Kitchen Essentials For Gourmet Healthy Cooking
By Sheila • Nov 17th, 2008 • Category: Nutrition
Getting organized in the kitchen can definitely be mind boggling. So many choices how do you know what is essential and what is just another gimmicky gadget?
In order to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need certain tools in your kitchen to help to get you and keep you on the right track, making cooking and baking for wellness a cinch.
In order to stick with healthy eating for the long haul you’ve got to be able to prepare the foods you should be eating. Using these tools should become a consistent part of your lifestyle and routine. Now, keep in mind, owning them is only half the battle, actually using them on a daily basis is the other half.
It’s time for a kitchen make over. Below I have provided an extensive list of the tools that I hold in my own cooking repertoire. Some are more basic than others, but overall, this is the end all be all list of items that you will need to create knock-your-socks-off healthy dishes.
I have included recommended products throughout to give you a visual image and further description in case you are unfamiliar with some of the items. These recommendations are products that I personally have used or own, love, and believe you are getting what you pay for, so to speak. Again these are just suggestions. You can certainly find other brands that will fit the given criteria.
Cookware
Good cookware does not necessarily have to be the most expensive. The main characteristics of a good set of pots and pans are that they heat evenly, clean up easily, and prevent sticking.
After reading the above statement, you might have thought I was going to recommend Teflon, but that would be incorrect. There are actually many health related concerns tied to Teflon coated and aluminum pan interiors, which may release toxic chemicals into your food. I don’t know about you, but I am not looking to add flecks of Teflon to my arsenal of secret herbs and spices.
So how do you steer clear of this health hazard? Choose pans that have a stainless steel interior.
What to look for:
- Ergonomic, stay-cool, riveted handles - the rivets keep the handles permanently secured
- Oven safe
- Helper handle (small handle on opposite end) on largest pan
- Rolled lip on the pan - ensures drip-free transfer of contents
What you will need:
- 8” fry pan
- 10” fry pan
- 2-quart saucier with lid
- 3-quart saute pan with lid
- 4-quart sauce pan with lid
- 8-quart stock pot with lid
Note: In order to help combat sticking with stainless steel, make sure to spray your pan with cooking spray or wipe it with coconut oil using a paper towel before you begin cooking.
My favorite: All-Clad
Knives
Anyone who has tried to cut a tomato using a crappy knife understands the value in a good set of knives.
What to look for:
- Curved blade on chef’s knife, which helps you to slice using a fluid, rocking motion
- Shears - that come apart for easy cleaning
- Riveted, heavy duty handles
- Full “tang”, which means the steel runs the entire length of the knife, into the handle
What you will need:
- Chef’s knife
- 6-8 steak knives
- Shears
- Paring knife
- Bread knife
- Honing steel
My favorite: Wüsthof Gourmet 14 Piece Deluxe Block Set
Digital Scale
It’s time to face the reality, friends, if you are looking to lose fat, you’ve got to weigh your food. A good scale is a necessity for weighing calorie dense foods like oats, nuts, peanut butter, rice, meats, etc.
Weighing food is the most accurate way to approximate nutritional information for a specific food.
What to look for:
- Digital readout (obviously)
- Measures in ounces and grams
- Tare, or zero button, that allows you to put a bowl on it and then zero out the weight of that bowl, so that you can measure what you want to put in the bowl
- Removable stainless steel platform for easy clean up
- Automatic shut-off feature to ensure long battery life
- Capacity of 13 lbs or more (trust me, this seems like a lot, but you will thank me when you are trying to measure the contents of your blender and must zero out the weight of the blender)
- Hefty base for stability
My favorite: Escali Stainless Steel Scale
Measuring Cups and Spoons
What to look for:
- Stainless steel for durability
- For your tablespoon and teaspoon measurements, you may want to opt for the long, thin scoop versus round depending on your the size of the opening on your spice containers. I keep my spices in glass jars that have wide mouths so it’s not a hassle to use a circular spoon, however before I had the glass jars, it was a pain in the butt to pour my spices out of their little plastic containers into the tablespoon measurement spoon because it would not fit into the top of the spice container.
- My favorite: Cups
- My favorite: Spoons
- Thin spoon option
- 2-cup measuring cup - for measuring liquids
Meat Thermometer
Great for making sure that your meat is cooked to the proper temperature without having to cut into it, allowing all the juices to escape.
What to look for:
- Digital readout
- Alarm
- Setting for beef, lamb, veal, pork, turkey and chicken with a well done, medium, and medium rare choice
- Probe wire should measure at least 3 feet - otherwise you could run into problems when using it for a turkey in the oven
- On/off switch - this may sound like a funny requirement, but I bought one by mistake that didn’t have a switch, so believe it or not, I had to take the battery out each time I wanted to turn it off. Annoying!
My favorite: Remote Wireless Thermometer with 2 Probes
Utensils and Other Odds and Ends
- Heat resistant spatulas (multiple size set)
- Offset spatula - for flipping burgers, pancakes, potato wedges
- Large whisk
- Small whisks
- Wooden spoons - small, medium, and large
- Ladle with hook handle
- Vegetable peeler
- Large wooden cutting board - for chopping veggies and fruit, the bigger the better, as long as you have somewhere to store it
- Medium plastic dishwasher safe cutting board - for cutting meats, slip resistant bottom
- Small cutting board - for odds and ends
- Box grater with slip resistant bottom
- Handheld grater - for adding parmesan to salads and even grating nuts
- Can opener - I prefer hand held
- Potato masher
- Rolling pin
- Meat tenderizer
- Metal locking tongs
- Set of stainless steel nesting bowls
- Large colander
- Casserole dish(es)
- Cooling rack - to be used not only for cooling baked goods, but also for cooking bacon so that the grease can drip off
- 2 aluminum 1/2 sheet pans
- Salt and pepper mill set
- Stainless canisters with window - great for keeping dry foods like coffee, whole wheat flour, oats, rice, quinoa, etc that can go bad when exposed to the moisture in air, safe, airtight, and ready for use when you need them
- Muffin pan (12 serving)
Appliances
I know it seems like a lot, but keep in mind some of these things (or similar items) you may already have. If you don’t currently have any of these items at all, just take it one or two things at a time. Build your arsenal a little at a time, and you will be kicking out gourmet quality health food in no time.
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Email this author | All posts by Sheila |
Wow! I have a long way to!
Excellent information here!
Mark - Haha. It’s really not that overwhelming if you just look at it as an informational tool, sorta “Consumer Reports-ish”. Kinda like, “Hey I have learned from experience that these things make healthy cooking and baking A LOT easier.” And by the way, Christmas is coming, add your favorites to your wish list.
Also, this is a great reference for those that will be getting married soon and are putting together a registry.
Ginzu knives as seen on TV are cool…lol! I’ve been asking my Fairy God Sugar-Daddy for a set of Henckels.
I can’t live without my mini 3 cup food processor. Love that thing!
Plus, I’m doing less microwaving and more stove cooking. Did away with most of the non-stick pans and going with glass or iron. Plus, there is the importance of having different cutting boards for diff foods. Like I have one just for meat. One for veggies, fruits, etc.
Keep me outta Crate & Barrel and Sur La Table because I start to get gadget envy