Sassy's Vegan Kitchen Essentials
Part 2

Let's continue with our chat about the most essential kitchen tools every new vegan needs.

As a Vegan since 1994, I know what works in a busy vegan kitchen.

These are the tools I use in my everyday life.

My focus is always on the best quality products for the lowest price, because that's what's important to me -- and our household budget. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and if you have any questions please feel free to ask it below or shoot me a note through my Contact Form.

Giant hugs!

Welcome to part 2 of healthy Kitchen Tools. If you missed part 1 it, you can find it here: Healthy Kichen Tools, part 1.

These tools are going to help you make healthier food as easily as possible: steamers, pressure cookers, blenders, grinders, and quality pots and pans.

Remember, these will completely change how you cook. I feel these are essential items every vegan kitchen should have.

Next, let's chat about more essential kitchen tools to consider, especially if you're stocking a vegan kitchen from scratch.

Use this guide to compare with what you already have, and then fill in the holes as desired.

Here's what we'll cover on this page:

The Glass Essentials

We used to use plastic Tupperware for nearly everything. But over time as we have learned more about plastics we have slowly been replacing everything with glass instead.

Glass is where it's at, for sure. Easy to clean, never stain, and I don't know if it's all in my head but I swear my food tastes better since we switched to glass.

Now, when I look at my collection of plastic mixing and storage bowls in my cupboard they look sort of sad and I feel sorry for them. Seriously!

The Glass Baking Dishes

This glass cookware set from Anchor has just about every size you need for vegan cooking including a lasagna-size dish and two different casserole dishes along with their lids. Gotta have the lids.

Plus, you'll get a loaf dish (indispensable for no-meat loafs!) and a pie dish (I use mine almost exclusively for making vegan tofu quiche).

I also love the small glass containers with lids -- we use them allllll the time for storing small amounts (such as 1/2 jalapeno, 1/2 lemon, or 1/2 avocado). This package also comes with various spatulas and also a set of measuring spoons which are the rectangular shape I recommend.

Oh, and it DOESN'T come with the eggs. Thank the gods for that! ;)

The Glass Mixing and Storage Bowls

I absolutely LOVE these glass Pyrex bowls.

They're perfect for mixing food as well as for storing leftovers, especially soup. They're a nice weight and the lids fit perfectly.

We also own a couple sets of these glass storage dishes. They are absolutely perfect sizes that we use allllll the time.

We have many of these small 1 cup glass dishes with lids. Just like those above, we use them nearly every day for storing small amounts. We've even used some to store non-food items away. You'll be glad you have them.

You really can't have too many glass storage bowls.

The Kitchen Tools

These are the tools I use most often in my daily cooking. Sure, I have a lot more than this, but again and again I turn to these nearly every day so I hereby claim these as vegan kitchen essentials.

A Good Chef's Knife

For everyday cooking, most people have a set of knives. Any knives will do, of course. I still have some good oldies I myself use.

But all bets are off when it comes to my chef's knife.

I looooove my Kyocera 7" ceramic chef's knife. It has an ergonomic handle making it a joy to do my slicing and dicing. And ceramic stays sharp far longer than regular stainless steel knives.

I have two of them, and when one starts to dull, I send it in to a service Kyocera recommends to get sharpened and break out the other one. You can also buy a ceramic knife sharpener

The Salad Spinner

Helpful for cleaning produce, especially leafy greens. We own this salad spinner from OXO. It's sturdy, very easy to use (just push down on the button a few times with the palm of your hand). Ours has lasted a long time.

The Small Coffee Grinder

Helpful for grinding seeds to a powder such as for use on your salads. (If you have a Vitamix with a dry container, it will do the job too.)

We recently switched to this Hamilton Beach and I LOVE it. Why? Because the little inside bowl comes out for easy cleaning! It's inexpensive and gets the job done quickly and easily.

Any grater will do. You don't need anything fancy. I like a taller grater like this one to grate hard veggies like carrots and beets for salads. Use the side with the larger holes for this purpose.

This grater comes apart so you can use either side on its own (whether using the side with the larger holes or the medium holes), or you can keep them together for those times when you need to lean into your grating job. Overall, it's easier to clean than a regular ol' box-shaped grater.

The Strainers

These strainers made by Cuisinart are perfect for straining/rinsing very small foods such as quinoa.

I am always blown away by how many uses I come up with for these 3 strainer sizes.

And there are much more than that, of course! Here are a few other items we find useful:

A Microplane: I LURVE my microplane! I use it to zest lemons -- it's amazing how many times you'll want to add lemon zest because the flavor is so bright. I also use this to "finely grate" my vegan cheeses. When you use this tool with vegan cheese (such as Follow Your Heart on pizza), it helps the meltability immensely.
A Garlic Press: We've had this OXO Garlic Press for years. Clearly, I like OXO, eh? They make good quality products and are quite affordable.
A Whisk: Ya gotta have a good whisk. And this one by Gourmetics Kitchens is perfection.It's the perfect weight and size, rust-resistant, and dishwasher safe too.
Tongs: A few years ago I was browsing around our local kitchen store/cooking school and got in a convo with the owner. He said "Do you have one of these yet?" and held up these Messermeister tongs. He said I'd use them all the time. I purchased them on the spot, and the rest is history.
Colander: Believe it or not, all colanders are not created equally! We've had this stainless steel Norpro colander for years. It's well made and has a nice weight to it. And has never rusted on us!
Measuring cups: You might think that all measuring cups are created equally. Au contraire! These measuring cups from Bellmain are very accurate and stack perfectly.
Measuring spoons: These measuring spoons from OXO have a lot going for them including measurements that are actually etched into the steel, oblong shape versus round so they fit into your spice jars (!), and a flat surface so you can set them down full without worrying about them emptying on you (don't you hate when that happens?).