5 Cooking Equipment For Easy Cooking: Change The Way You Cook

Today's kitchen is center stage, a place where we all eat, meet and cook. But for many, cooking can be daunting, time-consuming and anxiety-inducing. Whether you are a harried parent trying to balance work and family or a student attempting to learn how to cook for one, or simply see the potential in spending less time in the kitchen, the right appliances can transform your relationship to cooking.

No more does dinner force you to waste hours cutting veggies, stirring a pot, or washing dishes forever after. Modern-day kitchen appliances are built for one purpose: to make your life easier, and help you make excellent, healthy food. The five gadgets we'll look at in this guide are ones that have revolutionized the kitchens of millions of home cooks globally.

By slashing prep time in half and sometimes cooking entire dishes at the touch of a button, these kitchen saviors will afford you more time for what's really important. Let's see how these amazing appliances can turn your kitchen into an efficient place that is fun to be, where meal prep becomes something you enjoy more than you do not.

The Instant Pot: The Ultimate Kitchen Multi-Tasker

The Instant Pot has become sensation in kitchens everywhere already for good reason. This electric pressure cooker has all these functions combined into one, compact and easy to use appliance that is perfect for busy households.

How the Instant Pot Cracked the Code of Cooking

What does your average Sunday meal prep look like? You may end up spending three hours cooking rice, steaming vegetables, cooking soup and preparing yogurt. You can tackle all these tasks with a single appliance and in a fraction of the time if you use an Instant Pot.

The secret is in pressure cooking technology. By containing steam in a lidded pot, the Instant Pot generates high pressure that cooks food up to 70 percent faster than traditional cooking styles. A whole chicken that typically requires an hour in the oven? Done in 25 minutes. Dried beans that typically take overnight soaking and hours of simmering? Ready in 30 minutes and doesn't require pre-soaking.

What Makes It So Versatile

The Instant Pot functions as:

• Pressure cooker

• Slow cooker

• Rice cooker

• Steamer

• Sauté pan

• Yogurt maker

• Warmer

This flexibility means you can brown meat, toss in vegetables and liquid and then pressure cook everything in the same pot. No more juggling several pans or transferring ingredients between multiple appliances.

Real-World Time Savings

Consider these cooking time comparisons:

Best Uses for Busy Families

Where the Instant Pot really shines is if you'd like to get dinner on the table, fast. Dump recipes are especially big – you just dump in the ingredients and start it for a certain amount of time and forget it. You can help the kids with homework, do the laundry or just relax while dinner cooks.

Meal prepping becomes effortless too. Cook up a big batch of grains, proteins, and vegetables on Sunday, and then mix and match for quick, healthy weeknight meals.

The Food Processor: The Ultimate Time Saver

If the thought of mincing garlic and chopping vegetables seems like a hassle, then a food processor will transform your life in the kitchen. This powerful machine takes care of monotonous tasks that sometimes prevent consumers from cooking food from scratch.

How It Eliminates Kitchen Tedium

Food processors are good for tedious tasks that would take time to do by hand. Chopping an onion might take you five minutes by hand, but a food processor does it in 10 seconds. Making breadcrumbs from stale bread? Another 10-second job. Grating a block of cheese? Done before you can blink.

The secret is the fast-spinning metal blades. Variety of blade attachments accommodate different tasks, such as slicing vegetables to a consistent thickness or kneading dough for bread.

Tasks That Become Effortless

Chopping and Dicing: Achieve the perfect chopped and diced style in seconds. This uniformity not only saves time, but guarantees even cooking because every piece is the same size.

Whipping Up Sauces and Spreads: Hummus, pesto, nut butters and salad dressings all whip up in minutes. The strong motor thoroughly processes ingredients for restaurant quality.

Making Dough: Food processors can mix, knead and blend cookie or cake dough, pastry and bread. This takes out the arm workout of hand-kneading, and guarantees everything is mixed well.

Grating and Shredding: The disc attachments are great for grating and shredding cheese, carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables. Ideal for coleslaw, hash browns or to top your favorite pizza.

Smart Cooking: Food Processor Benefits

The secret to getting the most out of your food processor is batch processing. When you get home with groceries, spend 30 minutes processing vegetables for the week ahead. Chop onions, dice bell peppers, grate cheese and store all in containers. On a weeknight after work, you'll have prepped ingredients at the ready.

Sauces can also be made in large quantities, frozen in ice cube trays. Pop out a cube or two whenever you need to season a dish.

Stand Mixer: Beyond Baking Excellence

Most people assume that stand mixers are for serious bakers, but these machines can work a surprising number of tasks in the kitchen beyond cakes and cookies.

The Power Behind the Machine

Stand mixers have strong motors that won't strain when dealing with heavy doughs or thick batters. Its planetary mixing action enables the beater to reach 67 different touch points within the bowl, for quick, complete mixing and the highest beater-to-bowl coverage in the industry.

This power and mixing action make mixing things easy while saving your arm a workout. Beat cream by hand for 10 minutes, and you'll understand why stand mixers can do it in two minutes with flawless results.

Beyond Sweet Treats

Making Bread: The dough hook kneads bread dough to the ideal consistency. Gluten develops without overworking. Fresh bread, pizza dough, and pasta are all just a small effort away.

Shredded Meat: After you've cooked chicken, pork, and beef you can use the paddle attachment to shred it in a matter of seconds. Great for tacos, in sandwiches, or to prep for the week.

Mashed Potatoes: The paddle attachment whips up light, lump-free mashed potatoes, and you won't over-whip them as you might if you'd used a food processor.

Whipped Cream and Meringues: The whisk attachment is the ideal accessory for mixing and whipping—equipping you to make professional whipped cream, plus light and airy meringues.

Smart Kitchen Integration

Today, stand mixers accept dozens of attachments that increase their capabilities even more. Pasta makers, meat grinders, ice cream makers and vegetable slicers are among the attachments that can plug into your stand mixer, making it like having a whole kitchen's worth of appliances in one small space.

Air Fryer: Healthy Cooking Revolution

The way we think about crispy, fried foods has changed now that we have air fryers. By circulating superheated air around food, it produces a crispy, golden exterior we love, minus the oil-soaked food we hate.

The Science of Healthy Frying Without All That Oil

Air fryers function by circulating hot air (400°F) thanks to a powerful fan. That creates the Maillard reaction, the chemical process that takes place during browning and which imparts flavor, on the surface of the food. The outcome is irresistible crunchy exteriors and tender juicy interiors – just as you would get when frying in the traditional way – but with 70-80% less oil.

Health Benefits That Matter

Cut calories and unhealthy fats and add some flavor in the process. A portion of wings served from a regular fast food restaurant contains roughly 20 grams of fat, versus 5 grams in air-fried wings. Over time, this decrease can add up and perhaps influence your health and weight.

The reduced oil also results in less mess in your kitchen. No more handling big vats of hot oil, or storing used cooking oil.

Speed and Convenience Advantages

Because air fryers use intense circulating heat, they cook food faster than conventional ovens. And, unlike traditional ovens, there's no need to wait for a preheating time, so you can start cooking right away. This makes them ideal for quick weeknight meals or when you're feeding only one or two people.

Versatility Beyond "Fried" Foods

While air fryers are great at producing crispy food, they're also good at:

• Roasting vegetables

• Small batch baking cookies or muffins

• Warming up leftovers (way better than the microwave)

• Cooking frozen foods from packages

• Making crispy tofu or tempeh

Slow Cooker: Just Set It and Forget It

The slow cooker may be a bit of a dinosaur, especially when compared with a high-tech appliance, but it's the simplicity that makes it an essential tool in a busy household. Nothing else can start dinner cooking at breakfast time and have everything ready to eat at the end of a long day.

How Slow Cooking Transforms Ingredients

The low and slow method uses moist heat over a prolonged time. This process dissolves the tough connective tissues in meat, leaving even the cheapest cuts tender. Flavors develop and meld in ways quick cooking methods can't achieve, too.

The relatively low temperature — usually in the 170-280°F range — prevents you from overcooking most anything. The moisture and liquid content of the food is retained and there is minimal risk of food burning.

Perfect for Busy Lifestyles

The appeal of slow cooking is its ability to fit into your life. Many recipes are forgiving — if dinner has to cook an hour longer because you're stuck in traffic, it won't ruin the dish. That forgiveness is ideal for unpredictable schedules.

Morning prep is minimal. The overwhelming majority of slow cooker meals require only 10-15 minutes prep time. Throw the ingredients in the pot, set the temperature, and go to work. Your house will smell delicious by evening — and dinner will be done.

Budget-Friendly Cooking

Slow cookers are fantastic if you're on a budget and want to use inexpensive ingredients to make a scrumptious meal. Tough cuts of meat — from a chuck roast to pork shoulder to chicken thighs — become fork-tender and savory. Dry beans, lentils, grains cook perfectly without any babysitting at all.

You can also make large amounts for cheap. A big pot of chili, soup, or stew can keep you eating for a couple of days, or can be stashed in the freezer for a fast and easy future dinner.

Meal Planning Made Simple

Slow cookers are made for meal prepping since you can prepare the ingredients in advance. Sunday night create slow cooker freezer meals - throw the contents in a baggie, add to slow cooker on busy mornings!

Popular make-ahead combinations include:

• Chicken, veggies & sauce for an easy stir-fry

• Beef, potatoes and hearty seasonings for stews

• Beans, veggies, and stock for hearty soups

Money-Saving Benefits Across All Appliances

Reduced Food Waste

These appliances can cut down on food waste. Food processors help you use up vegetables before they go bad by making them more convenient to use in meals. A slow cooker will turn limp vegetables into batches of rich soups and stews. Air fryers can reclaim day-old bread by transforming it into crispy croutons or panko-style breadcrumbs.

Lower Energy Costs

The vast majority of these appliances are more energy efficient than the average oven and stovetop. Devices like air fryers and Instant Pots cook foods in far less time, meaning that the total amount of energy consumed is lower. Slow cookers consume no more electricity than a light bulb, which makes for very inexpensive all day cooking.

Eating Out Less Often

Working your way to a point where it's easier and faster to cook at home than to order takeout or dine out will make eating-in more of a habit. Dining out costs the average American family around $3,500 per year. Eliminate even a quarter of this by cooking at home more often, and the average household can save nearly $900 a year.

Energy Efficiency Comparison

*Based on average US electricity price of $0.12 per kWh

Space-Saving Kitchen Design Tips

Choosing Multi-Functional Appliances

Choose versatile appliances when you're short on kitchen space. One Instant Pot can do the job of a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker and steamer. A stand mixer with attachments can do what would otherwise require separate appliances.

Vertical Storage Solutions

Smaller appliances, such as food processors and blenders, should be stored on shelves or in cabinets when they are not in use. Use appliance garages—units of cabinet space constructed to hold small appliances and keep them accessible.

Counter Space Management

Keep the appliances you use on a regular basis at arm's reach on the counter, and rotate in those that are used seasonally or less frequently. This enables your work space to remain functional without getting too cluttered.

Maintenance and Longevity Tips

Daily Care Habits

Clean appliances as soon as they have been used. When left to dry, food residue is harder to remove. Many detachable parts are dishwasher safe, so cleanup is a snap.

Monthly Deep Cleaning

Clean appliances once a month. Descale water-using appliances, oil any moving parts if necessary, and look for wear and tear.

Proper Storage

Keep appliances in a cool dry area not near a heating source. Store manuals and warranty-related documentation neatly for quick access.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm on a budget and I can buy only one. What should it be?

The Instant Pot is the most versatile machine for the price, if you can have only one appliance. It serves so many purposes that you can use it for everything from fast weeknight cooking to weekend meal prep. The time and energy savings help pay for the system in short order.

Are they difficult to figure out how to use?

Not at all! Modern appliances come with preset programs and clear instructions. Begin with basic recipes and gradually work up to more challenging ones. YouTube tutorials and online communities offer unlimited support and recipe ideas.

How much counter space do these appliances take up?

Space will vary, but most will fit in cabinets when not in use. Air fryers and food processors are the most compact, while stand mixers are the bulkiest. Consider how often you cook when determining what to keep on the counter versus stored away.

Will you really save time with these appliances?

The time savings are real and significant. Food processors can save you 75% of the prep work, while pressure cooking in an Instant Pot can cook food 70% faster than conventional methods. The secret is to figure out how to use them efficiently and work them into your regular lineup of quick and easy dishes.

What about cleanup time?

In fact, most of these appliances save cleanup time. Instant Pot or slow cooker one-pot dishes mean fewer dishes to wash. Air fryers mean no cleaning up oil splatter. The components of food processors are dishwasher friendly and easy to clean.

Are replacement parts expensive?

Spare parts are usually inexpensive and easy to find. There's usually some third-party option for less money. They are very durable- if you take care of them, you won't need to purchase replacements often.

Can these devices make me eat healthier?

Absolutely! With air fryers, consumption of oil is minimal. Whole foods, legumes and vegetables are all easy to cook using slow cookers and Instant Pots. Food processors make it easy to prepare homemade sauces and dips, free from unwanted additives found in store-bought versions.

How can I tell which size to buy?

Consider your household and your cooking patterns. Singles and couples might be fine with smaller models while families of four or more should consider larger capacity units. If you meal prep or entertain often, go with the larger sizes.

Transform Your Kitchen Today

These five appliances featured in this guide — the Instant Pot, food processor, stand mixer, air fryer and slow cooker — can completely reinvent your relationship to cooking. They simplify time-consuming activities, make healthy eating more manageable, and give you back your time to do the things (and be with the people) you love.

There's no need to pick up all five at once. Begin with the one that solves your biggest kitchen challenge. If you struggle to get dinner on the table, perhaps your best investment is an Instant Pot or slow cooker. A food processor will be life-changing if prep work is preventing you from cooking from scratch.

Once incorporated into your kitchen routine, these gadgets will lead you to find cooking more pleasurable and less of a chore. With a few dependable tools, the anxiety of meal planning fades away, and in its place you're ready to cook some meals with whole, healthy ingredients.

The contemporary kitchen should serve you, not the other way around. With these five gadgets in your corner, you can spend less time slaving away in the kitchen and more time sitting down and enjoying the fruits of your labors – delicious meals made for you and your loved ones.

Your kitchen revolution begins with a single appliance and an appetite to try something new. The time saved, the money saved, and the relief of always being able to cook delicious meals will help these purchases pay for themselves with the first use.