As a passionate home cook, Erika has definitely had a lot of kitchen equipment over the years. Some things have survived our keto lifestyle and many things have been sold, like the juicer and the pasta maker. No need for those any more. I will say our keto journey has also seen us add more keto kitchen equipment into our lives. Some of these keto kitchen equipment we use most days and others are nice to have but are used much less frequently.
Since we moved back to Newcastle in August 2019 we have been cooking in a much smaller kitchen. This has meant that some of the occasional kitchen appliances no longer have space on the kitchen bench. Currently, our kitchen bench has a kettle, coffee machine, blender and air fryer. All of the other keto kitchen equipment is now kept on a shelf in the laundry.
Commonly used keto kitchen equipment
These are the keto kitchen equipment items that we find we use the most. Whenever we are cooking our regular meals or recipe testing, we will find ourselves reaching for these items. We feel these products have been worth the expense as they have made our cooking experience so much easier.
Stick Blender
We have had our Braun multi quick hand blender for many years and it has been a staple in our kitchen from the moment we bought it. Ours has a small food processor attachment and a whisk attachment. It also came with a tall plastic container that is perfect for making homemade mayo.
If you don’t currently have a stick blender in your kitchen, we would definitely highly recommend investing in one. Our Braun stick blender is 600 watts and has enough power to manage the tasks we ask of it.
Where to buy
If you are in Australia, you can find a similar Braun multi quick hand blender to ours here.
For any other country, you can find a similar Braun Multi quick hand blender to ours here.
What we Love
- The size. We can easily store this in our small kitchen without it taking up a large amount of space. It is also light and doesn’t require you to be a bodybuilder to move it around.
- The attachments. We absolutely LOVE the small food processor attachment. As it is just the two of us, we don’t have a large food processor and this hand blender is all we need. We also love the tall container for making mayo.
- Easy to use. It is very simple to use. It has a speed dial on the top and two buttons. It also has a really easy to use release button to make changing between attachments very simple.
What we like to make with it
The main thing we make with the hand blender is sauces and dips. It makes making your own mayo and hollandaise sauce really quick and easy. Check out the list below for our favourite recipes using the stick blender. The stick blender is also our favourite way to blend soups.
High Speed Blender
It is likely that most households are going to have some form of blender. Some will have a smaller ninja-style blender and others a more traditional jug blender. If you are considering upgrading your blender or looking to get one for the first time, we would highly recommend investing in a high speed and high power blender.
The reason for recommending a high power blender is that it can handle doing more things. When you adopt a keto or low carb lifestyle, you can find yourself wanting to make more things at home instead of buying things pre-made, so you are aware of the ingredients. A high power blender is going to give you the ability to do this. We have made nut milk and nut butters in ours that I don’t think a ninja or a regular blender would be able to handle some of those tasks.
We have had our Omniblend V 2 litre Pro BPA free for 5-6 years and, we would highly recommend it.
Where to Buy
If you are in Australia, you can find the same Omniblend V 2L Pro BPA free here.
For any other country, you can find the same Omniblend V 2L Pro BPA free here.
What we Love
- Easy to clean. We bought the smaller jug for this blender and we love that the blade can be removed for cleaning and the jug shape is shorter and wider.
- Power. As mentioned above, we love the versatility of this blender due to the power. It makes great smoothies, but also nut milks and nut butters that would be difficult in a regular blender.
What we like to make with it
We love this blender to make keto smoothies, bulletproof drinks and to make homemade nut milks and nut butters.
- Smoothie bowl
- Fat bomb smoothie
- Nut milk
- Nut butter
- Bulletproof mocha
- Caramel and peanut butter shake
- Bulletproof tea
- Bulletproof bone broth
- Keto hot chocolate
- Nutella fat bombs
Microplane Zester
We bought our microplane when we were in San Francisco in 2010 and have used it constantly. It is one of those tools that you don’t even realise how much you use it. I will say, I definitely wash it out 2-3 times a week, so it is definitely one of Erika’s most used and favourite kitchen tools.
Where to Buy
If you are in Australia, you can find the same Microplane zester as ours here.
For any other country, you can find the same Microplane zester as ours here.
What we Love
It is kind of hard to pinpoint what it is that we exactly love about the microplane zester. It just does it’s job and is one of those tools that is going to last a lifetime.
What we like to make with it
- Zesting citrus. We mainly use this to grate citrus peels like lime, lemon and orange.
- Grating chocolate. We love to grate some 90% dark chocolate on top of our keto custard. The microplane grates chocolate very well and gives you fine shavings.
- Mincing garlic and ginger. We don’t own a garlic mincer and the microplane does a wonderful job at mincing both garlic and ginger.
Digital Kitchen Scales
Digital kitchen scales are a must in any kitchen. I would highly recommend that anyone living a keto lifestyle purchase one. They are great for keto baking and cooking. If you are tracking your macros a digital kitchen scale is going to be a must have.
Where to buy
If you are in Australia, you can find similar digital kitchen scales here.
For any other country, you can find similar digital kitchen scales here.
What we Love
- Digital. Digital scales make tracking and cooking so much easier.
- Tare. This is a much used function on our scales. We can place the bowl on, press tare and the weight is back to zero.
- Ounces and grams. With many great recipes coming from Australia, UK and North America a scale that can switch between grams and ounces is necessary.
What we like to make with it
Kitchen scales are definitely a must have in any keto kitchen. If you do any keto baking or track your macros, you won’t be able to live without your kitchen scales.
Silicone Muffin Tray
We have been slowly growing our silicone muffin tray collection here. We first bought some in the US a couple of years ago and we fell in love with them the minute we removed a muffin from it. Keto baking can mean the baked goods can stick a lot easier than regular baking. We now have 3 different sizes in our collection.
Where to Buy
Australians can buy a range of silicone muffin trays here:
For any other country you can buy a range of silicone muffin trays here:
What we Love
We love the different sizes for different things. We use our 6 muffin silicone tray to make a large muffin that is going to be a meal like breakfast. We use the 12 muffin silicone tray to make a snack sized muffin and the 24 muffin silicone tray is the best for fat bombs and chocolates.
What we like to make in it
- Breakfast muffins
- Pecan cheesecake muffins
- Peanut butter muffins
- White chocolate keto fat bombs
- Coconut collagen fat bomb
- Nutella fat bomb
- White chocolate cheesecake
Spiraliser
I will admit, we used our spiraliser a lot when we first started our keto journey as it was the only way to get zucchini noodles. Now, we are able to get zoodles and other vegetables spiralised for us in the supermarket. We have used our spiraliser a lot less, mainly due to convenience.
I will also say, I think they are better when you spiralise them fresh. You can get a better length on the zoodles and they don’t dry out as much.
Where to Buy
If you are in Australia, you can find similar spiraliser here.
For any other country, you can find similar spiraliser here.
What we Love
- Suction caps. The suction caps are great for securing the spiraliser to the kitchen bench so you can use it easily.
- Different blades. Our spiraliser comes with 3 different blades, noodles, thicker noodles and ribbons.
- Heavy duty. Our spiraliser is able to handle some of the harder vegetables like beetroot and carrots.
What we like to make with it
Once you have spiralised any vegetables you can do whatever you like with them. We like to make salads and zoodles with ours. Check out some of our favourite spiralised vegetable recipes below.
Nice to Have Keto Kitchen Equipment
We have definitely joined a few of the keto kitchen gadget crazes in our time and this section is dedicated to some of them. Whilst we don’t use these kitchen equipment items all the time, they still have their place in our kitchen.
Slow Cooker
The slow cooker is more a seasonal piece of kitchen equipment for us. We definitely use it more in the winter. Our slow cooker is definitely on it’s last legs, the screen is completely blank now and it is guess work on how long we have put it on for. So I think we will be on the market for a new one soon.
Where to buy
If you are in Australia, you can find similar slow cooker to ours here.
For any other country, you can find similar slow cooker to ours here.
What we Love
- Set and forget. One of the best things about a slow cooker is that you can throw everything in before you go to work in the morning and have a dish ready to serve when you get home from work.
- Great for a budget. Slow cooking is a great way to make cheaper cuts of meat taste absolutely delicious.
What we like to cook
We mostly use our slow cooker to make bone broth. When cooking bone broth it is best to cook for 24 hours or more. By doing it in the slow cooker, you don’t have to worry about it being on the stove top.
Waffle Maker
This was definitely an impulse buy. The 2019 keto craze was chaffles. Which is just a cheese and egg mixture cooked in a waffle maker. Many people fell in love with them and were using these chaffles as a sandwich replacement.
Where to buy
In Australia, we have been unable to get access to the popular US waffle maker, the dash. This waffle maker is the closest to what we bought.
If you are lucky enough to live in the US and are interested in this chaffle craze, check out the Dash waffle maker here.
What we Love
We will be honest here, we weren’t sold on the chaffles. We made them a couple of times, but didn’t fall in love like others did. We do now have a waffle maker for when we feel like a waffle. Lucky us.
What we like to cook
As mentioned above we weren’t a massive fan, but this recipe has rave reviews, so if you are looking for a chaffle recipe, give this one a goes.
Ice Cream Maker
An ice cream maker was definitely another one of those impulse buys, but it definitely gets more use than the waffle maker. Again, when we started our keto journey, keto ice cream was non existent in Australia. The only way to have keto ice cream back then was to make our own. Erika is an ice cream queen and being able to make our own keto ice cream meant she could remain in ketosis and enjoy one of her favourite treats.
Where to buy
If you are in Australia, you can find the same ice cream maker as ours here.
For any other country, you can find the same ice cream maker as ours here.
What we Love
We love that we can make our own keto ice cream and control the ingredients. Some of the low carb ice creams available in the supermarket don’t have the best ingredients.
What we like to cook
I want to do some more experimenting with making our own ice cream. As I don’t have a go to recipe for keto ice cream at the moment, I am going to make a list of the ones I want to try.
Keto Ice creams I want to try:
- Peanut butter ice cream from Carrie Brown
- Soft Serve vanilla bean ice cream from Maria Emmerich
- Death by chocolate ice cream from All day I dream about food
Air Fryer
The air fryer is the latest edition to our kitchen equipment. Air fryers have been popular in the keto community for a year or two and we had resisted the urge for a while. Erika finally decided it was time to give it a go. So she asked for one for her birthday in 2019 and has been experimenting a little bit since.
We decided to buy a 10L Kogan air fryer. We wanted a big one so it was able to fit a meal for the two of us in it. I will say we wouldn’t want to go any smaller. We also wanted one with a basket.
Where to buy
If you are in Australia, you can find the same Kogan air fryer we have here.
For any other country, you can find a similar air fryer to ours here.
What we Love
At the moment, the jury is still out on the air fryer for us. We have used it for chicken wings a few times, but Erika is still experimenting with what she likes to cook in there.
What we do love is the crispy skin it gets on the chicken wings. We need to try a piece of pork belly in there and see if we can get great crackle and tender meat cooking it in the air fryer.
What we like to cook
As mentioned we have mainly cooked chicken wings in our air fryer. If you are looking for some air fryer recipes, give some of these a try:
- Keto low carb fried chicken from Wholesome Yum.
- Zucchini fries from Gimme Delicious
- Keto popcorn chicken from What great grandma ate
Final thoughts
The beauty of all of these kitchen equipment items is they have made our keto life just that little bit easier. Some allow us to avoid the more carb heavy versions like the ice cream maker and the waffle maker and others have been staples in our kitchen for a long time and we wouldn’t live without them.
I will also point out this list doesn’t include the very common kitchen items like pans, knives etc. We focused on ones we thought might not be in everyone’s kitchen, so you can create your own wish list of items you might like to add into your kitchen.
Make sure you let us know in the comments below if we have missed your favourite kitchen item, so we can add it to our wish list.
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