Review: 3 favourite kitchen gadgets

Kitchen appliance design has undergone a quiet revolution in recent years, adding functionality and sleek design to a raft of well know products. Here’s our pick of three of the best ways you can upgrade your kitchen.

Phillips HR1861 whole fruit juicer (£100)

juicer

We all know the health benefits of fresh juice, but they can be prohibitively expensive when bought in a shop, so for many purchasing a juicer for home use is an attractive option. However, many juicers are left collecting dust after their owner’s initial enthusiasm is eroded by the seemingly endless chopping of vegetables, followed by onerous cleaning of fiddly machinery. The Phillips HR1861 whole fruit juicer has rightfully become a classic in its lifetime thanks to its streamlined and efficient approach to converting fresh fruit and vegetables into delicious beverages.

Most notably, its extra-large juicing tube removes the need to pre chop fruit and vegetables. In practice, only the largest of apples present a problem and a handful of carrots can be tackled in a single action. The two speed motor ensures that no juice goes to waste. The faster speed is for denser foods such as apples or carrots, but having a slower speed means strawberries, mango’s celery, and beetroot can be tackled with equal aplomb.

When it comes to maintenance the machine also shines. After juicing cleaning the parts is quick and easy and reassembly is easy for all members of the family. All parts are dishwasher friendly, but a quick blast with cold water tackles most of the mess and there are no annoying hard to clean corners. If you’re planning to make juice multiple times in a day a professional tip is to line the pulp collection bucket with a plastic bag – a cheap and easy way to reduce cleaning times and water wastage. If you’re serious about the health benefits of juicing this is a machine that is worthy of proper consideration.

Tassimo Vivy (£99.99)

Tassimo

The habitual coffee drinker looking to improve the quality of their daily dose caffeine need look no further than the Tassimo Vivy for a sleek upgrade to their morning routine.

This machine is one of the smallest in the Tassimo range, yet offers a full set of features that you would normally expect from a much larger machine. Its curvaceous design will see it fits unobtrusively into a modern kitchen setting alongside your other appliances and it’s diminutive size ensures it won’t take up to much precious counter space. It’s one of the smallest examples in the Bosch Tassimo range and like its larger brethren employs the T Disc system to deliver a wide range of hot beverages.

T Discs deliver drinks in a super compact form and the range includes not only coffee in a number of strengths but also tea, chai lattes and fruit and herbal teas. The coffee maker reads the bar code on the T Disc and this allows it to adapt itself to make the drink your require; changing brewing times, the amount of hot water and temperature to suit. It’s an ingenious system that’s fool proof and provides an adaptable gadget that can change its purpose if your tastes in tea and coffee shift.

Operation is the last word in simplicity. Placing the T Disc into the brew head prepares the disc for use and all that is required is the press of a single button. Heating time is near instantaneous; an issue that can be vital when faced with being late for work or waiting for five minutes for a coffee machine to be ready. One drawback is the size of the water reservoir, as the compact design makes for more regular refills than you may be used to. Cleaning is a snap. Simply put in the special cleaning disc and hot water can be run through the machine.

Tefal Easy Soup (£79.99)

soup maker

Another great way to get your essential five a day hit of vegetable is with soup, and like juice fresh soup is much healthier than soup bought from a supermarket. The Tefal Easy Soup is a great gadget that turns the soup making process into a quick and painless two button operation. Ingeniously, the whole machine is designed around a jug which can be used to store and serve the finished product. Cleaning is quick and easy and the average time to prepare a healthy broth or chunky soup is a respectable 23 minutes.

What are some of your favourite kitchen gadgets? 

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3 Comments

  1. April 1, 2015 / 5:35 pm

    We have a juicer in our house, my mum bought it as she was trying to be more healthy, it was used for a week and now just sits taking up cupboard space! I have a feeling a soup maker would go the same way, the coffee machine on the other hand would be very handy.

    Great reviews by the way, nice to know some detail about these.
    Ashley Beolens recently posted…Laughing InappropriatelyMy Profile

  2. April 1, 2015 / 10:27 pm

    I would love a whole fruit juicer and a soup maker. What great gadgets! We have a Tassimo already x
    Donna recently posted…Bucket List Update – MarchMy Profile

  3. April 15, 2015 / 9:02 pm

    I’ve been liking the idea of a soup maker since seeing a bloke with one on Come Dine With Me 🙂 Most of the branded soups have something or other in that I’m allergic to so I tend to have a cupboard full of one flavour!
    lisaslife1970 recently posted…Woof Wednesday: Stella tries Little ChompersMy Profile

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