The 8 Kitchen Appliances I Couldn’t Live Without

This really is one for any American readers as I’m pretty convinced that all of my British readers will already have a kettle!

I use my kettle for far more than just making cups of tea. I boil the kettle whenever I need boiling water for cooking. I almost never wait for a pan of water to come to boil. My life is simply too short.

I know that this is mildly controversial. Many people choose not to own a microwave. And I just don’t understand why! A microwave provides serious convenience and helps to reduce the number of pots and pans needed.

I not only use mine for reheating leftovers, but for melting chocolate etc in baking recipes, for steaming vegetables quickly and even just for cooking a baked potato in a jiffy.

Don’t be scared of a microwave and it can be your best friend in the kitchen.

I don’t use my food processor everyday but when I do, it is invaluable.

I use the grating/slicing disk to shred veg for coleslaw, the egg white whisk for meringues and the main processor for making cakes, date bars and larger quantities of guacamole and hummus.

This processor is much smaller than others I’ve come across and so it takes up much less room in the cupboard or on the side. I’ve had my version for over 15 years and its still going strong.

I don’t always want to get my big processor out to make small quantities of my aforementioned guacamole and hummus, etc. But my mini chopper is absolutely perfect.

It lives in a small drawer, fits in the top rack of the dishwasher to clean and is helpful when you want to make smaller quantities of things which a larger processor won’t reach.

I received mine one Christmas. They are great value and super useful.

I was late to the party with stand mixers. Despite lusting over super pretty Kitchenaid mixers for years, they were way out of my price range. But then I bought a vintage Kenwood from a car boot sale for a tenner. And I loved it.

All of a sudden cakes became extra light and fluffy, bread dough became a dream to make and my buttercream game increased tenfold.

And then my vintage edition blew up. I knew I couldn’t like without a mixer so I bought the cheapest version of a Kenwood Chef and I haven’t looked back. Or lusted after anything ‘fancier’. My Kenwood is brilliant.

Despite my love of a my stand mixer, there are occasions where I don’t want to dirty a big bowl and attachment. This is where I revert to my old workhorse of an electric hand whisk. This is what I used for years before I bought a stand mixer.

It is still perfect for whisking up small quantities of egg white etc and I continue to use mine on a regular basis.

I admit that I can live without a stick blender. I can blend anything I need in the blender attachment of my food processor.

But doing so not only creates more washing up, no matter how well you scrape, you will lose some of your food in the blender jug in the process.

I always make sure to buy a stick with a plastic lower half as the metal ones are a nightmare to use with non-stick pans.

This isn’t technically an essential. But now that I have one is really is something that I wouldn’t want to live without. I use my actifry all the time.

I’ve specified the Actifry rather than just an air fryer in general as the moving paddle makes these air fryers far more useful than other kinds.

I now make almost all of my ‘roasted’ veg in the Actifry as well as roast potatoes and chips. I also use it to reheat things like chicken wings as it retains the crunch that the microwave doesn’t provide.

This isn’t essential so I haven’t included it in my 8 item list but it is perfect if you only want to fry occasionally and are a bit too scared of just heating oil in a pan.

My housemate owned one of these small fryers and I ended up using it all the time. But it is making recipes like Scotch Eggs where it really comes into its own.