I am currently getting a new kitchen built that has lots of space and no oven or stove top. It will have lots of space to film for Youtube and share lots of recipes with you all. I thought I would share some of the other great tools I use most days as a raw vegan chef.
Vitamix or High speed blender
I have found having a high speed blender is such a blessing when working with raw foods.
Many of the foods that I blend such as ginger, dates, carrots, celery etc can be tough. A high speed blender can very easily create sauces, dressings and soups out of even the hardest of foods .
I currently use a Vitamix Ascent Series A2500 and I love the power of the a 1400 watt motor. The truth is, when it comes to blending raw foods, I have found that it is definitely possible to use any blender though for smoothies, juices, dips and soups that are super smooth, I will say a high speed blender is a great tool to have in a raw vegan kitchen.
Dehydrator
This is a great machine to create many of the gourmet type raw vegan dishes. This machine removes moisture from foods. This will create many different flavours and textures to your recipes. It is also great if you can get flat silicone dehydrator sheets to line the dehydrator trays. I use Akela Silicone Non-Stick Solid Dehydrator Drying Sheet as these help when I make raw breads, crackers, gnocchi, patties etc and do not want liquid to leek through the dehydrator trays.
I use an Excalibur 9 Tray dehydrator and it is absolutely incredible to use. It dehydrates foods evenly that I place onto the trays, like fruits, vegetables and herb blends. When I use my dehydrator I never heat food above 110'F (43'C). The reason for this is after approx. 45'C the life force and many of the natural enzymes in foods that keep us healthy start to leave food.
Spirilizer
This is a great tool for creating noodles from different types of vegetables. I love the ease, convenience of this vegetable noodle maker. I got my electric sprilizer from Kmart and it is by Anko it was was only $20 Australian. They have since discontinued this product and the only similar one I could find was on Amazon Shine Kitchen Co SES-100 Electric Spiralizer. The Shine sprilizer has 4 blade options for making vegetable pasta ( the Anko only has 3 options) it has a similar concept of creating the pasta and this really has sped up my recipe creating.
Food processor
This is a great help for dicing and chopping different fruits and vegetables for soups, dips or sauces. I use a food processor to dice food or blend fruit and vegetables to create a coarse texture e.g. Pesto sauces. I currently have a Kenwood Multi Pro Excel food processor I chose this food processor as it had a 4 litre bowl & 1200W motor. I make large amounts of food in my food processor and as I work with raw foods I wanted a powerful motor in the machine. There are many options, accessories and extras to this food processor. Though I really just love the it's power and the textures sauces and soups I create with it by using the blend option.
I would have loved to use the Vitamix Food Processor Attachment as a food processor. This is a food processor option that attaches to the Vitamix blender base. Unfortunately it is not available in Australia at this time.
Nut milk bag
This is great to drain excess moisture from blended foods when you are creating raw dishes. I use Ever Eco Nut Milk Bag when I am making gnocchi or a cannoli filling and need the recipe to be drained of excess liquids. If you do not have a nut milk bag you can use a cloth or tea towel to drain your food instead. You will find the nut milk bag a lot less messy when removing liquid from blended foods with a cloth.
Juicer
This machine extracts the juice from fruits, vegetables and herbs. It does this by separating the fibre from the juice of the fruit and veggies. This juice makes for a very enjoyable nutrient rich drink. The fibre (or 'pulp') can be used in many raw dishes for some great flavours or you can add it to bulk up some great dehydrator bread recipes.
I currently have a Breville Juice Fountain and this works well for fruit, vegetable & herb juices. It is very simple to use and produces a fair amount of juice. I find it also juices ginger and turmeric roots for my juices as well.
Vegetable peeler
I use the most amazing vegetable peeler for creating vegetable noodles, vegetable slices, fruit slices and grating fruit, vegetables & roots. I own the Jamie Oliver 3 In 1 Speed Peeler which has 3 different blade options of vegetable blade, a julienne blade and a berry fruit blade.
I use this peeler most days to create different shapes of fruit and vegetables for yummy salads. You can use any vegetable peeler for peeling and getting creative in your raw kitchen, though having one is a must! The last thing I should mention is that I rarely use this peeler to peel vegetables.
Sharp Knifes
Having sharp knifes will make the time you spend in a raw vegan kitchen much more enjoyable. I have only ever owned 1 set of knifes by Master Chef. I was gifted these knifes and I feel they are the greatest tool I own as a raw vegan. I can not stress how much easier your life can be when you have good sharp knifes in your kitchen. When you have your knifes melt through your produce as if it was vegan butter.
I have not been able to locate the knifes I was given and which were made by Masterchef. So I have linked a smaller set of Masterchef knifes called MasterChef Kitchen Knives Set of 3 Professional from Amazon. These include the chef knife which I use most when chopping raw foods.
I have shared with you many of the tools that I use as a raw vegan chef. I will tell you that when I started out my raw vegan journey I only used a knife and vegetable peeler. I feel this is a great way to start out and to slowly build on the equipment you use to create raw vegan meals with.
Some of the recipes & Leanne's recipes on the Roar website use the tools above and a little of your imagination. With all the above tools you could have fun for hours creating new and appetising raw vegan dishes. I would love to hear what your favourite tools are in your raw food kitchen below in the comments.
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