8 Essential Vegan Kitchen Tools: Spork Foods on Good Knives and Baby Whisks

Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg of Spork Foods.jpg

Jiro Schneider

Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg of Spork Foods take cooking to a unique vegan-friendly apogee. As full-time sisters, instructors, consultants and now cookbook authors, their relationship to the lifestyle is dedicated. They drop tips on necessary tools -- in no particular rank, save for the chef's knife -- to jump-start vegan cooking in your kitchen. And check back later for their recipe for pistachio pesto.

Drew Altizer

Wood kitchen tools by Joshua Vogel of Blackcreek Mercantile & Trading (photo meant as visual aid only)

8. Coated/wooden tools for coated pans:
The sisters point out that it is important to match coated or wooden tools with the use of coated pans to avoid scraping the lining of the cookware.

"Coated cookware can be safe if it's heated properly, oil is added, and coated tools are used so the surfaces are not scratched. The problem is that a lot of people are not going to be as careful," Engel says, "So when they scratch it, that's when there are problems. That's why [the cookware] gets a bad rep."

Vitamix Corporation

Vitamix Professional Series 500 (photo meant as visual aid only)

7. Porsche of the blender world:
"If you're going to make a huge purchase, the one thing we'd recommend is a Vitamix. We use that every day for different jobs," says Engel. "It can handle everything from a smoothie in the morning to making your own cashew cheese or blending a soup. Making your own pasta sauces. Even juicing. Whereas a juicer filters out the fiber, the Vitamix keeps the fiber in."

"Our mission is to show people that vegan food is just as modern, interesting, delicious, and colorful as any other cuisine. This is a tool that really helps us accomplish that," says Goldberg.

Engel points out the strong motor not only doesn't burn out, but can turn raw ingredients into soup after three minutes due to the heat. "This is like the Porsche of the blender world," says Engel.

Crate & Barrel (left) and Iron Pots Depot (right)

Heavy pots and pans come in different types of material as well as shapes and sizes

6. Heavy pots and pans:
"They may be a bit more annoying to clean, but they balance out the heat. You're not burning something in the middle and not cooking something on the sides," says Goldberg.

To start with, Engel says, "Buy something that can go from your stovetop into your oven. That will give you more uses."

Goldberg adds, "Something with high walls, like a round Dutch oven, has more of a steaming effect than something with lower walls like a skillet." She recommends to consider foods one typically makes and purchase the type of pot or pan from which she could get the most use.

Rainy Day Magazine

A food processor in its various parts (photo meant as visual aid only)

5. Food processor:
"The one that we recommend you get doesn't have to be the largest model. There are these extra blades that higher-quality models come with -- the slicing and grating blades. You want to make sure that it comes with extra bells and whistles. That will help with making everything from coleslaw to salsa," says Engel.

"It will save you so much time with chopping and grating. That's the key, because everyone is really, really busy, including us," says Goldberg, "We made latkes the other day and it made what would have been a two-hour prep job into a couple of minutes." Between the Vitamix and the food processor, they recommend the food processor be the first big purchase, for its versatility.