Hey, you all may have already discussed this, but does anyone have an opinion about the various kitchen appliances for preparing vegan food? I'm starting to get into more true food and less "fast food." I would like to buy just one more thing, since counter space is an issue in our condo! I already have an old blender (mustard yellow if that gives you a clue to its age!) but it still works fine. I'm kinda interested in trying juicing--maybe fruits AND veggies--so have thought of one of those juice extractors. But I wonder about a machine that will also grind nuts to make my own nut butters? And of course there's those top of the line dehydrators for serious vegan cooking. Anyway, does anyone have any of these, and if you do, how often do you use them?
We used to have loads of smoothies (we called em thickies) but we dont use the blender anymore... We have a orange juicer type thing - you cut it in half and just twist it round the top and juice comes out etc I wonder what happened to it... I remember it from my yrs before primary school. Whats a dehydrator??
sorry dont know any decent brand of juicer...our own is very, very old and probably out of production...but fruit and veggie juicing is absolutely GREAT and i dont know how we got by before! So quick and easy, you can pack so much in, so many nutrients! I love it
My mother has all kinds of kitchen junk; a food processor, juicer, smoothie maker, hand blender, electric whisk ... lol it's crazy. We'd probably get by with just the food processor as it's all round useful (chopping, blitzing, mixing up hummus/pesto/whatever, etc); but we also use the hand blender quite a lot, for pureeing soups. Our juicer has been used maybe twice, just never got into the juice thing.
I can see how I'd get really into the juice thing, but I don't think I could afford it. You need a good supply of quality, fresh produce to make it worthwhile and half the year I can barely afford fresh produce. Since I don't drink most fruit juice anymore due to high sugar content (used to chug OJ by the gallon...) I usually just buy whatever fruit is on sale for the week and eat it fresh. For veggies, I get what I can - frozen if I must, garden fresh, from my own yard or friends' or the farmers market if I'm lucky, but I buy very sparingly from the grocery store because it's so expensive and tasteless. We just got a food processor as a wedding gift and I LOVE it. It's good for everything.
Yeah, I am afraid I'll get something that I won't use... although even in my old blender, I've been on a roll with smoothies every night! Luckily where I live in the pacific northwest, we get loads of produce that's not too expensive--I get an organic fruit and veg box delivered once a week all year, too.
My favorites are my hand juicer, my crock pot, and steamer (I have a pot set that has a pasta drainer that fits inside...nothing special) and my dutch oven! As far as affordability.....I find fresh produce cheaper than canned or frozen....for the amount you get and the nutrition value received, fresh is cheaper (here at least)....but if I need something out of season I get the frozen organic stuff....I'm try to steer away from canned food altogether. The most universal thing to get would be a quality food processor....you can do most things a blender, chopper, smootie maker, etc can do in that.....a bread machine is awesome too if you can afford it and have the room.....I just bake my own though.
Autumn, what device do you mean by hand juicer? I have a reamer and a wheatgrass crank juicer. I also have an Omega juicer, and for $200 it has served me well for almost seven years. I found $40 big box models (ejectors) rather pointless, and a waste of effort. Lots of cleaning. But they were Ok for oranges and apples. Berries, not so much. I have settled farther into smoothies with fruit (too keep the fiber) and am currently adding veggies to my juice routine.
I have a cheap juicer. Honestly, it's garbage. It makes a HUGE mess of my counter & all it does is squash the fruit. Veggies... forget it, it can't go through them! I've been using my dehydrator more & more... it's a Magic Chef one that I got free via Freecycle. It works WONDERFULLY! It came with two of the "fruit leather" trays, and I'm using it for everything from leathers & dried apples for my kids, to dried tomatoes & herbs for the whole family. Dunno if this is a top of the line brand or not, but it sure works! This is definitely one appliance I wish I'd have gotten years ago. My mom's got a Vitamix and... if I had a spare $400 to spend in the kitchen I'd get one in a heartbeat. It makes the most fantastic smoothies - like drumminmama said, that way you keep the fiber. It cleans up quicker & easier than your standard blender, and will go through anything. We made almond butter in it a few weeks ago just to see how it would work and it was awesome. She got some sort of flour attachment too, so she can make her own flax-seed flour. And it did that just as easily! I've got an Oster blender that goes through quite a bit (and it's paid for) though so I'm content until we win a lottery. love, mom
i picked up a black n decker juicer for 25 bucks @ target, its been treating me good for a few months now!!!!
