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Dream Kitchen

1K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  Kiwibird08 
#1 ·
I'm looking at getting a new place with the boyfriend later this year. The kitchen isn't huge, but it's leaps and bounds better than our old apartment's. I know I can't actually afford everything on my list, but it's fun to dream. Feel free to make recommendations or add your own list. Here goes:

Omega 8006 (because I can't even dream about a Norwalk juicer)
Vitamix
Food processor
A nice crock pot/slow cooker
A good dehydrator with all of the trays
A new yogurt maker (even though I could probably use the crock pot)
Lots of mason jars and reusable food containers
Tofu press
Veggie spiralizer for zoodles if the food processor won't do it
Coffee grinder
Small coffee pot, suitable for a one-coffee-drinker home
Tea kettle and strainers

Also, it might be a little crazy, but I love the idea of having separate cookware for non-vegan food. They separate cookware in kosher kitchens, so why can't I?

Anyway, that's my list, give or take a few items.
 
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#2 ·
Rice cooker
tortilla press
mandolin
steamer basket
immersion blender
sprouting jars
air popcorn maker

I don't have any of those (except the tortilla press, steamer basket, and popcorn maker) but it sure is fun to daydream about lol! I have a slow cooker and blendtec also and a few mason jars I also use for sprouting seeds with a nutmilk bag over the top of the jar and rubber banded. My blendtec also acts as a food processor and grinds coffee and seeds/nuts/grains into flour and makes ice cream.

Someday I would love to have an Excaliber food dehydrator but it's not something I absolutely have to have. I think....
 
#4 ·
Most used in my kitchen are:

Blender (Native Juicer, comparatively cheap, powerful and HUGE)

Citrus Juicer (Krups)

Coffee Grinder (Cuisinart)

French Press (Bodum)

Food Processor (Kitchenaid)

Sprializer (Breiftons)

Rice Cooker (Hannex)

Soymilk Maker (Joyoung)

Tofu Press (RawRutes)

Yogurt Maker (Total Chef, cheap but works fine!)

Strainers (various sizes)

Batter bowl (for straining into and easy pouring)

Dehydrator (Nesco, but looking to upgrade to RawRutes in the future)

I'm almost totally raw vegan now (ok, I do have the occasional cup of coffee or bite of cooked food but no longer a significant portion of my diet;)), but still find most of my stuff easily usable. Since my husband loves rice, the rice cooker still gets tons of use as does the soy milk maker (since he decided to cut back on dairy). Just a note, my rice cooker also functions as a slow cooker (has a separate setting) which is awesome since you don't need 2 bulky kitchen items:). We has 2 different juicers in the past, but I never found them to be all that great. Too much mess, too many parts to clean, noisy... an all around pain. I just blend and strain for "juice" now (except citrus). You can also keep your eyes on ebay and thrift stores for lightly used items, which are far cheaper than new. I got my food processor for about $50, my dehydrator for $15, soy milk maker (refurbished) for $65, my coffee grinder (a really good one) for $10... It's a pretty significant savings, but I guess I'm fine cleaning up lightly used items or buying refurbished if it saves me 40/50/60+% off. Obviously use common sense if it looks nasty don't buy it, but theres a lot of kitchen stuff out there that was barely or never used.
 
#5 ·
I use my knives, flexible cutting boards (I like folding them and dumping stuff out) and my heavy bottomed pots and pans. I use the stovetop most, sometimes the oven or microwave.

I have a stick blender that I use for smoothies and sauces and just to pulverize things. When I worked nights, I used the slow cooker a lot. I still have it, I think I will make the superbowl chili in it this year!
 
#8 ·
I would love a food processer. Tbh you really don't need a tofu press, use two plates, paper towels, and cans or book, Google it!.

Maybe try good will or third stores??
None of this is stuff I actually need. The fanciest equipment I had in my last kitchen was a toaster oven and a whisk. This stuff is all just stuff that would be fun to have. I've been using th plate and paper towels method for years. It's supposedly faster to use a press, and you don't waste the paper towels.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I think in my dream kitchen I'd mostly just have to get rid of stuff I already have. Too many gizmos can just over complicate things and I've quit using most of them (including the dishwasher).
Things I still love include thick bottom stainless steel pots with glass lids, coffee maker, cheap espresso maker for brewing course grinds of teas in (you can blast each pinch of herbs several times), a hand operated herb grinder with three different chopping plates to shred the tea herbs I grow, a large marble rolling pin, a large collection of mason jars, a microwave, a 5 lb scale for bread flour measuring, a six pound solid rod of stainless steel I brought in from my machine shop and christened my 'pickle hammer' for packing vegetables into large mason jars and beating frozen blocks of vegetables senseless- its also a reusable ice cube just never grab it bare handed when its -20°!

If I were to add anything, top of the list would be a stainless steel cookie sheet.
 
#10 ·
I have never quite understood what the point of buying a rice cooker is. What is the difference between cooking rice in a pot and on the rice cooker?

There's nothing I really want, although the dehydrator would be nice.
 
#11 ·
Most of the things listed seem to be things you can take with you when you move. So after you collect your favorites you can have your dream kitchen anywhere you go.

The steamer basket is something I use every other day. I also have a Calphalon chef's skillet that would be my only pan if I had to choose. I have a small Hamilton Beach food processor that is easy to clean - wouldn't trade it for any of the fancy ones.
 
#12 ·
I'm in the process of moving to a much smaller house, and way smaller kitchen! I've accumulated things that do just sit around, but also things that I've recently begun using

The things I always use:
cast iron skillet
Caphalon hard anodized wok
5 gallon soup pot
2 quart pot
coffee maker
electric hot water pot
soy milk maker
Kitchen Aid stand mixer
food grinder
pressure cooker
microwave
steamer basket
toaster
blender
food processor

I just can't like my slow cooker. I'll bring it out because everyone else seems to love them, but I don't find it useful or easy. That may go. My son loves toast so that stays. Kitchen aid mixer I can't part with even though it's not used a lot. I've found the food grinder is great for falafel, frozen fruit sorbets, nut butter.

Auxin now has sparked a want of a spice grinder (i have a small coffee grinder) and steel!
I've always wanted a nice mortor and pestle
 
#15 ·
I just can't like my slow cooker. I'll bring it out because everyone else seems to love them, but I don't find it useful or easy. That may go. My son loves toast so that stays. Kitchen aid mixer I can't part with even though it's not used a lot. I've found the food grinder is great for falafel, frozen fruit sorbets, nut butter.
You say you use your pressure cooker but not the slow cooker. Forgive my ignorance, but aren't slow cookers, pressure cookers, and crock pots all the same thing? Are there differences I don't know about?

It's hard to know how often you'd use something until you actually have it. I use my bread making machine so often I hardly ever buy bread anymore. And a waffle maker as well, which I use at least once a week. I picked up the bread making machine at a department store for $34 -- it was either returned, or the model was about to be discontinued -- and my daughter picked up a perfectly good waffle maker at a thrift store for $10.

The thing about waffle makers is that besides making breakfast waffles you can put all sorts of other batters in them like from cornmeal or brownie mix or leftover mashed potatoes, and the results are amazing.
Yes! A waffle maker is a must! My boyfriend thinks pancakes are better, and I need to convert him!
 
#13 · (Edited)
I dont find my slow cooker useful either. In 15 years I've used it three or four times.
Same year I got a $1200 barbecue and its been used about six times, and not once since going vegan (tho my dog appreciates it as a wind break on the deck, lol).
Bread maker was very useful to make dough when I was still eating yeast bread. I'd cook the dough in the oven tho.

I bought a pressure cooker to autoclave laboratory instruments and tissue culture/mushroom growing substrates. As such I got an aluminum one. I've repeatedly regretted that because I dont trust bare aluminum for food, I should have sprung for stainless steel. I can still use it like a pressurized double boiler for food and medicines tho.

Since we're talking dream kitchen I can include the rarest style of coffee cup ever. I've only ever seen two, a matched set apparently from a small town in denmark, and my father broke his. Or at least I adamantly insisted it was his that he broke ;)
Its just dripping in awesomeness because you can just sort of grab it, all club fisted. Doesnt matter if my hands are numb from cold and can barely bend, just hold hand like a claw and grab. If I had more than one I wouldnt have to be chronically paranoid that someone will brake my sacred coffee cup.
[Serious coffee lovers needing to take a art class at college, take note!]
 
#14 ·
It's hard to know how often you'd use something until you actually have it. I use my bread making machine so often I hardly ever buy bread anymore. And a waffle maker as well, which I use at least once a week. I picked up the bread making machine at a department store for $34 -- it was either returned, or the model was about to be discontinued -- and my daughter picked up a perfectly good waffle maker at a thrift store for $10.

The thing about waffle makers is that besides making breakfast waffles you can put all sorts of other batters in them like from cornmeal or brownie mix or leftover mashed potatoes, and the results are amazing.
 
#16 ·
A slow cooker/crock pot cooks well below the boiling point of water (pre-boil beans because the poison in them is only destroyed at boiling).

A pressure cooker cooks well above "boiling" (100°C) by increasing the boiling point of water with pressure. Its a 'Fast cooker'.

So theyre opposite.
 
#18 ·
So you can't just soak the beans overnight to cook in a slow cooker?
That's not my only reason I dislike them, I don't even think I tried it for beans. It does seem to completely rule out any reason to use them for beans, if you have to pre boil them!
 
#19 ·
I have found my tofu press (which is stainless steel and gets VERY messy, much more than paper towels and books could handle) perfect for making much more than pressed tofu! I use it as a raw vegan, to make perfect "sprout patties" or "mushroom steaks" or "juice pulp burgers". I gotta be honest, I *love* my tofu press:D I also have a propensity to burn rice or it comes out like a porridge. The rice cooker makes it "restaurant perfect" every time and my husband doesn't complain;). Interesting though how we all find different kitchen tools more or less useful:)
 
#20 ·
Kiwibird08-- do you mean raw mushroom steaks?
Is your press just for pressing tofu or is it also a mold for making tofu from soymilk?
When you press juicer pulp, do you then dehydrate it so it stays together?
 
#22 ·
It seems the very plain one I have is sold out right now, but this is the kind I have- http://www.rawrutes.com/collections/tofu-love

I cut a piece of screen to go in the bottom so the pulp wouldn't ooze through (obviously a block of tofu is not the same consistency as wet vegetable pulp) and leave it for about 1/2 hour and it makes a pretty nice little patty. Then I dehydrate them:) I don't think the ones with the cutouts would work too well for pulp or other "wetter" consistency things, it would just go out the holes. I have pictures somewhere of the process, I'll post them later.
 
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