piece, but it makes life so much easier, so
I highly recommend it. This dries delicate
lettuce leaves without damaging them,
ensuring you never have a soggy salad.
• Mesh strainer: I use this all the time for
draining and rinsing beans and grains.
• Pastry brush: This is the best way to spread
butter or oil evenly over ingredients for
roasting and grilling, or for greasing a dish
or baking sheet.
• Stainless-steel whisk
• Wooden cutting board: Use this for
vegetables and fruit.
• Plastic cutting board: Use this for meat;
bacteria can leach into wooden cutting
boards. However, be sure to replace your
plastic board if the cutting grooves become
too deep and hard to clean.
• Stainless-steel mixing bowl set
A vegetable
peeler and
paring knife
will make
short work
of prepping
smaller
vegetables.
• Cheese grater
• Parchment paper: I always use nonstick
parchment paper, so assume that any
parchment paper mentioned throughout the
book is nonstick. Kirkland’s brand is my favorite.
note: Not sure what these look like?
Search online to see multiple options.
INVESTMENT PIECES
These items can be expensive, but I truly
believe that they are worth the investment. I
use them daily for smoothies, soups, sauces,
salad dressings, and even making flour. The
time you’ll save hand-chopping, whisking, or
mixing is invaluable, and they will earn their
cost back quickly when you save money on
take-out and dining out. Ask for them for
birthdays, look into gently used options, or cut
out a few indulgent habits every month. If you
can only start with one of the two, I suggest
investing in the high-powered blender. Food
processors don’t do well with liquid contents,
whereas the blender can handle liquids and
many solids as well—my Vitamix can make
oat flour, pesto, and hummus. However, I do
prefer to use my food processor for making
veggie burgers, chopping nuts, grating
vegetables, and making nut butters, when I do.
Making nut butter is as simple as adding 1 to
2 cups nuts of choice to your food processor
and blending until they form a creamy
consistency. You can add a few tablespoons
of coconut oil to get things moving if needed.
• High-powered blender (I have the Vitamix
Standard original)
• Food processor (at least 8 cup;
I prefer Cuisinart)
COOKING/BAKING
BASIC EQUIPMENT
• Small sauté pan (also called fry pan):
8- to 10-inch*
• Large sauté pan (with straight sides):
4 to 6 quarts*
• Small sauce pot: 2 quarts*
• Medium sauce pot: 4 quarts*
• Large stock pot: 8 to 12 quarts*
• 12½-inch cast-iron skillet
• Slow cooker
• 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish
• 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish
• Cupcake and loaf tins: I suggest aluminized
steel or green nonstick (see sidebar for
more details).
• 1 to 2 large solid baking sheets: This size has
an inset of approximately 17 x 12 inches. I
prefer to use aluminum or carbon steel.
• 1 to 2 perforated/slotted baking sheets: I
place these over a solid baking sheet to roast
meat—this way the drippings don’t make a mess.
• Slotted and solid wooden spoons
• Indoor grill pan
• “Turner” spatula (flat metal spatula for
flipping pancakes and eggs)
• 2 to 3 rubber spatulas
• Stiff brush (for cleaning stuck-on food)
• Metal tongs
• Soup ladle
COOKING/BAKING EQUIPMENT,
OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED
• Rice cooker
• Popsicle molds and sticks
• Enameled cast-iron braising pot
(Le Creuset has the best)
• Meat thermometer
*I recommend high-quality stainless-steel pots and pans, like All-Clad. They are nonreactive, cool down easily, and are very strong and
corrosion-resistant. They don’t distribute heat as evenly as aluminum or copper, but you don’t need to worry about minerals leaching into
your food. You can find copper lined with stainless-steel, which is a good option as well, but slightly more expensive.
UNDERSTAND YOUR SKILLETS AND PANS
Skillet versus sauté pan. A skillet or
frying pan is shallow, with slanted sides
that flare out. A sauté pan has taller,
straight sides, with more surface area at
the bottom. Throughout this cookbook,
you will mainly “see” me using a stainless
steel sauté pan, because it is cleaner
(less sloshing over the side) and because
I think it can do everything a skillet can
do. However, if you already own a small
and a large skillet, don’t feel that you