The Finest Kitchen Instruments for Meal Prep, In response to a Severe Eats Editor

One among my pals is admittedly into meal prepping. She’ll take a day to cook dinner proteins, steam rice, and saute greens, placing collectively neat little containers of lunch for the week. Me? I’m a rustle by means of the leftovers or make a field of mac and cheese for lunch kinda gal. However this yr, one in every of my New 12 months’s resolutions is to eat extra greens, complete grains, and protein. Meal prepping is a good, straightforward method to do it. Listed below are 10 kitchen instruments which have helped me lastly perceive the hype and develop into a meal prepping aficionado.

I not too long ago adopted a recipe that required blanching broccoli earlier than searing it in a pan. However blanching includes hauling out a pot and bringing water to a boil, which is simply completely annoying and further. So as an alternative, I turned to those Anyday microwave containers to steam just a few heads’ price of florets. Now, anytime I would like a success of inexperienced, all I’ve to do is take the container (which doubles as a meals storage container) out of the fridge.

I’ve lengthy been a proponent of petty knives as a result of they’re like a combo of a paring knife and a chef’s knife: Agility meets versatility. They’re unbelievable for meal prep, making it straightforward to slice, cube, and mince a great deal of produce. Their petite body simply slips between broccoli florets and deftly cores peppers and minces shallots. This one from Victorinox shouldn’t be solely sharp and nimble, however it’s additionally underneath $50—it simply may develop into your go-to blade.

A part of my objective this yr is to eat extra complete grains (like, actually complete: farro, barley, bulgur, and many others). And my rice cooker has develop into integral to this: It helps me cook dinner up an enormous batch of grains earlier than freezing them for future use. Now I could make a fast pilaf on a busy weeknight with out simmering farro for 20 minutes.

I exploit my Instantaneous Pot on a regular basis for spontaneous weeknight cravings (beef stew in an hour? Heck yeah!). Strain cooking decreases cook dinner time by a big quantity, making it an important device in a meal prepper’s arsenal: You possibly can cook dinner an entire bag of dried beans in half-hour, have tender grains in a flash, and even whip up an enormous batch of polenta to portion out for the week.

Salad spinners are nice for bulk cleansing every kind of greens: kale, broccolini, butter lettuce, and even tender herbs like parsley. The one I’ve from OXO has been important for my meal prep objectives, letting me type and clear complete heads of lettuce or bunches of kale in a single go. No extra unhappy, wilted greens nonetheless held collectively by their twist ties!

Should you’re a beginner to meal prepping (like me), arguably step one is getting some really good meal prep containers. They need to stack simply, seal tightly, and be capable to maintain single-serving parts or massive quantities of prepped meals. I desire glass ones, like this fairly set from Williams Sonoma, as a result of, in contrast to plastic, they do not maintain onto stains or odors.

Okay, that is much less of a meal prep hack and extra of a method to entice me to eat extra greens. I want I had been the type of one who was like, “yay, greens!” however it takes so much to make me really feel excited a couple of plate of greens except it’s lined in cheese. A technique I’ve develop into obsessed with meal prepping hearty, vegetable-forward meals is by utilizing elements that convey out the perfect in inexperienced issues, like a superb, recent extra-virgin olive oil. This unbelievable olive oil from Peru has a bell pepper freshness and wealthy olive style— a lashing of it makes even essentially the most plain pile of steamed kale pop (paired with a superb sprinkle of Maldon salt). 

Whereas I discover mincing and dicing therapeutic, it’s not precisely essentially the most environment friendly batch cooking or meal prepping technique. Should you’re trying to have a mirepoix or sofrito available for including depth to weeknight meals, a meals processor is a lickety-split method to do it: Simply add every little thing and press pulse just a few instances. You’ll want a superb one (take a look at our evaluate) to pulverize hardy root greens and slippery alliums, however it’s a worthwhile funding (I foresee creamy do-it-yourself hummus batched out for snacks). A mini meals processor is one other useful consideration; it’s nice for making dressing or pulverizing smaller meals, like garlic. 

Should you’re cooking grains and steaming greens for meal prep at an alarming price, think about a vacuum sealer for straightforward freezer storage. A great one sucks out all of the air from the bag, leaving you with completely preserved contents—no freezer burn to be discovered. 

Kitchen scales should not solely important for bakers who measure every little thing in grams, however they’re additionally nice for evenly divvying up meals. Nobody can complain that so-and-so received the larger portion while you’ve weighed every scoop of rice and beans! Plus, it’ll assist cut back meals waste. I really like my OXO kitchen scale as a result of it could weigh gadgets as much as 11 kilos, and it has a pull-out display screen for straightforward viewing. 

Why We’re the Specialists

• Grace Kelly is a senior editor at Severe Eats.
• She is a former prep cook dinner and bartender. 
• Her objective this yr is to meal prep so she will be able to meet her fiber and protein objectives.