A little of bit of help goes a long way so here is a list of my time tried and tested Indian kitchen gadgets that have saved me hours of toiling in kitchen and am grateful to have them in my life.
Even though I have mentioned Indian Kitchen, all the tools listed should add value to any kitchen.
Food Processor
True story, I did not have a food processor until 2 years ago because I WAS a staunch believer that food processors make more messes, are harder to clean and do not save me much time.
But then with 2 little ones, house and everything else to manage, I was willing to give anything a shot if it saved me even a few mins in the day.
I am so glad that I did and feel like a fool that I didn’t try it sooner.
You don’t need to buy a top of the range food processor,mine is a mid range food processor and gets the job done.
- We use our food processor for chopping, shredding, grating, whisking and making dough.
- The trick is to do it all in bulk so that you have to clean it only once as food processors can be a pain to clean.
- Do things in the right order so shred, chop your veggies and then make the dough so you have to clean it only once. If you make the dough first and then do chopping, shredding it’s more cumbersome
All in all food processors aren’t one trick ponies and make for an efficient Indian Kitchen gadgets.
Ours has saved me hundreds of kitchen hours if not days with all the bulk meal prepping that we use it for.
What to look for in a good food processor?
The blades and attachment options. Make sure that which ever model you buy can do all the things that you do for meal prep.
Most food processors come with standard attachment that grate, chop and shred. There is another attachment that I use all the time, the French Fry attachment.
I use the French fry attachment to chop vegetables when I don’t want to slice them or chop them fine. Carrots, Beetroots, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Yams anything that is some what harder to chop goes through the French Fry disk and comes out looking beautiful.
It does not bother me to see my carrots shaped like French fries because they still taste the same 😉
Immersion Stick Blender
Why do you need a Handheld Stick Blender, if you have a food processor with a blender attachment?
Like I explained earlier you do not want to pull out the food processor for small jobs. For small jobs if we use a food processor, we end up more time cleaning than saving.
Even if your food processor has a blender attachment, its still quicker to use this hand held blender. Because you don’t have to wait for the food to cool down before you blend it.
We use ours the most to blend sauces and make smooth gravies and pastes.
- You can use them directly in the cookware you cooked them in so less dishes to clean
- Don’t have to wait for food to cool down to blend, so saves time
They are the most bang for the buck as you can buy a decent stick blender for around $25 and some of them come with different attachments too like a whisk and chopper.
What to look for when buying an Immersion Stick Blender?
Stick blenders are used on hot food on the gas stove directly. Look for one that had a Stainless Steel Blending attachment as that’s healthier and safer.
Chopper
I can hear you saying…. Really? Why do I need a chopper now? You crazy lady!
Hear me out please..
While the food processor is the work horse for the kitchen meal prep over the weekend, you don’t want to pull it out for every small job because then you will end up wasting more time cleaning it.
The hand held blender is for grinding and gravies whereas the chopper is for small chopping jobs.
During weekdays for small jobs like chopping an onion or tomato, I use a chopper and also for making spread and pesto as it has a grind mode as well.
- Quick and easy to clean, dishwasher friendly
- Works well for a small family size
Sometimes, hand held blenders come with a chopper attachment. You can use that for small daily jobs as well.
What to look for when buying a chopper?
I like mine but its not the best. It does not have 2 level of blades which make sure food is chopped evenly. It tends to over chop the bottom pieces and top ones tend to float around.
I just pause it and move veggies around manually but its convenience nevertheless.
If you are looking into buying one would suggest looking for one with 2 levels of blades. This will ensure that the veggies get evenly chopped.
Rice Cooker
If rice is one of the staples in your meal then rice cookers are worth looking into, not expensive and efficient Indian kitchen gadgets. Rice cookers are great because:
- Rice cooks well every time and isn’t mushy at all
- Don’t have to babysit it, you can turn it on and walk away
- It keeps the rice warm until served
- Can be used for steaming veggies as well
- You can make rice pilafs and pulao quick and easy
What to look for in a Rice Cooker?
Not much, these are pretty standard. The only thing I would be looking at when I buy one is look for one without non stick coating on it.
The one I have right now does have a nonstick layer in it, but works well for now.
Toastee or Sandwich Maker
This has been a great help for school lunches. You can stuff the bread with any veggie stuffing and put them into it to get perfectly cooked sandwiches every time.
- The sandwiches cook well evenly on both sides
- Hands free, no babysitting needed and you can work on something else in the kitchen while this is doing its job.
I have one where you can make 4 sandwiches in one go so works well for any family size.
What to look for in a Sandwich Maker?
That it has enough sandwich spots that work well for your family size. I bought one that can fit 4 and we rarely use all 4 spots.
I could have bought a smaller one with only spots and saved some valuable kitchen space.
Instant Pot
When we moved to Australia I started looking for an Instant Pot and the prices made me stop in my tracks and reconsider if it was really needed (it costs more than twice in Australia compared to US).
After a lot of mulling, I asked it as a gift and am grateful to have it.
In simple terms it’s an electric pressure cooker that does not require monitoring and this no monitoring intelligence bit is the game changer.
- We use the delay button to prep lentils and soups in the pot and set it to auto start and cook, usually overnight and made mornings so much smoother
- It has a sensor to detect burning and auto cuts the heat, this ensures that there is little to no charring or burning
- It has a saute mode so you can do all the cooking in the same pot and leave it to pressure cook, perfect for one pot meals
- If you forgot to soak lentils, beans, chickpeas overnight dont worry they still cook well as it build much higher pressure than a stove top pressure cooker
- Can be used to make yogurt as well
These are the most used functionalities of Instant Pot in our kitchen but the options are unlimited and you can cook almost anything in an Instant Pot.
The delay function alone saves me 30 mins every morning. If your mornings are as crazy as ours think about investing in one.
What to look for when buying an Instant Pot?
These are pretty standard and if you are buying the latest one then it comes with all the latest features and much more.
The only thing to consider is the size, I have a 6 qtr. and its perfect for our family of 4. The other 2 options were either too big or too small.
Dry and Wet Grinder
Indian cooking involves grinding ingredients that can be hard to grind like spices and lentils.
The dry and wet grinder is a must in every Indian kitchen because it is used for:-
- Grinding spices and making powders and spice blends
- Making chutneys and pesto
- Grinding lentils to make crepes (mostly in South Indian cooking)
What to look for when buying a dry and wet grinder?
A wet and dry grinder should have a very strong horse power motor as it needs to be able to grind through hard ingredients.
It should also be able to run for long durations as sometimes grinding jobs can take longer.
Which one is the BEST Indian kitchen gadget from this list?
If you could buy only one out of all the 7 Indian kitchen gadgets list above, then I would recommend the hand held Immersion stick blender.
Buy one with steel attachments so it lasts longer and also few attachment options like a whisk and a chopper so you can use it in more than one ways.
Its also most cost effective in terms of the value it provides.
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