Essential Tools for a Vegan Kitchen

Tools and gadgets for your kitchen to make vegan cooking easier and more efficient. These are the best cooking tools that every vegan kitchen needs!

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kitchen with cutting board and knife, vegetables on counter, and kitchen utensils and cookware in the background.

There are so many kitchen gadgets out there that it can be overwhelming to decide what’s worth it and what’s not. Now that my husband and I have been vegan for over 4 years, we’ve found that there are some tools absolutely necessary to make vegan cooking as practical and approachable as possible.

Today we’re sharing what we’ve found to be the essential tools and utensils needed in a vegan kitchen. All of these items are things we use on a regular basis.

Some of these might be more obvious things you already have on hand but we didn’t want to leave anything out just in case you’re not only new to veganism but also new to cooking at home in general.

We use all of these to make a variety of foods and each one has its unique purpose in our kitchen.

Although you could get by without some of these, I think they are essential for the added convenience they provide. When you have the tools to make meal prep that much easier you’re more likely to actually get in the kitchen and get it done—which makes sticking to a plant-based diet so much easier!

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Sharp Knives

Sharp knives are essential—especially for kitchen safety! A dull knife requires more pressure to cut which increases the chance of slipping. Make sure to get a knife sharpener too for maintenance. I love this set because it comes with everything and its at a reasonable price for what you get! We’ve had this exact set for years and love it!

Large Cutting Boards

Trust me, you’re going to want at least one large cutting board. Preparing your fruits and veggies for dishes is that much easier when you have a large enough work space to accommodate.

Large Stockpot

We love our large stockpot and use it weekly for chilis, curries, soups, and stews. We love to cook in large batches and have leftovers throughout the week which saves us tons of time so a large pot is essential.

Food Processor

I can’t speak highly enough about a food processor. Not only can it speed up prep time by chopping, slicing, and shredding for you, but it also is perfect for making your own oat or chickpea flour, nut butters, or dips.

I like this small 3.5 cup one from KitchenAid for small batches but we also have this Hamilton Beach 12 cup one as well for larger batches.

GarlicZoom Garlic Chopper

Way better than a garlic press for mincing garlic and way more fun to use! If you enjoy fresh garlic in your dishes, this is an absolute must!

Fine Mesh Strainer

Perfect for rinsing dry legumes and rice before cooking, as well as rinsing off canned beans.

Can Opener

You can’t rinse those cooked canned beans without first opening them with a can opener!

Kitchen Scissors

Great for trimming off the ends of herbs and greens. Some knife sets come with kitchen shears, but if not, this is a great pair!

Mixing Bowls

Mixing bowls of varying sizes are really helpful to have on hand. Small ones are great for making sauces or dressings. Large bowls are great for preparing salads, making bigger batches, or for mixing together your favorite vegan banana bread.

Rice Cooker

The convenience of setting and forgetting your rice while it cooks comes in handy! And you’re not limited to just cooking rice in your rice cooker, we’ve cooked quinoa and legumes as well! This one is our favorite because it comes out perfect every time (no burnt rice on the bottom!).

Silicone Mat

To avoid extra waste in the kitchen from throwing out parchment paper and to eliminate the need for oil—we love having silicone mats on hand. These nonstick mats are perfect for baking your favorite vegan cookies!

Measuring Spoons & Cups

Helpful for baking and cooking so that your recipes turn out perfect every time! Especially for baking where accurate ratios are necessary for the end result.

Kitchen Scale

If you want to be super accurate, a kitchen scale is the best way to go. Plus then you don’t have to wash all the cups and spoons. It’s also handy for calculating accurate nutrition information.

Blender

We use a blender for things like smoothies, soups, and vegan cheese sauces. Things that are more liquid-y are prefect for the blender. This one can also double as a food processor.

Immersion blender

Another option is an immersion or handheld blender. Though not absolutely necessary, we still wanted to mention it because it comes in handy (pun intended) for soup when you want to puree it but you don’t want to transfer hot soup to a blender.

Spatulas, Whisks, Ladles

We like spatulas for cooking over spoons. They can stir mixtures, flip bean burgers and fluffy vegan pancakes, and scrape the sides of bowls, food processors, and blenders to get every last drop of that tasty smoothie out.

Whisks are great for whipping dressings, sauces, and dips together quickly. Especially when you don’t have any solid items that need put through a food processor or blender.

Soups, chilis, and stews are a staple in the vegan diet as they are so easy to throw together with some veggie broth, beans, and an assortment of vegetables. That’s why a ladle is a staple in our kitchen as it makes serving so much easier than a thousand scoops with a spoon (okay, maybe one thousand scoops is an exaggeration but you get the idea).

Mason Jars, Glass Storage Containers, Silicone Bags

We love mason jars for meal prepping salads as they keep everything fresh for days. Other glass storage containers are great for storing soup, stews, curries, veggie burgers, or anything else you meal prepped for the week. Silicone bags are great for snacks or even portioning leftovers as they can stand on their own, are leak-proof, and microwaveable!

RELATED: See all of our favorite meal prep containers for any situation!

Slow Cooker

If you find yourself with minimal time to cook or meal prep, this might be your answer. Although we cook a lot on the stove with our big stock pot, sometimes we just want to throw everything into the slow cooker and let it do its thing while we get on with our lives. It’s nice to just dump everything in it in the morning, give it a good stir, set it and then come back to it in the evening for a delicious, home cooked meal.