6 Essential Kitchen Tools for Every Home Cook

Are you ever in the kitchen using a tool and think to yourself, how would I be able to function without this? That’s crazy so do I! Que the blog post. These are my six essential kitchen tools that I simply couldn’t live without. (Listed in no particular order.) 

Disclaimer: Some links below may be affiliate links. Purchasing from these links will help OCD Kitchen continue to operate. I would never suggest a product that I didn’t truly love.

Immersion Blender

Immersion blenders take the stress out of blending. I hate cleaning full sized blenders and do everything I can to never have to use one. With an immersion blender clean ups a breeze just pop the blade into the dishwasher. I use my immersion blender to make soups, jams, sauces, and much more. You could boil up some potatoes and vegetables and blend them up to make a great loaded potato soup. You could cook down some tomatoes, garlic, and onions and blend them into a wonderful homemade tomato sauce. Or even cook down some fruit on the stove and blend into a lovely fruit sauce for pancakes, cheesecake, or to freeze into sorbet. 

I have the Cuisinart Smart Stick. I like to two speeds and the fact that it comes with a little beaker that fits the head for blending up small batch items.

Vegetable Peeler

Veggie peelers are of course good for peeling but mine gets used most for making veggie ribbons. I’ve mentioned before that during an elimination diet transformation can sometimes be key. By creating ribbons of different vegetables it can almost trick your mind into thinking your eating a different product entirely. You could make zucchini lasagna noodles, a cold ribbon veggie salad with an avocado dressing, or shaved broccoli slaw. All delicious and all courtesy of something you probably already have in your kitchen. If you don’t own one already here’s a nice set that even includes a julienne peeler! 

Silicone baking mat

Attention all you paleo/gluten free bakers out there! If you do not have one of these mats stop everything you’re doing and go get one immediately. These mats are amazing. A lot of gluten free baking has the tendency to stick a little more than a standard baked good. These mats will guarantee your products release with ease every time. I use these for cookies, tuiles, fruit leathers, or freezing chocolate covered bananas or strawberries. Yes, you read that right, you can take these into the freezer and never break the chocolate coating on your strawberry again. Here’s a nice set of two. 

Hand Graters

My mother was nice enough to get me a set of these when I moved into my new home. I now have no idea how I functioned without them. I use them all the time. I have a set of three: large, medium, and small. I use the large to grate veggies into my turkey burgers, medium for fine grated zucchini for quick breads, and small to create quick minced garlic straight over pots for a little extra flavor punch. They’d also be great for zesting, grating cheese, or chocolate shavings. Here’s a similar set below.

Personal Blender

I hope you all will forgive me for having two types of blenders on this list. But as I mentioned above. I hate cleaning full sized blenders. When my boyfriend got me this personal blender (with three different size cups I might add) I was in heaven. I use it to make smoothies, pesto, pancake batter, avocado dressings, and even grind up spices on occasion. This is the one with the Auto-IQ blending. Which just means I can click the button, walk away, and come back to a perfect smoothie every time. Worth the added expense if you ask me. Everything is dishwasher safe and I would recommend it to anyone! 

Dutch Oven

I kid you not. As I write this post I have my dutch oven on the stove simmering away with some chicken bones, veggies, and water to make a lovely homemade chicken stock. Bone and meat broths are high on the list of gut healing foods and dutch ovens are a great vessel to make them in. Dutch ovens are also great for searing meat, cooking dried beans, or making stews. This version from Martha Stewart is fabulous. It has the weight from the cast iron to keep that heat distributing evenly. It can even pop into the oven! My only word to the wise is that if you’re cooking for a long period of time the handles get hot! Make sure to use an oven mitt or kitchen towel to lift the lid. I have it in red, but how cute is the teal one below?

What kitchen tools can you not live without? Do you agree with any of the ones listed here? I’d love to hear from you! Don’t forget to follow my social channels and subscribe below to get your bi-weekly newsletter delivered straight to your inbox!