Setting up your first kitchen Essential cooking utensils to get you started

Have you just moved away from home and are now faced with cooking for yourself? If you’ve never had your own kitchen, it’s hard to know where to start putting the basic tools you’ll need. Here’s a list of essential cooking utensils that will see you through just about any cooking task, at least for now. As you try new dishes and expand your cooking skills, you can add gadgets and utensils as needed. In the meantime, let’s take a look at your bare-bones utensil list.

The spatula is one of the most useful of cooking utensils. Anyone who’s ever fried an egg, flipped a burger or a pancake or can attest to the versatility of this tool. Get a spatula appropriate to your cookware. Use plastic for Teflon® pans and metal for stainless or cast iron types.

A slotted spoon comes in handy for lots of cooking tasks. Boiling ravioli? Pluck them out with this cooking utensil. Vegetables cooked in water in the saucepan are easily separated from the liquid.

The soup ladle is often overlooked by the novice kitchen owner. Obviously a good choice for dishing out soups, it’s also great for spaghetti, chili, stews and fruit salads. You need one.

A large spoon, either of metal or plastic is a must. Not quite so wide and deep as the soup ladle, this cooking utensil is better for dishing out rice, steamed vegetables and other foods without liquids.

You must have at least two knives to accommodate a variety of cooking tasks. A good chef’s knife will handle carving tasks of cooked or uncooked meats, as well as making short work of big batches of vegetables.

A cheese grater is another essential, unless you don’t eat cheese. Think of the possibilities: tacos, enchiladas, salads and au gratin potatoes require a grater, unless you’re willing to spend eons dicing cheese in cubes! The metal stand-up type is your best choice, as these have different blades on each side of the grater. The finest grate allows you to zest a lemon or orange and can be used for garlic and nutmeg too.

A vegetable parer is cheap and yet, so useful. Potatoes, cucumbers, apples and carrots are just a few examples where this guy saves your fingers from cuts you might sustain using a regular paring knife.

Perhaps you don’t categorize the can opener as a cooking utensil, but you won’t get far with a can of soup or tuna unless this gadget is handy.

This short list of essential cooking utensils will have you up and running in no time. Always buy the best quality you can afford. Replacing your cooking utensils frequently ends up costing more in the long run. See you in the kitchen!

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