November 1, 2019

Start Cooking! UK Bloggers Share Their Favourite Kitchen Tools, Apps and Websites

Nick Everything Else food, blogging 8 Comments

Today I have something a bit different for you. I’ve been asking around my fellow UK bloggers for their favourite kitchen tools, apps and websites.

I was genuinely curious about this myself, but hope it will also be of interest and value for PAS readers who enjoy cooking (or possibly don’t but still have to!). And if you are looking for a gift for the cook (or cooks) in your life, hopefully you may find a few ideas here.

Where possible I have provided links to the resources in question. In some cases these are affiliate links, so if you click through and make a purchase I will receive a commission from the store concerned (Amazon). This will not affect the product or service you receive, or the price that you pay.

Note also that with kitchen tools and devices, multiple brands and versions are often available. I have tried to link to popular models, but they may or may not be the same as the one the blogger in question uses.

Okay, let’s get started then. 🙂

Blogger Recommendations

Tanya Barrow from Mummy Barrow says: ‘It isn’t cheap, but my favourite device is my Thermomix. It does the job of 12 other kitchen appliances and helps me cook healthy meals for my family without using a load of other kit or pans, and quickly. I couldn’t live without it now.’

Ruth Gray from Slimming Violet says: ‘My favourite kitchen device is definitely my Actifry. I thought for ages about whether I should buy one as they’re a bit on the pricey side, but I’m so pleased that I did. It makes it really easy to cook so many different healthy meals, though I must admit that Actifry chips have to be my favourite. With just a drizzle of oil, they’re so much better than their oven chip counterparts!’

Fiona Elizabeth Hawkes from The Somerset Foodie writes: ‘One of my favourite cooking resources is the Yummly app. It’s full of recipes and you can search by ingredient or meal type, exclude recipes with ingredients you don’t like and then save recipes you like the look of. You can even photograph ingredients and it’ll suggest dishes you could try to use them up. It’s great for times I’m struggling with ideas for dinner!’

Keiran Potter, who blogs at Keiran Crying, says, ‘My favourite device is my spiraliser. It’s such an easy and fast way to get vegetables into things like pasta and pies. But also it makes things like potato cook a lot faster because it makes it so thin. I love experimenting with it, it helps me keep meals interesting.‘

Jupiter Hadley, who blogs at JupiterHadley.com, writes: ‘My favorite cooking website is Allrecipes.com – everyone submits recipes and pictures, so all of the recipes are made previously and they have a good selection of simple recipes. When searching for something there, you can easily read the comments from people who have tried to make the dish (and they have a big community, so it’s normally a lot of comments with the best ones on the first page) sometimes these comments let you know the recipe isn’t sweet enough or it needs a different ingredient, while others tell you little twists you can make. It’s a great community and is really full of great recipes and feedback.’

Petra at Be Healthy Now says: ‘There are so many good websites that I use for cooking inspiration, and one of my favourites is The Flexitarian. I love this website so much because the recipes on there are simply amazing: really healthy, with interesting flavours and a little bit different to what you commonly find online. They are all vegetarian or vegan, so perfect for those who are looking to reduce their meat intake. Annabelle also shares food news and reviews, which all come in really useful.’

Rachelle Strauss of The Health and Wellness Grid writes: ‘My favourite kitchen gadget is my Nutribullet. It’s a reasonable price and is excellent for my morning smoothie (it works well on frozen fruit) and I also use it to grind seeds which I then sprinkle into most meals. So it saves me money on buying smoothies (and helps me reduce food waste by using up fruits that are coming up to being past their best) and I can buy a big bag of seeds which I blitz and hide in foods! I’ve needed to replace the blade once in a few years, but the motor remains strong despite daily use, so it’s excellent value for money overall. I also use it for soup, after the ingredients have cooled – again saving money on shop-bought products and using up old veggies.’

Hayley Muncey, who blogs as Miss Manypennies, writes: ‘My favourite gadget is my pancake/crepe maker (hot plate). Obviously totally unnecessary, but it means we can pop on the table and no one has to be the one standing cooking, it’s quick and the pancakes always end up the right shape! It’s easier to experiment with toppings too ‘

Kim John of Life Can Be Toff says, ‘My favourite kitchen gadget is my soup maker. It is a simple way for me to create quick and tasty soups, particularly at this time of year. The fact it is so quick (around 30 minutes total including prep) also means I can be quite adventurous and try different things. It is great for making in bulk and with little washing up!

Nick adds: ‘I have an electric soup-maker as well and get a lot of use from it, in the cold winter months especially. I wrote this blog post about it not long after I bought it.’

Melissa Williams, who blogs at The Diary of a Jewellery Lover, writes: ‘My favourite kitchen gadget is my slow cooker. I like putting all the ingredients in at the beginning of the day and having a delicious meal ready for me in the evening. It makes the meat so tender and delicious. I would definitely recommend getting one if you don’t own one. It will change your life!’

Afshan Nasim of Afshanesque writes: ‘My favourite kitchen utensil is my Hinari Genie blender. It is great for making smoothies and milkshakes. It also helps me chop my onions and puree my tomato for use with my curries. It’s like the Nutribullet, but cheaper.’

Nicole Shroff from The End of the Fork writes: ‘I love my cast iron skillet, it is what I reach for the most in my kitchen. Nicely weighted, it distributes heat evenly retaining it well, so food cooks faster and you do not need to move it around the pan as much. The more seasoned it becomes with use, the better it’s non-stick qualities. It is extremely hard-wearing and easy to care for as long as it is dried well before storing. A good cast iron skillet improves with age and will last generations!’

Jo Jackson, who blogs at Tea and Cake for the Soul, says: ‘ I have an ancient Moulinex Masterchef and love it. I can grate and slice vegetables in it, make cakes, pastry, blend and chop with it. I have a much newer all singing all dancing device but I can’t bear to part with old faithful.’

Jo Jackson also says: ‘I do like the BBC Good Food website. It has photos with clear instructions and sometimes videos. I like a lot of the features including ratings by others who’ve tried the recipe, timings, levels of skill, nutritional values etc. I especially like the print option. I’m a bit old school and if I find a recipe I like, I will print it off, laminate it and keep it in my cook book file.’

Melanie Edjourian, who blogs at Melanie’s Fab Finds, says: ‘I love my Russell Hobbs mixer. It’s great for making all sorts of cakes as well as pizza bases and bread. I also love my Lurch Spiralo Spiraliser as it helps me make all sorts of healthy recipes using veg, like courgetti carbonara.’

Cath Bambi Drews, who blogs at th3secretlifeofme, writes: ‘We have a Gourmetmaxx tower airfryer, which is a bit different to an Actifry. We are a family of six so this means we can actually cook sides or fries/wedges/home-made chips in one go. It cooks crispy chips/wedges. Amazing bacon. Little pizzas. We have even cooked a chicken in there.’

Paulina Borowik from UK Everyday says: ‘One of my favourite kitchen devices is my Morphy Richards Stand Mixer. It ensures that all ingredients are mixed perfectly and my kitchen stays clean. This mixer is very powerful and looks stylish. I would highly recommend it to anyone.’

Jax Blunt, who blogs at Making It Up (as we go along) writes: ‘Can’t believe no one has recommended https://cookingonabootstrap.com or https://utterlyscrummy.blogspot.com . These are my two favourite budget recipe sites. Both are written by people who actually live this life making every penny work to feed a family healthily and cheaply.’

Finally, Sally Allsop from Life Loving says: ‘I know it sounds very insignificant but my favourite kitchen gadget is my olive spoon/pickle picker. It’s perfect for getting pickled veg/olives out of the jar and draining them as you are doing it. Normal spoons make such a mess when you are dealing with pickling liquid or brine.’

Thanks again to all my UK blogging colleagues for an inspiring selection of ideas. I shall definitely be adding some of the items above to my Amazon Wish List!

• Please do check out also the blogs of everyone above who contributed suggestions. They are an amazing group of talented writers and bloggers!

My Recommendation

I thought I should share a recommendation as well, so I’m nominating my Salter Aquatronic digital kitchen scales (see below). I was lucky enough to get this product free as an Amazon Vine reviewer, and was very impressed with it.

No bowl is provided with these scales, but because of the way they work you don’t need one. You can place any container you like on the scales and press the button to zero the display (so the scales disregard the container’s weight). You can then add your ingredient and the weight (or liquid volume if you prefer) will be shown. If you want to add further ingredients, you can zero the display again before doing so. Once you get the hang of this, it’s amazingly quick and simple. I use it all the time now, and even weighed a parcel on it recently 😀 I also like the way it hardly takes up any space at all in my kitchen when stored on its side.

As always, if you have any comments or queries about this article, please do post them below. And if you have any other favourite kitchen device, website or app, please do share it in the comments!