What is your favorite piece of kitchen equipment that you have in your home?
Simple kitchen gadgets have many different uses that you may not have thought about. Here are some of our favorite kitchen gadgets and the ways you can use them!
Plastic lettuce knife
- These are great tools for teaching youth and inexperienced new chefs to safely cut just about anything they will be cutting when preparing foods. Cut fruits and veggies into strips and let the kids dice them. For smaller children, smaller, disposable plastic knives might be a better fit for their hands.
- Tip: Use the dull side of the knife to scrape scraps off the cutting board. This helps your knife stay sharp and save money in the long run.
Colander
- Use a colander to drain the liquid from canned goods, this will help reduce added sugar for fruits and added salt for veggies.
- Press cooked potatoes through the holes in the colander into a bowl for fluffy mashed potatoes.
- Pull a fresh rosemary stem through a hole on the side of the colander. The leaves will fall into the colander and you’ll have a stripped stem in your hand. Try this with any fresh herb with woody stems such as oregano, mint, and thyme.
Coffee Filter
- Place coffee filters on the bottoms of popsicles to catch the sticky drips.
- Prevent microwave splatters. Coffee filters don’t stick to foods the way paper towels do, and are a cleaner option.
- Keep out flies, ants and other pests by using it as a cover for a small plate or your beverage.
- Use to strain out the lemon seeds while squeezing a lemon or other fruit with seeds or pits.
Salad Tongs
- In a pinch, use tongs for juicing citrus fruits by gripping the tongs high.
- Stir spaghetti when cooking and use it as a serving utensil after the spaghetti is cooked.
Plastic bag
- Fill bags and snip a hole in one corner. This can be used to pipe hummus on cucumber slices, or yogurt dollops on fresh fruit. The size of the hole will create different effects (small hole = fine lines, large hole = thick lines). The plastic bag trick also works with deviled eggs or any food that needs a controlled filling.
- Put a wet washcloth in a zipped bag as an eco-friendly wet wipe.
- Put small amounts of condiments to carry in your lunch so sandwiches do not get soggy.
Kitchen shears
- Use for quickly chopping baby food, meats and veggies, slicing pizza or mincing herbs .
- Chop whole tomatoes in the can.
- Cut up whole chicken for cooking.
Flexible cutting board
- Make a funnel: roll it into a cone, with one end small enough to fit into your chosen carton or bag.
- Use as a placemat on days you need a quick cleanup
- Keep one cutting board only for meats and another only for produce
- Tip: place a jar gripper or a damp towel under the cutting board to keep it from moving.
Vegetable peeler
- The pointed end of your peeler is designed to remove the sprouted parts in potatoes, otherwise called “potato eyes”. It is also useful for removing strawberry stems or removing seeds from peppers.
- Make paper-thin slices of vegetables or cheese. For example, salads are more fun with carrot ribbons!
