4 Appliances That Make Vegan Cooking Easier

Over my 7 years of being vegan, I’ve discovered some great appliances that make cooking vegan food much easier.

The truth is, being vegan does take more food prep. Although things are slowly changing, it’s a lot harder for us to grab something ready made from the supermarket. And we need to cook a lot of our food from scratch. But luckily , there are some great small appliances out there that can really help make food prep easier.

I’ve tried a lot of small appliances and utensils. Some are great, and some not so… And there are some that may work brilliantly for omnivores, but not so well for the foods vegans eat regularly. Nuts, seeds, dried fruits and even veggies can be taxing on blenders and processors, and they cook very differently too.

So I’ve put together my 4 favourite small appliances to make your vegan cooking easier. I’ve even given you brand recommendations and features to look out for.

This post is affiliate free. I’m just sharing my favourite small appliances with you.

Omnicooker

Last year, I bought an omnicooker from Green Pan, and I have to tell you it is, hands down, my favourite kitchen appliance. I use it every day, and sometimes more than once. It’s big enough that I can make double or even triple batches of my food – so perfect for prepping ahead and freezing. It features very heavily in my Master Your Vegan DIet course where I used it to make a months’ worth of Bolognese sauce!

It also gets super hot, super quick, so it’ll work for stir fries, too. Another thing I love about it is you can make a huge batch of rice or quinoa to freeze ahead. Basically, you can cook anything in it!

I particularly like the Green Pan brand, because it has a teflon free non stick coating. So the pan is super easy to clean, without the not so great aspects of teflon.

Food Processor

I don’t think you can really be vegan without a food processor. I managed without one for the first few years, and just had a high powered blender, but everything became SO. MUCH. EASIER when I got a processor.

My food processor is another one that I use at least once a day. I use it for dips, protein balls, muffins, sauces – basically all the staples of a vegan diet with kids!

I also recommend grabbing one that grates, slices and chops veggies. It saves sooooo much time.

My favourite brand is Breville. I had one for years, and then had to throw it out when it got cockroaches in it. I tried a few cheaper brands after that, but Breville is the only one I’ve found that can withstand all the nuts and dried fruit we vegans love. In fact, I just bought a new one for myself for Mother’s Day!

Blender

Do you need a blender AND a food processor? I think you do, but if you’ve got a good food processor, you can get a cheaper, smaller blender. I use my blender for smoothies and cashew cheese sauces. I used to have a Vitamix, which I loved! (The cockroaches got to it, too…). But I’ve also used a nutribullet, and found it worked really well. The gears did wear out after a couple of years though, so if you can afford it, I do really recommend a Vitamix.

Air Fryer

My final can’t live without appliance would be my air fryer. I love how you can bake food without having to wait for the oven to heat up – something that’s especially helpful in the hot Queensland summers!

I do the usual chips and nuggets, but I also find the air fryer is great for prepping tofu chunks and crumble ahead.

A few things to look out for in an airfryer – make sure it doesn’t need to be preheated. I’ve also had two different designs, and the better one had mesh at the bottom so that the air could circulate the whole way around the food. I’ve had another one that had a thick grills at the bottom that really didn’t work anywhere near as well. I’ve found the Phillips brand has the best design.

Other Utensils

There are a few other utensils that I use to make cooking healthy vegan food easier. The first is a large steamer. I find a large double steamer that goes on a large saucepan is the easiest and fastest.

I also have a large sauepan that I use for cooking pasta, and making soups. Make sure it’s big enough to hold enough pasta and soup for your family!

A large rectangular baking dish is also really helpful. You can make pasta bakes, lasagne and cannelloni, as well as muesli bars and slices.