick it into a pot and blend all or part of a soup rather than transfering hot ingredients to and from a food processor or blender. And last, I use it to grind nuts, a task at which the immersion blender is very efficient with—almost too efficient, as nuts are ground to a powder in seconds.
What’s your favorite, can’t-live-without-it-kitchen tool? Share your thoughts with me and your fellow readers. Meanwhile, here’s a favorite morning smoothie, perfect for fall and winter, adapted from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. It’s a delightful change-of-pace fruit beverage to make when summer fruit is out of season.
Cinnamon Apple or Pear Smoothie
2 to 3 servings
- 1 ripe banana, broken into several pieces
- 2 medium soft apples (such as cortland or golden delicious), or ripe pears, peeled, cored, and coarsely diced
- 1 cup vanilla soy yogurt
- 1 cup apple juice or any other any other juice of your choice
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smoothly pureed. Or place in a container and process with an immersion blender. Serve at once in tall glasses.
While kitchen carts aren’t really a gadget your kitchen might find great use for kitchen islands strewn here or there, providing extra surface space that kitchen islands provide—and portable, too.
Katie said,
September 14, 2006 @ 10:11 am
My new favorite appliance, and I have so many, is my VitaMix. I just got it so I am still in the honeymoon phase of my purchase and am using it everyday. I have made everything from bread to icecream, soups, and sorbet. I love it and the clean up in it is soooo easy. It basically makes it’s own dishwasher. Plus I like the fact that the fruits/veggies are whole and not cooked when I put them in to make something so I get all of the vitamins and fiber that makes these jewels so good for my body. So that is my pick of the day.
Heather said,
September 14, 2006 @ 10:43 am
Its not that exciting but I have a “Oxo Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener”
It is so nice that the lid does not fall in the can and the edges are smooth, so you don’t get cut. I could not bake without my kitchen aid mixer and my immersion blender (most recent member to my appliances) I didn’t know I could chop nuts with it! Thanks Nava! I have now been inspired to make some banana bread with my mixer and put in some chopped walnuts made from my immersion blender. Yum!
Katie that VitaMix sounds really nice!
Jen said,
September 14, 2006 @ 3:04 pm
Mine would have to be my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I follow a gluten
free diet and it is much easier to make my own breads. Almost tied
with that would be my mortar and pestle I inherited from my mother.
It is an old pharmacist’s one and does the job of grinding spices and
flax seed beautifully.
Courtney said,
September 14, 2006 @ 4:06 pm
I love my salad spinner. I eat salads daily, and I don’t know what I would do without it (well, yes I do—have wet lettuce in my salads, or start making my salads an hour before I wanted to eat them so that the lettuce could dry)! It was a toss up between the salad spinner and the Vita Mix, but since Katie already mentioned the Vita Mix, I had to go with the salad spinner—it may sound silly, but they really are great!
Teddy said,
September 15, 2006 @ 12:20 am
Favorite appliance- what a great suggestion!
mine is a tie between my rice maker and my blender. I use both very frequently and durring the hot days of summer i would make a fruit smoothie a day. Althouh I don’t like to clean it AT ALL, I have a great deal going with richard. I cook- he cleans
Starla said,
September 15, 2006 @ 7:48 am
I love this topic. I’m not sure if this is a gadget or an appliance but I could not live without my Cuisinart Food Processor. As far as a true gadget, I LOVE my “bench scraper”. It’s that stainless steel 5” x 5” square with a handle on it. I use it to scoop up anything I’ve just chopped to transfer them to either the soup kettle or skillet. I get up more of the product with this than if I did it with my hands (and it’s more sanitary). It’s also nice to get up dough stuck to the counter after I’ve made pie crust. Mine is very old now but just doesn’t wear out.
Geraldine said,
September 15, 2006 @ 8:47 am
I love this topic too. Of course my food processor gets a lot of use. Id say a garlic press is pretty darn cool too. So much more flavor than just chopping garlic, who knew???
Fun to read everyone else’s favs.
Huggs, G
Diann said,
September 15, 2006 @ 7:56 pm
Great topic! I could not live without my Cuisinart MiniPrep food processor. It holds just 3 cups and is great for black bean burgers, salsas, grinding oatmeal, and it’s small enough to stay on my countertop. I also love my fancy crinkle cut veggie slicer.
Susan G said,
September 17, 2006 @ 4:20 pm
I remember getting my first food processor. It made things like hummos a snap, and even nut butters went well — I had burned out the blender on them. Now the new immersion blender is so much more flexible, especially for soups. But some of the low tech things are indispensible — my well worn wooden fork (spoons too), the Kitch-a-majig, a cross between slotted spoon, potato masher and pastry blender, and a sturdy garlic press (also for ginger). As for VitaMix, not for me — had one, gone.
More answers, everyone!
Frances said,
September 23, 2006 @ 8:10 pm
Mine is a little bit less fancy than the ones mentioned above, although somewhat simila to the salad spinner. It’s the “twista” which is basically a manual food processor that comes with 10 different kinds of blades that you exchange. It has the paddles for making thick mixtures, the razor blade for blending….it’s great because you can really accurately gauge the thickness and fineness of what you’re preparing, so you can have chunky capsisums, finely diced or pureed if you wanted. Not only that but it gives me and my partner an arm workout, we alternate arms when we use it so not are we being kind to the environment but we’re getting exercise too!
Brenda said,
September 29, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
I received a free Magic Bullet (mini blender gadget) through a store promo, and had never seen the tacky info-mercial on t.v. Despite having to call customer service for parts replacements more than once, it is a beautiful thing! It comes with mugs where you just add your ingredient, screw on the blade and blend. Then you screw the blade off and you drink your smoothie. WONDERFUL. Also, chocolate tofu mousse is very easy to make with it, and salad dressings emulsify very nicely.
Truth be told, I dream of having a very long kitchen counter someday with a whole bunch of “appliance garages” lined up where I can store all my machines. I use them all, and I use them often.