4 Kitchen Tools That Will Save You Time on Weeknight Dinners

In an ideal world, we could spend as much time as we wanted in the kitchen, taking our sweet time to explore a recipe to its fullest. But while we can totally make this happen on the weekends, during the week after a long day at work, you might barely have an hour to whip up dinner for the family. If you want the best of both worlds—the ability to explore your culinary creativity without spending all evening in the kitchen—you need the right tools.

Let’s take a closer look at four benchtop essentials that can help you save time making weeknight dinners while still enjoying the prep work and cooking process.

Food Processor

If you thought that food processors were only good for finely chopping veggies and other ingredients, take another look at the premium food processors on the market. While fully capable of shredding ingredients into tiny pieces, the best ones will offer control over the blade speed and the slice size so you can fine-tune the perfect chop, shred, or slice for your prep work. When you just don’t have the time or energy to prepare ingredients by hand, a versatile food processor can save a lot of hassle.

Blender

In addition to food processors, premium blenders can also help you save time during weeknight meals. While great tools for whipping up morning smoothies, you can also use a blender to help cut together ingredients in a batter or dough. One area where blenders really shine is dessert, as you can toss in the ingredients and make a quick batch of pudding or cake batter.

Stand Mixer

Perhaps one of the most versatile tools that will ever call your benchtop home, a durable stand mixer will last for years and serve you for hundreds of meals to come. While the humble stand mixer truly shines when beating together batter or kneading dough, with additional attachments you can use your stand mixer to do much more—they’re not just for baking.

For example, when using a pasta roller attachment from KitchenAid® for their iconic Stand Mixers, you can use the appliance to make fresh pasta from scratch even on a weeknight. Other attachment tools can spiralize veggies (zoodles!), as well as slice, shred, dice, and grate. What once seemed like too much work or weekend-exclusive can now be your go-to weeknight dish with the right tools.

Electric Kettle

While maybe not the most obvious dinner-prep tool, an electric kettle can do so much more than just make tea. Consider how often you need hot water to boil pasta and how long it can take for water to heat up on your stove. Or maybe your recipe calls for not quite boiling, but above room-temperature water—with an electric kettle you can dial in the perfect temperature and have hot water ready in minutes. Of course, kettles are still great in the mornings or afternoons when making a cup of tea, but in a pinch, an electric kettle can lend a hand.

About KitchenAid®

Since 1919, at-home and professional chefs alike have depended on the versatile, reliable, and innovative products by KitchenAid® to help them do more in the kitchen. No matter your cooking style or level of experience, KitchenAid® offers at least one benchtop essential that you’ll use and cherish every day. Known for their dependability, every KitchenAid® product, from their iconic Stand Mixers to their range of premium toasters, will help you get more done in the kitchen. Your KitchenAid® appliances are your benchtop assistants, saving you time and helping you with every meal. Chefs and cooking enthusiasts around the world recognize the KitchenAid® name for quality, innovation, dependability, and versatility across their wide range of products.

Shop the entire range of KitchenAid® products at Kitchenaid.com.au