The kitchen tools you need for meal prep
Two sheet pans, a large pot, a sharp knife and five containers cover almost everything. What is essential and what can wait.
Photo by Michal Balog on Unsplash
You can start meal prepping with what is already in most kitchens. A few items make it noticeably easier, and most are cheap.
What is essential?
- A sharp chef's knife and a large cutting board. A sharp knife is faster and safer than a blunt one.
- Two rimmed sheet pans, so you can roast two things at once.
- A large pot, 5 quarts or more, for soups, chili and grains.
- A wide pan or skillet for searing and stir-frying.
- Five main-meal containers with tight lids.
- Measuring cups and spoons.
What is worth adding?
- An instant-read thermometer, to check meat without guessing. Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F, ground beef at 160°F and fish at 145°F.
- A 12-cup muffin tin, for egg and veggie muffin cups and cottage cheese egg bites.
- Wide-mouth pint jars, for overnight oats and layered salads.
- Freezer bags and a marker pen.
- A colander and a wooden spoon, if you do not already have them.
What is nice to have?
- A rice cooker, which frees a burner and never burns the rice.
- A blender or stick blender, for protein pancakes and blended soups.
- A slow cooker or pressure cooker, for hands-off batches.
- A salad spinner, if you prep salads often.
- An air fryer, which reheats food crisp.
None of these is necessary to start.
What should you not buy yet?
Large matching container sets and single-purpose gadgets. Cook for a few weeks first, and buy to fit what you actually make.
Which containers should you start with?
Five of one size, about 3 cups each, plus a few small pots for sauces. Glass if you reheat in them, plastic if you carry cold lunches. See what size containers you need and glass or plastic containers.
Do you need a second freezer?
No. Bags frozen flat take very little room. A standard freezer compartment holds a dozen portions of soup or chili. See freezer bags or containers.
What makes the biggest difference?
The second sheet pan and the thermometer. Two pans let the oven do twice the work in the same time, as in sheet-pan salmon and potatoes. The thermometer stops you overcooking chicken, which is the main cause of dry meal prep.
How much does a starter kit cost?
If you already have a knife, a pot and a pan, the rest is containers, a sheet pan and bags, which is a modest outlay. Buy the rest as you find you need it.
Where to go next
With the kit ready, follow how to meal prep a week in one afternoon.
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