Friday, January 4, 2013

Raederle's Appliance Recommendations | Raw Food Kitchen Gadgets

As a specialty health-food chef, I have a lot of kitchen gadgets and gizmos. You don't need all this stuff to be a raw foodist, or to eat healthy in general. However, having great appliances saves you kitchen time. Also, great implements make it easier to use up food that would otherwise go bad.
Find my detailed appliance recommendations by either clicking one of the following inbound-page links to the right or scrolling down.

Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor

The most important appliance in any kitchen: a powerful food processor. I adore my 14-cup Cuisinart Food Processor. This appliance is critical to healthy eating, whether you're subscribing to paleo, macrobiotic, vegetarian, vegan, raw or The Plant Paradox Program.
Having a great food processor is truly a blessing. It has a grating attachment, a slicing attachment and the well-known S-blade.
The grating attachment is a miracle on carrots and cabbage, making slaw a piece of cake. No more bruised fingers from wielding the old hand-held grater! I can grate a 5-pound bag of carrots in minutes with my food processor. This is great for making slaws for the entire family or for a potluck. For an updated take from me on appliances (in 2025), click here.

Excalibur 9-Tray Dehydrator

Having a dehydrator can revolutionize your kitchen! Fill it full of kale and say goodbye to unhealthy unsatisfying store-bought chips. Kale chips will entirely change the way you think about making food at home. Easy, nutritious, delicious and so much fun.
Dehydrators are great for making cinnamon apple slices, chocolate banana crackers, spirulina bars, granola mixes, and carrot patties. You can make raw lasagnas and warm it up in a sealed glass container in your dehydrator.
If you're buying new appliances just to "eat healthier" in general, then it may not matter which order you buy them in. However, if you're buying appliances as part of transitioning to a raw diet, then the order may matter. I purchased a dehydrator first because I struggled with cravings for "comfort foods". For an updated (and more detailed) take from me on appliances and other products, click here.

Omega Masticating Juicer

The second thing my husband and I chose was the Omega 8005 masticating juicer. It is an excellent appliance for making nut-butter, ice-cream, wheatgrass juice (or any green juice) and puddings. It has two attachments, one is the "screen" that separates juice from pulp. The other is a "blank" which just ejects everything in one place.
With the "screen" attachment the masticating juicer makes juice. This is the type of juicer you use to make juice from leafy greens, wheatgrass, cilantro, spinach, etc.
For my updated page on appliances and other products, click here.

Centrifugal Juicer

If you make a lot of juice, it saves a lot of time to own both a masticating juicer and a centrifugal juicer. Why? A centrifugal juicer will save you 95% of the time when making carrot, beet, or celery juice.
Centrifugal juices are great for cucumbers, celery, carrots and chard/kale/collard stems. However, they are not good for leafy greens, which is where your masticating juicer plays its part.
I don't recommend getting a Jack LaLanne centrifugal juicer. The appliances do not live up to the man, by any means. You pay quite a bit extra just for the brand name and gain nothing in quality. I have been pretty happy with my L'Equip, but the model I'm still using is no longer being made.

Electric Pressure Cooker

Wilting food and want to make a soup? Sometimes we see a great deal on sweet potatoes and want to steam them for a treat. We used to make t'eff (a grain more nutritious than amaranth or quinoa) back before we became lectin-conscious.
Even when we did not have a stove or an oven, we had a pressure cooker. I like that it doesn't take up a lot of space (like an oven does) and it doesn't require owning a bunch of pots (like a stove does) and that it has automatic settings to make it turn off so that your food never burns and turns black.
It cooks quickly and keeps more nutrition because the water doesn't escape. It is self-contained and doesn't require a dozen other cooking devices to do its thing.
We bought a Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker and have had little complaint with it. In fact, we only have one single complaint which is that we wish the pot on the inside was made of stainless steel. It has some sort of non-stick coating which can be theoretically hazardous in the long-term if the coating ever starts to flake off into the food. For my updated page on appliances and other products, please click here.

Wood & Bamboo Kitchenware

Many people mistakenly believe that it is better for the trees if we buy plastic over wood. This isn't really true because pollution from plastic ruins the environment in other ways. To get truly ethical bowls and implements, seek hand-crafted wood implements made from drift wood.
The practical reason I enjoy wood and bamboo is because fiber-based implements can crash to the floor again and again and not shatter. And unlike plastic, chemicals aren't being continually excreted. Granted that some wood/bamboo is coated in plastic anyhow . . . Updated information here.

Silicone Trays

I use silicone trays for making brownies, chocolate bars, ice-cubes and truffles. I use silicone because unlike plastic is doesn't leach any toxins into the food. While silicone is more expensive than plastic, it is less likely to break, it is better for your health, and it is even easier to get out your frozen treats because the silicone is flexible. Silicone is also used for baking, but I just use mine for the freezer.
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~ Raederle
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