Simple, User friendly, Easy to clean, Not too big, Inexpensive Practical and Fun! These words will be our guide in selecting the best juicer, blender, dehydrator, food processor and other tools which you can use in your raw living food kitchen. When it comes to getting your kitchen equipment together, it’s all about : “will you actually use them on a regular basis?” You need to think about what kind of money you want to spend and which kind of raw living food recipes tickle you’re fancy and how likely you are to make them.
Now, with that picture in mind, let’s choose the best raw food juicer, blender, dehydrator and other raw food kitchen tools. If you want to get into raw food cooking there are some basic tools that will make preparing food a lot easier, quicker and fun. These are some kitchen appliances that you could use. Use a few of them or use them all, depending on your favorite recipes, available time and budget.
Quick Overview of Raw Food Kitchen Tools
| Kitchen Tool | How often used | To Prepare | Price | User Friendly | Easy Cleaning | Size |
| Juicer – Centrifuge | Daily | Carrot Juice (Pine)Apple Cucumber Juice |
$99 -$299 | Very Easy | 5 min | Medium-Large |
| Juicer – Green Star
Type |
Weekly | Greens Juice wheat grass nut milk |
$150 -$350 | Easy | 10-15 min | Large |
| High Speed Blender | Daily | Smoothies Soups Sauces Spreads Cake batters Ice-cream |
$199 -$400 | Very Easy | 2 min | Medium-Large |
| Dehydrator | Weekly | Crackers Cookies Bars “Bread” |
$159 -$229 | Easy | 5-10 min | Very Large |
| Water Purifier | Daily | Clean Water | $199-$499 | Very Easy | 1 min | Medium-Large |
| Food Processor | Weekly | Slices Veggies Colelsaw Spreads |
$89 – $399 | Easy | 5-10 min | Not too large |
| Coffee Grinder | Weekly | Grind Seeds Grinded Nuts Grinded Cacoa Beans |
$10-$30 | Very Easy | 1 min | Small |
| Sprouter | Weekly | Sprouts grass |
$5-$100 | Moderate | 5-10 min | Medium |
| Hand Blender | Daily | Spreads Mouses Smoothies |
$49 -$99 | Very Easy | 2 min | Small |
The easiest and most popular appliance is a high speed blender. This is to a raw living foodist, what a stove is too a a professional chef. You’ll make smoothies, shakes and soups within minutes. And you’ll use it many times a day. The two brands most used are the Vitamix and Blendtec blender. They’re equally good. There is also a new blender that is sold by Montel Willam’s company and shows great promise.
The best raw food juicer, depends on what you expect to be juicing most. Carrots are easiest in a centrifuge juicer, whereas green leafy vegetables go best in a twin gear juicer. You have a juice bar around the corner and as long as you can the volume of juice you nee to support your lifestyle, you may choose to buy your juice already made instead of investing in a good juicer. Our feeling is that you should make this investment. there instead. If you buy a centrifuge juicer, make sure you’ll buy one where you can juice whole apples and carrots (so no pre-cutting). There are many inexpensive centrifuge juicers, so find one that (same) and the most used twin gear is the Greenstar Juicer.
A dehydrator is a fun tool, but you can live without. For intermediate to advanced raw living foodists, the dehydrator is a fun tool to make “breads”, cookies and travel snacks. The Excalibur dehydrator is the most popular.
A water purifier is something you will want. More economical than buying bottled water, and when you purify your own water you know you are getting the best quality water, for you and your family. Having your own spring or artesian well would be wonderful but most are not so lucky to have one. You can buy a good a tap filter, or under-counter model, buy don’t forget the bathtub and shower filter. Your body is your largest organ and taken in the water that you bath in.You may even want to spend some extra money adding an ionizer.
A food processor is fun and is necessary if you are going to be above 80% raw and make gourmet foods. Her at Creative Health Institute, it’s just as easy to use a knife or the much cheaper and smaller mandoline or spiral slicer. When you have a lot to slicing or dicing and mixing to do, nothing beats a food processor, so if you have space and a few extra dollars buy one, but it’s not as important as a good blender in a raw living food kitchen.
A coffee grinder is great for finely grinding nuts, seeds and cacao beans in smaller quantities. A grinder is small and relatively inexpensive. Not an absolute must to have in a raw living food kitchen, but is so inexpensive that not having one would just be a personal preference choice.
I love the hand blender! To me, it’s a simple and cheap version of a table model high speed blender. If you have the cuisinart hand blender with 700 Watt, you can use it where you’d use the high speed blenders, course your food won’t be as smooth and it won’t break the cell walls down, as efficiently as a high speed table model. However, it’s great for traveling, for making green smoothies, energy soups, quick pesto’s and small amounts of sauce etc.
Other Great Tools
Once you have the basics, other fun tools to consider are:
- Knifes
- Mandoline
- Cutting Board
- Spiralizer
- Nut Milk Bag
- Water Bottle
- Fun & Beautiful China and Silverware
- Fun Table Decorations Candles, Napkins
How to decide what appliances to buy?
1. What kind of recipes would you like to make?
Juices, blends, crackers, pastas? Do you prefer quick and easy recipes such as smoothies, soups and juices or do you like gourmet food.
Simple raw food recipes: high speed blender, juicer, knifes, hand blender, water purifier.
Gourmet: dehydrator, ice-maker, mandoline, spiralizer, sprouter.
2. How much time do you have for raw living food preparation?
Little time: blender, centrifuge juicer, apple slicer, maybe dehydrator, cleaver, coffee grinder, hand blender, water purifier.
More time: mandoline, spiralizer, sprouter, nut milk bag, twin gear juicer, dehydrator,food processor.
3. How much space do you have in your kitchen?
Small kitchen: centrifuge juicer, (hand)blender, nut bag, high speed blender.
Large kitchen: twin gear juicer, dehydrator, water purifier, distiller, sprouter, table top blender.
4. Consider your budget
How much do you want to spend on your new kitchen equipment? If you are on a tight budget, choose only what you need most. To save money, you might consider asking (money for) kitchen tools for X-mas or your birthday.
Low budget: You Fill This In With What You Think You Can Afford!
Summary of Raw Kitchen Tools
RAW LIVING FOOD UNCOOKING TOOL AND UTENSILS
The Very Basics – Must Have: High speed blender, hand blender, good knifes, cutting board, water purifier.
Intermediate: High speed blender, hand blender, good knives, cutting board, water purifier, nut bag/cheese cloth, sprouting jars, twin gear juicer, centrifuge juicer, coffee grinder. dehydrator mandolin,
Advanced: Its Your Choice. Now Its Time To Dream.
The main thing is get started, the rest will fall into place.
Blessings, Bobby
