Everyone dreads that one question we get asked every day: What’s for dinner? Thinking up ideas for dinner is hard enough as it is—making it nutritious and fast too can feel like a daunting task. But quickly cooking up a delicious dinner at home is within your reach! With the right kitchen tools and cooking appliances, you can create a balanced dinner for you and your household and do it with ease. From kitchen gadgets to help you masterfully prep your ingredients to the most efficient appliances for flavor-packed meals, we’ll explore the best products to help you unlock your kitchen’s full potential for wholesome cooking.

Unless you’ve attended culinary school, prepping vegetables in the kitchen can be time consuming and feel like a chore. Whether you’re chopping onions or julienning carrots for your salad, you can rely on great kitchen gadgets to help you prepare a balanced dinner in less time and with less fuss. And when all your prep work is done and it’s time for you to cook your meal, the right appliances can help you get amazing results in less time (and in some cases, using less counter space) so that you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying dinner at the table with your loved ones.

Let’s take a look at some of the best tools to help you get started on setting up your kitchen.

Every home cook knows that a nourishing home meal doesn’t magically jump from refrigerator to table. Cooking a balanced and nutritious meal requires a lot of preparation in the kitchen. From washing, peeling, and cutting produce to trimming and seasoning your meat, you can end up spending a lot of time at your cutting board just for one meal. Here are our kitchen must-haves that help you minimize the prep work that goes into making a satisfying meal:

• High-Quality Kitchen Knives: Essential to meal prep and cooking, high-quality kitchen knives allow you to spend less time in front of your cutting board. You can finely chop herbs for dressings or dice tomatoes for salads with greater speed when using the right kind of kitchen knife. A great kitchen knife with a sharp edge and a balanced handle allows you to cut down on your prep time, while also offering precision cutting and minimizing food waste.

• Non-Toxic Cutting Boards: You want to keep your kitchen knives in the best shape possible, and wooden cutting boards will help keep your knives sharper for longer. Harder materials like stone or glass cutting boards can wear down your knife edge, resulting in chips and dulling. Solid wood cutting boards made of maple, cherry wood, and walnut are the best option for useful and convenient cooking, since they are free of toxins, like cleaners, microplastics, and resins and adhesives, are self-healing, and naturally have antibacterial properties.

• Mandoline Slicer: A favorite of even the most renowned professional chefs, a mandoline slicer can help you slice, grate, and julienne your produce quickly and efficiently. Mandoline slicers are an especially great tool to use for the components of any salad—you can slice up cucumbers, julienne carrots, and grate some cheese to top it off, all with one tool. A helpful tip: look for a multi-blade mandoline slicer to save money and space in your kitchen.

• Salad Spinner: The tried-and-true salad spinner makes a great addition to your kitchen arsenal. Using a salad spinner is a great way to wash and dry your greens for a healthy salad in less time and with less waste. With this kitchen tool, you won’t need to wash as many dish towels or waste paper towels drying your greens. Let the spinner do all the hard work for you and squeeze in a light arm workout in the process!

Once you have all your food prepped and ready to go, you’ll want to use the best kitchen appliances to help you cook your nourishing meals efficiently and deliciously. You don’t have to compromise taste and quality to whip up a quick and wholesome meal. Let’s explore some useful kitchen must-haves that will help ease your stress and provide nutritious results at dinner time.

• An Efficient Air Fryer: Air fryers have become a ubiquitous kitchen appliance, but not all air fryers are made alike. You’ll want to equip your kitchen with an air fryer that can whip up your food in less time with less oil. The TurboBlaze™ Air Fryer uses a special DC Motor that quickly cooks your food, cooking meals up to 46% faster*. That means less time spent at the stove and more time at the dinner table.

*Compared to COSORI's CP168 (or Pro Gen 2) air fryer

• Compact Food Steamer: One of the best ways to prepare your food is to use a steamer. Steaming your veggies can preserve vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that might be stripped with other methods of cooking and makes them easier to digest than raw vegetables. Not only that, but steaming food takes significantly less time, so it’s a great method to use on those days when you’re rushing to get dinner on the table. Our COSORI Rice Cooker comes with a steam basket so that you can double down on wholesome eating with just one kitchen appliance.

• Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker: If you want to get a head start on dinner before you leave for work in the morning, a slow cooker or pressure cooker would make a great addition to your kitchen. Slow cookers are great for making hearty and protein-rich foods like stews, goulashes, and chili. You can cook almost anything in 30 minutes or less in a pressure cooker, which means you can wash and prep all your ingredients in the morning, throw them in the pressure cooker when you get home, and have dinner ready before you know it.

Wellness is a lifestyle that requires balance and practicing healthy habits daily. So when it comes to maintaining your holistic lifestyle at home, even the most unassuming kitchen tools can make a difference.

• Accurate Measuring Cups and Spoons: Measuring your ingredients accurately when cooking is important when monitoring your nutrition intake, even more so for individuals with dietary restrictions or metabolic diseases. Look for measuring cups and spoons that are durable, long-lasting, and do not bend or warp easily. Measuring cups and spoons made of heavy-gauge stainless steel are a great option since you can wash them by hand or throw them into the dishwasher for easy cleanup.

• Digital Food Scale or Nutrition Scale: For even greater precision in tracking your ingredients, you can look to a digital kitchen scale. Cost-efficient and helpful for measuring when cooking, baking, or making a perfect cup of coffee, a digital food scale is a great resource for your kitchen and stores easily in drawers or cabinets. Or level up your nutrition with a smart nutrition scale that connects to your phone and has a wide database of nutrition facts about your food. Knowing your caloric breakdown for a meal can help you maintain a healthy mindset when cooking and give you the ease of mind you need so that you don’t have to rely on pre-packaged or processed foods.

• Cast Iron, and Stainless-Steel Cookware: When it comes to cookware, if you’re looking for something long-lasting, you should look to cast iron or stainless steel for the cookware in your kitchen. While both take some TLC to upkeep, the benefit of these is that they’re durable and timeless. Cast iron pans have even been known to be passed down from one generation to the next! 

No useful kitchen is made alike. Space, budget, and all-around lifestyle are key factors when building out your kitchen arsenal and selecting your kitchen essentials. A studio apartment in New York won’t be able to hold the same kinds of kitchen gadgets and tools as a townhouse in the suburbs or a farmhouse kitchen. So let’s explore how you can curate your kitchen and make it bespoke just for you.

Countertop real estate is precious, no matter how big or small your kitchen may be. A kitchen with a clutter-free countertop means you have more space for food prep and fewer appliances to dust. Look for kitchen appliances that have multi-functionality while taking up less counterspace. A great example is a rice cooker with 18 functions and a steam basket. You can create various one-pot meals in the rice cooker by simply placing your choice of vegetables, protein, and seasonings atop your washed and uncooked rice or grains, hit Start, and you’ll have a balanced and nutritious meal ready in no time. Or consider getting a pressure cooker that saves you both time and space. You can sear steaks, cook and blend soups, and even quickly boil eggs in a pressure cooker—the options are endless! And the best part is that you can do it all with one simple appliance.

Time is money, and neither time nor money should be wasted when you’re curating your kitchen. You want the most efficient appliances that are durable, long-lasting, and bring great results. One of the best bang-for-your-buck kitchen tools is an air fryer. A good air fryer will have multiple cooking functionalities, a wide temperature range, and smart control so that you can make the most of your time by controlling and monitoring your air fryer while you take care of other things like laundry or squeezing in a short workout. The Dual Blaze® Smart Air Fryer uses 360 ThermoIQ ^™ technology to evenly cook your food, has smart control and 12 cooking functions, and comes with a dishwasher-safe basket to help you cut down on your cleanup time. If you don’t need a large basket and only have 1 or 2 mouths to feed, the Lite 4.0-Quart Smart Air Fryer is a great alternative. With a temperature range of up to 450°F, smart control from your phone, and three colorways, this small but mighty air fryer will give you all you need with the bonus of being easy on the wallet and easy on the eyes.

Forget about existential things like space and time, let's get practical and talk about what would be your best resource for all things cooking. You’re looking for an all-star, heavy hitter that gets everything done in the kitchen. Presenting a smart appliance that can fit a whole chicken and a side of veggies at once, has 13 different cooking functions*, and cleans up with a simple wipe down (goodbye heating coils): the 26-Quart Ceramic Air Fryer Oven. Toast your sprouted grain bread, air fry your veggies to a nice crisp with less oil, and air sous vide your proteins to tender perfection all with one appliance. Not to mention, it comes with accessories galore including a roasting rack insert, a splatter guard, a fry basket, and more. Cook your wholesome meals and then some with this beauty of a kitchen appliance.

Adding a food processor to your kitchen can also be a great time saver. Food processors are great at chopping produce for soups, stews, salads, and more. But that’s not all! This kitchen gadget can become one of your most versatile tools. It can handle anything from blending a smooth and flavorful hummus to grinding oats for homemade granola or oat flour. If you’re cooking for a family, a medium or large-sized one might be practical, but even a small food processor can hold an average of 6 to 9 cups. With the right kitchen essentials, you’ll be able to enjoy your useful kitchen setup for many years.

*Available in the premium model only.

Now that we’ve established the best kitchen tools and appliances for your useful kitchen, let’s delve into how you can use them to make wholesome recipes to fit your lifestyle. Our chefs at COSORI have cooked up hundreds of recipes curated for you to use as soon as you unbox your new kitchen goodies. Let’s dive right into all the best recipes you can make with your bespoke kitchen.

Let’s start off with a Steel-Cut Oatmeal Breakfast Bowl for your first meal of the day. This recipe is a filling and nutritious way to start off your day, keeping your gut happy and well-fed with prebiotics and fiber from oatmeal, healthy fats and protein from nuts, and vitamin C and antioxidants from berries. Use our rice cooker with the Delay Timer function and prepare the oatmeal the night before so that it’s ready for you when you wake up, saving you time and energy in the morning.

Next, let’s move on to an air fryer staple: fries. We've got a recipe with a healthier twist on the traditional old french fries, our Sweet Potato Wedges with Cilantro Lime Crema. You can cook this delicious side up in just 22 minutes for a great way to fill your belly with less guilt. Another great side dish that requires the simplest of cooking techniques is our Lemon Garlic Broccolini that takes only 10 minutes to cook. Use either our Dual Blaze® Smart Air Fryer or the Lite 4.0-Quart Smart Air Fryer for these recipes.

Finally, try out our Air Fryer Salmon With Lemon Dill. Chock full of omega-3s and healthy fats, this recipe packs in the flavor with fewer calories, leaving you feeling good both mentally and physically. If you’re looking for a heartier meal, another nutritious and filling option is our Turkey-Filled Zucchini Halves recipe. With less fat than ground beef and just a teaspoon of salt and a light spray of oil, these zucchini halves are a protein-packed meal that would be perfect to eat post-workout.