Sometimes, we feel unfortunate for the kitchens loaded with unimportant gadgets, often seen on the television. These frivolous kitchen items not only hog up the cabinet space but also crowd the counters and the kitchen drawers. Peelers for asparagus, brownie pans, slicers, all of them are space- wasters. Whereas, good kitchen gadgets change the game. These gadgets are well-designed, affordable, and low-tech, making your kitchen life more manageable and much quicker. It almost feels like a great gift from the cooking legends! 

The gadgets that we have listed below may seem ordinary and obvious, but they prove to be very beneficial for the daily kitchen chores like stirring, baking, mixing, and sauteing. We realized the importance of these gadgets when we started shooting our video content (Check out @tribunefood on Instagram). In other words, we can say that these gadgets are the gizmos without which we could barely cook within the limited time that we used to get for shooting. Read out the full blog to know what these multitask superheroes are. 

Ginger Grater
Like the picture, a ginger grater is low-tech but no less than a miracle when you are a quick cook. Peeling ginger takes ages and, you do not want to spend all your time in the kitchen, right? This bumpy slab is trapezoid-ish in shape and is readily available in all big supermarkets. Buying this little tool means no more wasting time in peeling and dicing ginger with a knife, and wasting half of the vegetable. The gadget is also exceedingly easy to clean. Not only ginger but you can also grate nutmegs and cheese. 

Kitchen Tongs
It would help if you had kitchen tongs so they can be a great extension of your hands. Do you know why? Because they have a multi-purpose. You can use them as a spatula, ladle, wooden spoon, and also as an ersatz oven mitt. This means that tongs can be used for almost everything, from tossing pasta, getting hot food from the oven to roasting coal or peppers on the burner. You can even use them for checking if the vegetables are adequately boiled, basically whatever you are not able to do with your bare hands! Name it. 

Garlic Press
Dicing the garlic using a knife and chopping board is alright, but if you use a lot of garlic in your dishes, you need a good garlic press. You do not need to spend a lot of money on buying the garlic press. Just a simple stainless steel machine would work. The best thing about garlic presses is that they press unpeeled garlic cloves in their perfect shape and do not leave any vegetable behind in the device. All this at such an affordable price that is time-saving, easy, and worth every penny.

Vegetable Peeler
Doesn't it gives you immense satisfaction when you [eel the skin from your vegetables and fruits, that the peels and skins remain intact? How do you do this? The answer is that you need a peeler. A blunt vegetable peeler is such a pain to work with as it keeps on pausing in between, making you frustrated. But when you buy a good vegetable peeler, it is heavenly, as it peels off wide ribbons of skin from the vegetables and fruits. All you need to do is find a strong, sharp peeler capable of peeling parmesan cheese! The rest is all set!

Mesh Strainer
One of the best kitchens buys you could ever have! We don't think there is any food that is made without the use of the mesh strainer. There are so many ways in which you can use the mesh strainer, such as steaming, colander, sifting, soaking, and more. We also use it for straining pasta, fresh vegetables, and rinsing fruits. In our videos on the website, you would also watch us using it for passing potatoes through the mesh strainer to make the mash fluffy. Try it out at home and see the results yourself!

Kitchen Shears
There are a lot of ways in which you can use kitchen shears. At times when we are lazy enough to use a knife and a chopping board, using kitchen shears is our sweet pass away. Scissor rinse is much easier to clean than a knife rinse, and cutting something directly in a bowl or a plate gets super quick, neat, and convenient by using a good pair of kitchen scissors. We mostly use the kitchen shears to cut off the herbs like coriander, mint, and lettuce. Just a snip from the top, and it gets more comfortable with every cut that we make. They are even perfect for cutting dates, cherry tomatoes, and also fruits like cherries and bananas. A good pair of kitchen shears also come with a plier-like grip that can be used to crack nutshells and open stubborn jars. 

Mortar & Pestle
Old but gold! You might have seen your mother and grandmother using this miracle gadget, and that is why their food tastes so great! You can use mortar and pestle for things you can't imagine like grounding nuts, making chutneys from herbs and spices, grounding peppercorns, and whatnot. We recommend using it for making mayonnaise, different butter, and even hummus and other kinds of dips and sauces. Food processors and blenders may have made the job easier to grind and mash, but the taste that you would obtain from a mortar and pestle, no other machine can beat that! 

So how many gadgets do you already have in your kitchen? Want to add anything else? Let us know in the comment section below!

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• Wardah Arshad

A person who takes food seriously with an "ask me anything about food" attitude. Here to share my love for food with people through interesting and fun blogs!