Eat More Veggies with These Helpful Cooking Tools

Eating more vegetables is key to a healthy lifestyle. That means lots of chopping, peeling, slicing, cutting, cubing, and prepping those delicious veggies for cooking and snacking. Breaking down cauliflower, peppers, onions, carrots, leeks, broccoli, cucumbers, herbs, etc doesn’t have to be a chore. I’ve got 9 suggestions for tools that can help make prepping and cooking vegetables much easier.

Spiral Slicer and and Veggie Pasta Maker

This is a great tool for making veggie noodles out of squash, sweet potato, zucchini, carrots, etc. Look for a model that does more than just spiral slice. This model from Mueller has slicing blades, a grating blade, and a cup the catches the veggies with cup measurments on the side. A tool like this is a must have for vegans, vegetarians and low carb dieters who want to make low carb noodles.

Food Processor

A quality food processor is a great investment for anyone who wants to add more vegetables (or whole foods in general) to their meals. Break down cauliflower for cauliflower “rice”. Make homemade salsa, hummus, nut butter or guacamole. Break down cabbage, herbs and leafy greens. There are so many uses for a good food processor. They come in a variety of sizes and with a variety of features. Prices vary as well, so do your research.

Food Steamer

A food steamer is an ideal tool for people on the go who need to save time. Steaming your food is one of the healthiest forms of food prep and you can cook veggies and proteins together. Add some lemon juice and herbs to the mix for a delicious and nutritious quick meal.

Salad Spinner

A salad spinner allows you to rinse your greens and spin them dry. Due to all of the recent scares with E. Coli and spinach, I’ve become a stickler for washing my greens before eating them. Having a salad spinner really helps with that. The OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner has top rating from Good Housekeeping.

Cutting Boards

A cutting board is a cheap and very helpful tool. No one wants messy counter tops. Skip the wooden ones if you want to wash them in the dishwasher. Look for non-slip versions. Some even come with little cups on the side to catch what you are chopping or groves to catch juices.

Vegetable Brush

Buy fresh veggies and wash them. Don’t make any assumptions about how clean your veggies are. Potatoes, carrots, beets, lemons, etc. You can get a great brush for a very reasonable price. The video below notes that you may be able to remove pesticide residue as well.

Garlic Press

One of the top ingredients I use when making soups, steamed veggies, sautéed veggies, pasta, etc is garlic. I prefer to use fresh garlic and having a garlic press saves me from trying to dice up a tiny clove. Life saver! (Peel the garlic first, then press.)

Mason Jars

My favorite way to use mason jars in relation to veggies is Salad Jar Recipes. You can also use them to store fresh juice, smoothies, oatmeal, chia pudding, fruit parfaits, canning and detox water.

Quality Food Containers

Letting produce go bad is just a waste of money. You don’t want to do a ton of hard work, preparing and chopping veggies, just to have them go bad in the fridge. Invest in some good quality food storage containers. Do your research and figure out what works best for you… BPA-free, glass, etc. There are even containers that are built just for storing fruits and veggies, like these FreshVent containers from Rubbermaid.

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