The 14 Greatest Meal Prep Instruments of 2024, Examined & Reviewed

Meal prepping is a sensitive subject. Devotees insist that studying methods to meal prep modified their lives. Opponents scoff on the thought, satisfied that meal prep means consuming the identical unhappy, boiled rooster breasts and soggy broccoli for every week straight. However as with most issues closely debated on the web, a cheerful medium lies between two extremes: Efficient meal prepping simply means being ready to, effectively, put together a meal. 

Think about going through the Tuesday afternoon’s what-are-we-going-to-eat-for-dinner dread with the blissful realization that you simply selected Nigerian Beef Suya two days in the past and all the things you want is already in your fridge. Think about preparing for work on Wednesday morning and having a packed lunch able to go—children included, in the event you’re liable for feeding any. That is the sort of meal prep we’re speaking about.

And since we’re large advocates of getting the appropriate instruments for the job, in fact we’re wanting to share our favourite meal prep gear. Whether or not they’re storage options or intelligent timesavers, these merchandise assist us get via busy weeks well-fed with time to spare.

A Quick and Correct Digital Scale

We’ve examined loads of kitchen scales, and OXO’s is one in every of our favorites. (A lot of our editors use it at house, too.) It’s tremendous dependable and the pull-out show makes it straightforward to learn it doesn’t matter what’s on prime of it. Whereas a digital scale is a great tool for all cooks and bakers, it’s particularly useful for consistency in meal prepping. Whether or not you’re portioning out a family-sized pack of floor beef or rationing quinoa salad for the subsequent three days, weighing meals eliminates the pesky inconsistencies of eyeballing.

Meals Storage Containers Aplenty

Even in the event you’re not into meal planning, leftovers and unfastened components will at all times must go someplace. Good-quality meals storage containers—whether or not glass, plastic, or silicone—will hold meals contemporary and safeguard towards leaks and peculiar fridge smells. In our exams, Rubbermaid’s Brilliance line took the highest spot in each glass and plastic classes because of their leakproof, tight-fitting lids with safe latches. We additionally recognize the clear sides that permit us see precisely what’s inside. For a extra transportable, simply stowable choice, Re(zip) containers are nice at securely containing meals whereas taking over minimal area.

Reusable Meals Wraps

As a substitute of plastic wrap or aluminum foil for protecting bowls, wrapping cheese, or hoping that half-avocado stays no less than semi-green till tomorrow morning, strive a beeswax meals wrap. Not solely are they reusable, however they’re breathable too, which implies your costly wedge of Parmesan cheese gained’t style like plastic the subsequent time you chip off a shard in the midst of the evening. Nice beeswax wraps ought to keep sticky—even after washing—and cling simply. In our overview, each Trifecta Dwelling Co. and Abeego wraps proved sturdy, straightforward to crimp onto bowls, fruits, and extra, and had been straightforward to hand-wash with cleaning soap and air-dry.

A Gradual (or Multi) Cooker

A sluggish cooker could really feel like a relic of yesteryear, however these home equipment have been round for many years for a motive: They get the job carried out. Throw in a couple of components earlier than work and are available house to a scorching meal. GreenPan impressed us with its fast heat-up time and efficient browning skills. It additionally stays cool at some point of cooking, making it an particularly protected choice for households with children or pets. For versatility past sluggish cooking, we love a multi-cooker just like the On the spot Pot for its capacity to operate as a rice cooker, steamer, stress cooker, and extra. It’s an awesome decide for small areas or bang-for-your-buck budgets.

Espresso Delivered to Your Door

Nobody mentioned meal prep must be all about stable meals. For many people, espresso is a important a part of every morning, and few issues are extra disagreeable than going about your morning brewing ritual solely to appreciate you’re out of espresso. Enter: espresso by mail. Commerce Espresso Membership isn’t only a subscription service to maintain the great things coming to your door; it’s a portal to espresso from world wide. It is an awesome choice for dipping a toe into specialty espresso (there are over 450 choices to select from). You may as effectively sip on one thing new throughout all that additional time you’ll have because of meal prepping, proper?

A Good Knife (or A number of)

A high quality chef’s knife—one which’s sharp, well-balanced, and comfy to grip—is the spine of any kitchen. It’s the dependable all-rounder you’ll want for slicing, dicing, chopping, and each different reducing verb. And whereas a chef’s knife will suffice for nearly all the things, if selection is the spice of life, think about a knife set to provide your self extra choices (or to place another person to work, too). Units aren’t normally our most well-liked technique to buy knives, however they are often an environment friendly and budget-friendly choice for widening your arsenal.

Useful Cookbooks

Cookbooks are an unbelievable useful resource. They cowl the whys and how-tos of cooking and are useful to achieve for while you’re out of concepts and might’t consider a single dish, not to mention every week’s value. From important cooking to baking, meal prep is a breeze when you have got a shelf of inspiration at your fingertips. Our workers likes to line their cabinets with cookbooks that educate strategies and assist pull you out of boring routines.

A Meals Processor

Full-sized meals processors are nice for chopping, slicing, shredding, emulsifying and a lot extra. Cuisinart’s 14-cup meals processor is one in every of our prime picks because of its efficient efficiency, affordable value, and surprisingly quiet motor. If a full-size processor feels too cumbersome or dear proper now, a mini meals processor can provide the similar comfort in a stowable, reasonably priced package deal. This one from Hamilton Seashore packs an actual punch for its measurement and even comes with a slicing and grating disk. Go forward and cube onions with out the tears, mix up a batch of salad dressing, or pulverize stale bread into helpful breadcrumbs with ease.

Versatile Baking Sheets

Baking sheets are good for far more than simply cookies—sheet pan dinners, anybody? And we love a sheet pan for meal prep. Roast a rooster, a head of cauliflower, or a batch of carrots and reap the rewards of (virtually) hands-off cooking. Good baking sheets are product of heavy-gauge steel that conducts warmth effectively and resists warping—each Nordic Ware and Vollrath tick these bins. 

A Vacuum Sealer

Vacuum sealers are useful for long-term storage like freezing sauces or contemporary cuts of meat, however they’re additionally helpful for creating a fast, forceful seal appropriate for making instantaneous pickles or sous vide cooking. We examined 24 vacuum sealers and these two from Nesco and Anova got here out on prime for his or her intuitive design and double-seal know-how. 

An Immersion Circulator (Sous Vide Machine)

Okay, perhaps we are able to’t declare an immersion circulator is important for meal prepping, but it surely’s fairly helpful for precision cooking. These little machines create a constant water temperature for sous vide cooking with out the necessity for fixed monitoring. We just like the Breville Joule for its quick, quiet efficiency and companion app you’ll really need to use. On the budget-friendly finish, the On the spot Accu works so effectively we are able to hardly consider it prices lower than $100.

A Swooshy Salad Spinner

Very similar to sluggish cookers, salad spinners seem to be a kind of stuff you’d have present in your grandma’s kitchen when poking round as a curious little one. However these instruments are genuinely nice. They make rinsing lettuce a lot simpler, which implies you don’t have to purchase the pre-packaged stuff to get salad on the desk quick. Each of those picks spin easily and dry rapidly, and within the case of the glass-bowled OXO, the bowl itself can double as your salad serving vessel.

A Foolproof Rice Cooker

Sure, with a little bit of follow you can also make first rate rice on the stovetop, however actual rice fans know {that a} rice cooker does a much better job of making completely cooked rice each time. The Hamilton Seashore mannequin carried out finest in our exams with its easy management panel and no-frills settings, however the Zojirushi makes for a worthy splurge with well-reputed high quality and enjoyable settings (like taking part in totally different sounds when the cooking cycle is full).

A Excessive-Velocity Blender

Highly effective blenders like these don’t come low cost, however they’re so dang efficient. Blenders are helpful for smoothies and soups alike, and to even make your individual nut butter. Vitamix has been main the way in which for a few years now with its professional-grade motor and intelligent vortex design that sucks all of the components down into its blades. The Blendtec is a bit more reasonably priced and excels within the smoothie division. 

FAQs

What are the perfect meal prep instruments on Amazon?

Cool instruments should not briefly provide on Amazon, however we take a barely totally different strategy to cooking devices. As a substitute of cluttering our cupboards with novelty gear, we store Amazon for sensible offers on important gear, like our favourite Vitamix blender and a really excellent espresso machine.

Does meal prepping really save time?

It may! Protecting the concentrate on making ready particular person meal parts—like whisking collectively salad dressing, peeling and chopping greens, and cooking an enormous batch of rice—permits you to transfer extra nimbly when it comes time to cook dinner and assemble a meal.

Why We’re the Specialists

• Summer season Rylander is a proficient house cook dinner and a frequent contributor to Critical Eats, the place she deciphers testing notes on all the things from cheese field subscriptions to transportable charcoal grills.
• The Critical Eats workforce has spent years testing the perfect cooking gear, home equipment, and instruments. We repeatedly replace our evaluations with new insights and long-term testing outcomes.