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Every health foodie worth their organic pink Himalayan crystal salt knows that a strong army of gadgets ready to take on the nitty gritty of the raw and superfood worlds is a vital element to their kitchen. Being a mindful eater, and enjoying preparing and experimenting with healthy food recipes can be messy, time-consuming and often requires a lot of prep – so its necessary to have an elite group of gadgets at your disposal to aid your chopping, blending, juicing, spiralising, milking, blitzing, storing, and extracting and see you right in your wellness voyage!

Hip & Healthy has reviewed 2015’s top kitchen gadgets to assist and impress even the most experienced of raw, vegan, gourmet chefs. These super gadgets represent the best of what 2015 has to offer for the kitchen – they do everything save eat your creations for you!

 

Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre
When it comes to every kitchen goddess’s most important healthy creations tool, the blender, there is undoubtedly one brand which reins supreme. Vitamix. The secret weapon of many of the top professionals in the health food industry, Vitamix has a big following of loyal advocates including Miranda Kerr, Deliciously Ella, Madeleine Shaw, even the White House is rumoured to be a fan for goodness sakes! The Vitamix family of blenders has grown rapidly and choosing the perfect model can be tricky – if you are after a good quality all-rounder the Total Nutrition Centre is just what you need. This clever kitchen helper can chop, cream, blend, heat, grind and churn – yes, this blender does a whole lot more than just liquefy kale for your green smoothie.The gadget’s laser-cut blades are capable of whizzing at up to 240mph so they makes light work of tough skins, ice and nuts, so you, and your digestion, get the most from your whole foods. It even makes light work of creating homemade nut butters, hummus, dips and flours.

The jug of the Total Nutrition Centre allows for up to six servings of liquid to be prepared in a single blend, making meal prep for the week a doddle – just multiply your usual quantities, divide up and then freeze the rest for later in the week. It can even whip up hot, fresh soups, saving you a lot of time and even more washing up! And possibly the best thing of all? The blender is self cleaning – just add a drop of soap and hit ‘blend’. Available in four modest colours to suit your kitchen interior the unit fits right in as part of the family. That’s a kitchen BFF right there.

The Vitamix is a notoriously dear kitchen accessory, but we believe that if you are a true health fanatic, if you spend a lot of time making soups and smoothies, and if you like to experiment with cooking and baking then it is one well worth investing in.

 

GEFU Spiralfix Spiraliser
If you are not yet familiar with the aesthetic beauty of spiralised veggies then you must be absent from social media. The likes of Pinterest and Instagram are awash with swathes of pretty pictures of meals adorned with zucchini noodles, carrot spaghetti and beetroot ribbons of late and prettifying your food has become quite the trend amongst health-conscious cool-kids. All thanks to one quirky little instrument: the spiraliser. Worth their weight in gold for the low-carb, gluten-free, clean-eating brigade, spiralisers are valuable soldiers in your appliance army. Because nutrients taste even better when they look like streamers.

Spiralisers range in price from pocket-money hand held peelers to big daddy worktop appliances. A nice middle of the roader in terms of cost, but with superior ability to turn the straightest of carrots curly, is the Gefu Spiralfix Spiraliser.

The machine is compact, modest in appearance and super simple to use. The Gefu Spiralfix works on a knob setting which changes the shape and width of your noodles so the whole process is easy peasy, just stick your desired vegetable into the barrel, decide whether you fancy yourself some 3mm, 6mm, or 12mm noodles, then turn the handle for a cascade of nutrition! The Spiralfix base doubles up as a handy, dishwasher-safe storage container once the lid is on so you are saved on the dishes and have yourself a big tub of courgette pasta ready to take to work within minutes.

So if you are a gluten-free gal missing her spaghetti, a parent desperate to get her little one happily munching on greens, or even just a foodie looking to jazz up her Instagram pics – the Gefu Spiralfix Spiraliser is a must have kitchen accessorry!

 

Tefal Infiny Press Revolution
While the juicing vs smoothie debate rages on we’ve decided that you can’t go far wrong with including both kinds of drinks in your meal plans. Blending food into smoothies is fantastic for retaining whole foods and serving as a meal in a glass, juicing, on the other hand, provides only the juice from fruits and vegetables and leaves behind the fibrous pulp. This results in a fast hit of nutrients to your system in a refreshing and easily-digestible form. The juicing set argue that leaving out the tough and fibrous parts of foods gives your digestive system a rest, which can be beneficial. Plus, a vibrant juice is always a great way to brighten up a morning, we think!

As the craze for juicing has soared it has become apparent that not any old juicer is capable of getting the most from our fruit and veg. One juicer which you can entrust your super-est of superfoods to is the Tefel Infiny Press Revolution. The Infiny is a cold-press juicer, employing a screw system to gently press out juice and as a result can preserve up to 75% more antioxidants from food than centrifugal blenders and juicers, which can destroy some nutrients through heat from their fast spinning blades. In the washing up stakes the Infiny Pro fares pretty well – Unlike traditional juicers which are notoriously difficult to get clean, the Infiny churns out all waste immediately instead of storing it within the unit and all removable parts are dishwasher safe so cleaning up is relatively simple.

 

Nutribullet Pro 900
So the Tefel juices and the Vitamix blends, that is all we need to get the optimum nutrition from our foods, right? Well, er, not quite.

Whilst blenders churn foods into smooth mixtures and juicers extract juice, the Nutribullet Pro 900 offers a whole new method for getting those nutrients in – extracting. Extracting your foods leaves them whole, as opposed to juicing, but unlike blending, extracting your fruits and veggies breaks down cell walls of food much more thoroughly leaving them in what is essentially a pre-digested state before they even hit your mouth, meaning your body can more easily absorb their nutrients. If you are guilty of mindlessly wolfing down your lunch on the go (don’t worry, we all are), then an extracted smoothie could be a great way to swap out a solid-food meal to aid digestion when you are busy. A nice touch is the recipe book that comes with each Nutribullet, detailing the benefits of the healthiest of smoothie ingredients.

But really, whether you are convinced or not, the Nutribullet Pro 900 is a highly powerful and most of all, convenient blender. The unit is small and compact and comes with a range of different sized jugs – each of which magically becomes a to-go cup once its flip-top lid is on, so you’re blending straight into the drinking vessel. Just throw in your ingredients, nuts and all, blitz, detach the beaker and you’re off! So if you struggle to get in your Green Machines in the morning the Nutribullet kicks all those ‘I haven’t got time’ excuses to the curb. Plus, anything that saves on washing up is a winner.

 

Hopps and Woolf Nut Milk Maker
You can’t have missed the renewed interest in nut milks of late. No longer a niche health food reserved for hardcore vegans and hipsters, the increasing awareness of the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle has seen a rise in the availability of dairy alternatives and almond, coconut and even macadamia nut milks, or mylks, as they are often dubbed, are cropping up in mainstream supermarkets and coffee shops all over the place.

Read the labels on the most ubiquitous nut milks, though, and you’ll see straight away that your favourite brand likely contains thickeners, preservatives, sugar and a very small percentage of actual nut milk. The answer to the hidden nasties in all processed food is, of course, to make your own

It is entirely possible, and lots of fun, to make your own nut milk sans machine, but the process can be lengthy and is sure to leave your kitchen looking like an explosion in Whole Foods. Unless you have a hardcore Sunday baking sesh planned then having a machine to do the milking for you whilst you get on with work/yoga/making raw brownies is a convenient and excuse-busting way to ensure you always have a supply in the fridge. The Hopps and Wolfe Nut Milk Maker takes only about 20 minutes to churn you up a bottle of fresh, clean, dairy-free milk and they have just begun offering a delivery service that sends the required nuts and beans straight to your door ready for milking! Simply soak the nuts, pop them in the sleek-looking kettle and press the button.

Excessive? Well, no. It may be a little more expensive to make your own nut milk, but being able to control what goes into your drink really is worth it and the flavour of fresh nut milk really cannot be replicated by cartoned varieties. Plus, you are left with the nutritious flesh of the nuts afterwards, which you can use as flour for gluten free baking! You don’t get that with your supermarket favourite.

Have fun experimenting with flavours and thickness – add a spoonful of raw cacao powder for a healthy vegan milkshake or a touch of maca for a superfood, hormone-balancing malty treat. Just be sure to activate those nuts first for the most tummy friendly of milks!

 

Bobble Water Purifying Jug
Perhaps the most underrated and most simple of all kitchen gadgets has to be the water purifier. Tap water has been shown to contribute to toxin build up in the body and continually buying bottled water is expensive and not good for our lovely earth.

We love the Bobble Jug. The domesticated relative of our favourite Bobble Sports bottle, the 2L jug is slim and elegant, made from recycled BPA-free plastic and is incredibly simple to use, making for a perfect kitchen companion. The non-reservoir design makes filtering quick and best of all, you get a lovely little email reminder when it’s time to refilter, so you are always guaranteed to have a pitcher of pure and cool water ready and waiting for you to rehydrate after your workout!

words by Rachel Bednarski

 

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