Kitchen equipment

I keep getting asked what equipment I use:

I have added some links to Amazon on some items so you can find them easily. I do get a small amount of money if you purchase anything via a link but you do not pay more. Please note you can shop around on the Amazon Sites. I have highlighted certain products but when you go through to Amazon from the link from my website do look and see if there is anything more cost effective.

A knife  – £3 or £4 for chopping up my fruit and veg. Actually I now use a ceramic knife as I like the way it chops!

A cheap grater  for grating veg and fruit  gives a different texture. I think mine cost £1.

A hand reamer for juicing lemons and citrus fruit. You can have a citrus juicer but I have never bothered. I use my reamer on a daily basis. Cost about £2.00.

A cheap hand vegetable peeler – For peeling some veg as necessary  and for making nice curls out of apples and carrots. again I think I paid a £1 at my local market.

Blender – For making smoothies. My favourite “big” purchase was a blender.  I started with a cheap one. I live in the UK I bought it from Robert Dyas for about £16.99 on special offer. You can use a hand blender too of course. Many of my friends still happily use their cheap blenders after a year or more. I did  a lot of experimenting and mine eventually gave up the ghost.

For those starting out on this raw food journey and want something reasonably robust then a NutriBullet might be a good “half-way house”  as it is a lot cheaper and can also serve as personal blender too (see below). What I do not recommend is a “Smoothie Maker” with a tap as my friend was always trying to get hers clean.

Nutribullet

I do now have a Vitamix as my blender of choice. They are cheaper in the USA than they are in the UK! This was my 3rd blender purchase when I realised this was going to be my lifestyle forever. My second purchase was a glass blender for £100 and this one finally gave up the ghost a while ago. My Vitamix has a 7 year warranty which I thought was good value as I use it every day often more than once. It is a work horse!

Vitamix

A personal blender for traveling I have a Tribest and it goes everywhere with me. I am that person you might hear in the hotel room next door blending up a storm! 🙂

Food Processor

This was my next best “big” purchase at about £170. I use mine, with the wicked looking ’S” blade, quite a lot. I use it to make my cooked veggie mashes. I could use the blender but the food processor is easier to get all the ingredients out of the machine. A hand blender might also do the trick. My food processor is a Cuisinart. The food processor will also make smoothies too but the blender makes them better.

Cuisinart Food processor

Juicer

I have an elderly Oscar 900 masticating juicer.

It crunches everything up including wheat grass and kale and makes good juice. I make a green juice everyday. I also use it to make my fruit “ice cream” using the blank plate. (You can also make it in the blender with frozen fruit and a little coconut water or in the food processor). I also use it to make almond butter. It will apparently also make pasta strings but I have not tried that as i use my spiraliser (see below) .

Main things about a juicer for me are that it should be very was to clean. This is a masicating juicer and comes apart very easily and also it should be able to take kale, lettuce leaves and wheatgrass. My juicer was a centrifugal one and was great for taking whole apples etc but it was rubbish for juicing kale and a pig to clean ( always a turn off and ensures the thing stays unused in the cupboard here!) With this juicer

The Oscar 900 does not appear to be available on Amazon at the moment and i am not sure if it is ever available in the USA but here is a similar Juicer

Dehydrator

the raw foodist’s oven – I have the Excaliber 9 tray with timer. 

This is basically a drying box that operates at a low temperature. It is useful for drying my own fruit without sulphites, crackers, crisps, biscuits, bread  and little cakes.  You can try using the sunshine if you live somewhere warm or an ordinary oven on a very low heat and keep opening the door so that the oven doesn’t get too hot.I used to use my oven and then I stopped dehydrating things for a while. Now I am back using my Dehydrator. I wouldn’t be without it now! When you buy a dehydrator do remember you may need some non stickparaflexx sheets for when you start off with a very wet mixture so that it doesn’t slip through the holes in the trays!

Mandolineslicer

I bought a mandoline slicer ages ago but I found that I kept shredding my fingers so I gave it away. Then I bought another as I missed the lovely thin slices of veggies. . This is also great for chopping up vegetables into matchsticks (vegetables julienne) but of course you can do this with a knife. Do look at which one you think will be safest for you to use!

Spiralizer

about to make “pasta” spirals out courgettes and the like to make pasta . I can make nice curls using my vegetable peeler too but this is a fun machine.

Vacuum flask – for taking a smoothie to go – £5.

Plastic box – £2or £3 at most- for taking a salad to go or some chopped carrots and celery.
I think that’s it!

It all starts with a kitchen knife and a veggie peeler. Agood blender is a great idea when you can afford it. Then just see how you go.