You know you want one. That dooverlackie that lops the top off your young coconut; that dehydrator that turns fruit into chewy, healthy treats; that spiraliser that turns carrots into spaghetti. Here are 10 of the hottest and healthiest tools of the moment; gadgets that will immediately turn your kitchen into a shrine of good health and clean living. The rest is up to you.
1. The nut milk bag
Fresh, nutritious, non-dairy nut milk is delicious hot or cold, poured over breakfast muesli or used in desserts and coffee. Making your own is easy - just soak raw almonds, cashews or macadamias for four to six hours in cold water, drain, rinse, whiz with water, and strain. You'll be needing a drawstring nut milk bag then, to contain the potential drips and spills.
iving Synergy Nut Milk Bag, around $17 from health food stores and online at The Raw Food Store and Kombu Wholefoods.
2. Food dehydrator
Enzymes - which help us digest food and absorb nutrients properly - are diminished in food heated above 40C. The small (and rather chic) Excalibur counter-top dehydrator uses low temperatures and a fan to reduce moisture and intensify flavour without actually "cooking". Use to turn fruit into chewy, healthy treats, beef into jerky, and to dry and preserve herbs, tomatoes, mushrooms, corn, pineapple, lemons and limes.
The Excalibur five-tray counter-top dehydrator with timer costs $369 from www.therawfoodstore.com.au
3. Coconut opener
You've done your yoga and finished your meditation. The last thing you want to do now is ruin your stress levels by wrestling with a sharp cleaver and a fresh young coconut. Enter the CocoCut, a clever little cutting cap that clamps onto the coconut and cuts a neat round opening like an eskimo cutting ice for fishing. Karma upheld.
CocoCuts are available from www.cococut.com for $25 plus postage or from Victoria's Basement and Thomas Dux stores.
4. Counter-top water filter
High quality pure water is the starting point for a healthy life - and that goes for the water we cook with as well as the water we drink. The Aquasana counter-top water filter selectively filters out chemicals like chlorine and more than 100 common tapwater contaminants, leaving water tasting of nothing but … water.
Aquasana water filter available from www.Vitality4Life.com.au and selected retailers from $179.
5. Vegetable spiraliser
This natty little machine not only turns zucchini and carrots into long, thin spiralling strands of "spaghetti", it also makes you laugh out loud - which is also good for you. Raw-fooders and the gluten-intolerant love it, because they can still sit down to a plate of "pasta", and mums love it because kids will eat vegies that look like snakes.
Available from homeware and health food stores, around $40.
6. Flax seed mill
Flax seeds (linseeds) may be rich in omega-3 fatty acids, but they're SO annoying. Not only do the tough little seeds get stuck in your teeth, they can pass through the body without being broken down and digested. The answer is to grind them to order, in small quantities. The small Savannah ceramic grinder acts like a pepper mill - just grind directly over your breakfast granola, fruit salad, soup or muffin batter, for no-waste, no-mess, instant goodness.
Savannah flax seed mill, $39.90, www.therawfoodstore.com.au
7. Personal blender
Those big heavy-duty Nutribullets, Vitamixes, Optimums and Ninja blenders are awesome, but using them to make a single smoothie before you run out the door in the morning is like hiring a fork-lift to pick up your shoes. So there's a need for a smart little personal blender like the Tribest PB 250, which comes with four lidded cups so you can whiz, seal, and run out the door within minutes. Put the 200-watt motor to work on smoothies, soups, salsas, pesto and baby foods, as well as grinding nuts, seeds and coffee beans.
From $99 to $135 from www.kombuwholefoods.com.au and www.therawfoodstore.com.au
8. Yoghurt maker
Yoghurt is good for you. Knowing what's in your yoghurt is even better. To make it, heat and cool the milk of your choice, then whisk in a small amount of cultured, live yoghurt and leave the whole thing to work its magic. A yoghurt-maker such as Easiyo makes it even easier by regulating the temperature, offering a constant supply of yoghurt, ready for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Easiyo yoghurt maker, $25.95, is available from homewares stores, major supermarkets and www.kombuwholefoods.com.au
9. Sprouter
No garden? No excuse. With a sprouter on the kitchen counter you can grow your own crunchy, healthy sprouts from radish, broccoli or alfalfa sprouts for salads, dips, sandwiches and baking. The Original BioSnacky Sprouter acts as a mini greenhouse, allowing you to cultivate three different seeds at once. Just soak, rinse, drain and repeat; and you'll soon be crunching into your own sprouted salad.
Original Biosnacky 3-Tier Dome Sprouter, around $45, from health food stores and Sprout Organics on www.sprout.net.au
10. And next? The edible bug terrarium
Young West-African born American designer Mansour Ourasanah recently collaborated with KitchenAid to design a vessel for farming edible insects at home, as a response to the shrinking global food supplies of the future. The Lepsis insect breeder will grow and harvest up to 100 grasshoppers a month, which can then be roasted or fried as a great source of protein for those on the hop. The Lepsis hasn't passed the prototype stage yet, but you read it here first. The insects are coming.
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