Do you ever find yourself flicking through a recipe book and finding that every recipe seems to call for a piece of equipment that you either don't have or have never even heard of? It's a surprisingly common thing that just about every amateur chef comes up against from time to time unless they happen to be lucky enough to own every possible piece of kitchen equipment. As exciting as the idea of purchasing lots of different pieces of equipment can be, it's hard to know which ones are actually necessary for you to be able to cook and which ones fall into the luxury category. With that in mind, here are some of the things that every single kitchen needs to have in order for your to make simple, delicious meals.
Knives
Knives are the most important tool in any wannabe chef's arsenal. Without them, there isn't really a single meal that you can cook, outside of the ones that you get out of a tin. While there are plenty of different knives on the market, you don't necessarily need all of them right away since you're not going to know how to use them all and it could just end up as a waste of money. A high-quality, sharp chef's knife is the most important thing for you to have. A chef's knife is highly versatile and can handle just about every task that might come up.
Pots and pans
Of course, if you're going to cook something then you need something to actually cook it in! A decent selection of pots and pans is essential for any kitchen, and you should have them in a variety of sizes. That way you can deal with anything from sauces, to stews, to stir fries. There's a lot of debate about what material your pots and pans should be made of, but if you can find the best stainless steel cookware set, then you're going to be able to cook just about anything. Other materials are good, but they simply aren't as versatile as stainless steel. Not only that but stainless steel pots and pans can be put in the oven so you can have much greater control over how you cook any given meal.
A blender
Now, there are plenty of different blenders on the market and which one you get will depend mostly on your budget. All of them do pretty much the same thing, (that thing being blending, obviously,) it's just a matter of how quickly and efficiently they do it. If you've got a fairly small budget, then a stick blender is perfect. That way you can blend things while they're still in the pan. However, this can often make a pretty serious mess. If you want to keep your kitchen a little bit cleaner, and you have the budget for it, then a full-size food processor might be perfect for your needs. That way you can handle everything from soups to smoothies without having to worry about spraying food all over your kitchen and yourself!
Chopping boards
No one wants to chop ingredients directly onto their kitchen counters. For one thing, you're going to damage your counters not to mention the potential for germs and bacteria to get onto your food. Because of that, it's important to have a selection of chopping boards. Not only that but you should have a different chopping board for different ingredients. You should especially have a separate board for chopping meat. No matter how thoroughly you clean your chopping boards some things can remain on them, and the last thing that you want is to end up contaminating other ingredients that you're not going to be cooking, and therefore killing any bacteria that end up on them.
Measuring equipment
You need to know how much of any given ingredient you're putting into your dish so having some measuring equipment is pretty important. A set of scales is the most important, whether it's digital or weighted. You should also get a measuring jug for any liquids that you're going to use. Outside of those two things you don't really need anything else. You might feel as though you need special measuring spoons, but in reality, the spoons that you have in your cutlery draw will do just fine. Cooking is as much an art as it is a science and there's always room for you to adjust things and add more of certain things here and there. Don't get so obsessed with the exact measurements that you fail to see what could be added or taken away in order to make a dish even better.
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