Wellcure
Natural Healing Advisor
01:46 AM | 29-06-2019
Eating healthy not only starts by making the right food choices but also with the right kitchen tools. In India, there’s an ancient philosophy, “the health of the family lies in the kitchen.” In today’s fast-paced, urban lifestyles, it’s true that we don’t have much time for food prep and cooking. But, you can still ensure that your family eats healthy by investing in smart tools for the kitchen.
The key to healthy eating is meal planning and prep. Without it, we are likely to provide our kids and ourselves with ready-to-eat, off-the-shelf meals, and snacks. Meal prep not only helps you provide nutritious, wholesome meals for your family but also enables you to reduce the time you spend in the kitchen.
The right kitchen tools are your “magic helpers” for meal prep. Don’t know where to start? Make use of this guide that helps you cut down on meal prep and cleanup time.
The Must-Have List of Kitchen Equipments that make Healthy Eating a Breeze
Food Prep Tools:
High-quality Chef’s Knife
Invest in a high-quality chef’s knife. An 8-inch or 10-inch knife can slice through a tough pineapple as well as a delicate tomato. Make sure that you keep your knife sharp and clean. Contrary to popular belief, a sharp knife is much safer than a dull knife.
Once you get your preferred knife, the next step involves mastering some basic cuts like dicing, slicing, mashing, mincing, Julienne, and Brunoise cuts. This makes your prep work faster.
If you have kids at home, teach them some basic knife skills to practice. There are several child-safe knives available. Getting kids interested in cooking sets them up for healthy eating all through life.
Our Recommendations: Victorinox, Renberg, Godrej Cartini, or Glare
Peelers
As far as possible, eat your veggies and fruits along with their skin i.e whole- as given by nature. However, sometimes a high-quality peeler maybe needed to peel vegetable and fruit skins quickly, for mincing garlic and other condiments.
Our Recommendations Grater: Ajanta
Our Recommendations Peeler: Kyocera Ceramic Peeler, OXO Good Grips Y Peeler
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Photo byValeria BoltnevafromPexels
Chopping Board
Not everyone needs a chopping board. You would have seen your grandma or mom expertly slicing veggies faster than a machine balanced on a regular steel plate or using the sit-down traditional knife known as Boti (in Bengal), aruvamanai (in Tamil), or the vili (in Marathi).
But, if you are new to the kitchen, then a chopping board would help you get a better grip. While choosing chopping boards opt for wooden ones, instead of plastic, so as to help you build a plastic-free kitchen.
Our Recommendations: Orpio, Teakwood chopping board from Elementary
Food Processor or Chopper
When you are moving to a lifestyle high in fruits and veggies, investing in a food chopper or chopper can indeed be a lifesaver. The job of cutting, dicing, slicing, shredding, pulsing in different sizes is made easy with the food processor.
Alternatively, if you already have a food processor, and don’t want to invest in a new one, you can choose small vegetable choppers. These help in cutting vegetables in different sizes and shapes. There are several types of choppers available – from small hand powered choppers to electrical ones. You can choose whichever fits your budget and available counter space.
Our Recommendations: Philips, Morphy Richards, Bajaj
High-speed Blender
A blender is your best buddy when you are trying to eat healthily. It can help you remove store-bought sauces, dips, condiments, juices loaded with sugars, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives from your diet. By blending sauces, vegetable smoothies, and juices, nut butter, you can prepare a quick meal within minutes. Browse our recipe section for unique healthy menu ideas.
If you already have a regular mixie in your kitchen, check out if it’s possible to purchase compatible blending jars to use with it.
Our Recommendations: All in one mixer-juicer-grinder from Sujata or Preethi Zodiac
Cooking Utensils:
You need not have an array of pots and pans to cook tasty and healthy meals. Start by taking stock of what’s in your kitchen cabinets. Replace all the utensils that you no longer use. We suggest that you replace aluminium, non-stick and Teflon coated cookware with traditional cookware.
Image credit: cocoparisienne via Pixabay
Here are a few choices:
Regular stainless steel pans for sautéing, steaming, etc.
Opt for earthenware pots for curries and earthen or cast iron tavas for rotis and dosas. Apart from cooking, earthen pots and jars can be used to store prepared salads, juices as it keeps food naturally cool
Raid your loft for old cookware used by your mom and grandmom. Cast-iron Tava, Appam Pans, Paniyaram Pans – you'll never know the treasures you can find there. Else, check out the following links for traditional cook and servewares.
Serveware:
Use glass containers for storing prepared food. They not only look pretty but reduces the usage of plastic in your kitchen.
Cut different fruits and display them in closed glass bowls, somewhere visible like the dining table. This makes kids (and other family members) reach for healthy fruits when hunger strikes, instead of raiding the cupboards for chips, biscuits and other processed eats.
If you don’t have fancy glass containers, no worries, store and serve food in regular stainless steel serving bowls.
Optional
While these are not must-have, it’s good to have, if you can afford it.
Cold-pressed Juicer
A juicer extracts the juice from the fruits and vegetables you put in it, in a separate outlet/container. Unlike the blender where you add water, the juice doesn’t mix the pulp, skin or peels. The juice is undiluted and contains all vitamins and minerals intact.
Our Recommendations: Hurom, Panasonic
Steamer
Steaming is one of the healthiest ways of cooking food. There are several types of steamers available – stove-top steamers, electric steamers, traditional steaming pots, etc. You can choose whichever model that fits your budget and your kitchen counter.
Our Recommendation: Vinod steamer, Maestro Electric Steam Cooker MC3
Spiralizers
It’s an inexpensive tool that converts veggies into spirals, resembling noodles. You can increase the veggie quotient of your kids’ meal by offering them spiralized vegetables like carrots, beets, zucchini, radish, sweet potato, and more.
Our Recommendations: Navya Spiralizer
Baking is not just for cakes and desserts. You can also bake healthy eats like protein bars, baked veggies, etc. Baking helps to limit the amount of oil used in traditional recipes and is a good replacement technique for frying foods.
Our Recommendations: Bajaj, Prestige, Panasonic.
Wrapping Up: A Clean, Clutter-free Kitchen is a Healthy Kitchen
A clutter-free kitchen is likely to keep you interested in preparing home-cooked meals as well as reduces the time and effort you spend in the kitchen. Wash utensils frequently, instead of letting them pile up in the sink.
You can also add greenery to your kitchen by growing herbs on the window sill (can also be used to add flavour and spice to your meals naturally). You can also add colour to your kitchen by growing pretty indoor flowers. A place for everything and everything in its place should be your mantra in the kitchen.
Good Health starts from the Kitchen.
Image courtesy for title picture: Tookapic via pexels
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Disclaimer: The health journeys, blogs, videos and all other content on Wellcure is for educational purposes only and is not to be considered a ‘medical advice’ ‘prescription’ or a ‘cure’ for diseases. Any specific changes by users, in medication, food & lifestyle, must be done under the guidance of licensed health practitioners. The views expressed by the users are their personal views and Wellcure claims no responsibility for them.
