What are the essential kitchen tools for easy vegan meal prep? Today I’d like to share with you the equipment that’s helped me simplify meal planning, food prep, and cooking while saving time and effort in the kitchen every week.
I’ve never been a big fan of the idea of meal prepping until March 2020. I used to think that meal prep meant cooking a week’s worth of our family’s meals in a single day (Here are a few other types of meal prep). Just the idea of slaving away in the kitchen for an entire afternoon would make me shudder.
At the same time, I wasn’t enjoying the stress that came with having to figure out what to make for dinner every night. After a long day of working, chasing after my toddler, and taking care of our home all day I just wanted to melt into the couch with a cup of tea (or a glass of wine if it was THAT KIND of day).
Instead, I can’t count how many times I found myself in the middle of our kitchen at 6 pm, having no idea what to cook, or not knowing if we had all ingredients for whatever I’d finally come up with.
All of that was happening to the soundtrack of my husband and daughter rummaging through the shelves of our pantry in search of snacks because they knew it was going to be a while before dinner’s ready.
Finally in early 2020 I decided that something had to change.
How I Finally Mastered Vegan Meal Prep for My Family
Originally I just wanted to make things easier every night. But then, the COVID lockdowns entered our life in March 2020.
We quickly understood that running to the store every day to pick up that one missing ingredient for dinner was out of the question. Our family needed to figure out a way to get everything for the week in a single shopping trip.
To do that we had to decide on what to eat for dinner every night in advance. (We focused on dinners because those usually yield leftovers to eat for lunch the following day). That’s how the idea of meal planning came up again. Except I wanted to do it on my own terms.
So, after lots of experimenting, I came up with my own method of vegan meal planning.
Here’s the gist of what it looks like every week.
First, I would decide on our dinners Monday through Friday.
Then, I’d write down which parts of each dinner I could prep in advance. Think: cook some grains, bake a block of tofu, prep some vegetables that could stay fresh in the fridge for a few days even if they’re chopped up (onions, peppers, celery, etc.).
After that, I would combine all chopped vegetables that went into the same recipe together in storage bags, and mark each bag with the name of the recipe (or a weekday when I’d be cooking it).
Finally, during the week, I’d save myself tons of time and stress when making dinner because 1) I would know what to cook; 2) I would have most of the tedious chopping and prepping already done.
That’s how my family has been eating a fresh, made-from-scratch dinner every night for many months now. I’ve been using this vegan meal planning method every single week since March 2020.
I’ve noticed that doing this sort of meal planning and prepping doesn’t just save time and stress. It also saves our family money because we don’t buy more food than we need every week, and we don’t have to throw away anything that would inevitably go bad in the back of the fridge otherwise.
This way of planning our vegan dinners has been so helpful that for a while I’ve wanted to share it with the world. So recently I used it to build my Vegan Meal Planning Blueprint – a 3-week dinner meal plan that’s got every step of planning, prepping and cooking your vegan dinners written out for you:
- How to buy exactly what you’ll need during the week in a single shopping trip;
- How to prep a few ingredients in advance to save time during the week;
- How to sort and store those prepped ingredients until you need them;
- And how to cook every dinner in the quickest, most efficient way so you get dinner on the table in no time every night.
Want to see if this meal planning system is right for you? I’ve got a sample one-week meal plan that you can get for free!
Looking to save time on your meal planning routine? Check out these 5 tips to save time while meal planning.
Folks who have tried this meal planning method have asked me if I use any particular kitchen tools when I do my meal planning and prepping. So today I’ve summed up a few of my favorite tools for food prep, food storage, and cooking.
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Best Tools for Vegan Meal Prep
Food Storage
Large food-safe containers are essential for storing prepped ingredients for recipes you're planning to make during the week. Reusable gallon-size bags have been my go-to food storage solution, but large containers (either plastic or glass) work well too.
These food storage bags have been a huge help in my weekly meal prep. A great way to reduce food waste and save money compared to single-use Ziploc bags. I pick veggies from each recipe that can keep well chopped up, and store them in the fridge in these reusable BPA-free bags.
Some reviewers have said that the zippers don't work as well after a few uses. HERE'S HOW YOU GET THE ZIPPERS TO WORK AGAIN: rub a tiny bit of oil (cooking oil, mineral oil, whatever you got) along one side of the zipper. They'll close like magic after that. Repeat as needed.
If you're prepping large amounts of veggies for each recipe but don't want to use Ziploc-style bags, oversized food-safe containers are a must-have storage solution.
This 28-pc set features 14 BPA and PVC-free plastic containers in sizes from 54 oz. to 11.8 oz., each with a matching lid equipped with a silicone seal. Leak-proof, airtight, dishwasher-safe.
This 10-pc set includes 5 sturdy tempered glass containers in 18-74 oz. size, plus matching airtight and watertight BPA-free plastic lids.
The glass containers can be used in the fridge, freezer, microwave, oven, and dishwasher. Plastic lids aren't recommended for use in the microwave or in the oven.
If you're in the market for portable bento box-style containers that you could use for bringing lunch to work, these glass meal prep containers are as good as they get.
I love that they are made from tempered glass - it's much more durable and eco-friendly than plastic, plus (my personal favorite) they're microwave and dishwasher-safe. It's also nice that they have three compartments unlike other glass meal prep containers that usually have just one.
These food label stickers make it easy to tell what's inside of each bag or container. They are water and oil resistant, and come off without leaving sticky residue.
Filling Ziploc-style plastic bags with prepped vegetables or other foods is much easier when the bags are secured open. The height of these nifty stands can be adjusted to the size of your bag. Another way these come in handy - you can use them as drying racks for reusable food storage bags after washing.
Food Prep Tools
Make your weekly vegan meal prep sessions a breeze by using the food prep tools below. Depending on your preferences, you can get as hands-on or hands-off with all the chopping and slicing as you'd like.
Using a good knife is essential when you've got a mountain of vegetables to chop and slice on your food prep day. I've sworn by Wusthof knives for almost ten years now in my own kitchen, and highly recommend them to any cook, beginner to advanced.
The paring knife and the classic Santoku knife in this particular set do everything I need during my food prep sessions. If you're in the market for a new knife set, don't look any further.
A large, heavy teak wood cutting board like this one by Sonder Los Angeles can make meal prepping easier and maybe even enjoyable. It won't slide all over the table as lighter cutting boards might, and its deep juice grooves can help prevent a mess on your countertops.
Sustainable teak wood is a great material for cutting boards: it's naturally resistant to water, stains and bacteria, and its fibers are able to "heal" themselves from knife scratches. Plus, it's just gorgeous to look at.
If you aren't a fan of chopping vegetables by hand, this universal veggie prep tool can help you chop, slice, julienne, and even spiralize all your produce in half the time. Chopped veggies are collected in a storage container right under the blade. BPA free, dishwasher safe. Over 12 thousand 5-star reviews on Amazon!
My husband and I received an older version of this 11-cup food processor by Cuisinart as a gift for our wedding in 2012. It's worked like a charm ever since. This food processor chops, slices, blends, shreds, and even mixes dough (my #1 way to make homemade pizza dough for years).
"The only blender you'll ever need." "The last blender you'll ever buy." As pretentious as it sounds, it's true. Vitamix blenders are unparalleled in their ability to turn hard, non-pre-soaked nuts and a bit of water into the smoothest cream sauce in just seconds. And that's just one of the many amazing things they can do.
Cooking Tools
When the time comes to cook your vegan meals, quality cookware can make the process go easier. Below are my recommendations for cookware that has stood the test of time in my own kitchen.
I've used Anolon pots and pans for years (we got a nice 10-piece set as another wedding gift - see below). Recently I bought this set of two skillets - see them in pictures in my Vegan Szechuan Tofu recipe post. They work great even when I cook notoriously sticky sauces or other foods. The heavy bottom heats evenly and keeps heat well.
One thing worth noting: even though the manufacturer says these are safe to use with metal utensils, I strongly recommend to avoid those. Better safe than sorry.
Anolon Advanced Hard Anodized Nonstick Cookware Set (PFOA Free) - 11 Pc
This is the set we got as a wedding gift in 2012. Since then I've used these pots and pans about a million times. Even though I had to eventually replace the skillets 6-7 years later with the 2-piece skillet set shown above, the other pieces (the soup pot, the saucepans and the lids) still look brand new.
These rimmed baking sheets are built from heavy duty stainless steel that doesn't react with food the same way as potentially toxic aluminum or nonstick PFOA coating of other baking sheets. Can be heated up to 450°F. Use them to roast vegetables, bake tofu, cookies, cakes, etc.
If you're looking to reduce the amount of oil you use in your cooking, this refillable oil sprayer can be very helpful. It's more eco-friendly than single-use cooking spray containers, plus you know exactly what kind of oil is in it since you put it there yourself.
Want to get 3 weeks of detailed vegan dinner meal plans that I use for my own family? Check out my Vegan Meal Planning Blueprint over here.
Have you tried meal planning as a vegan? Do you have any must-have kitchen tools that you can’t imagine ever going without? Please let me know below!
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