The ultimate guide to kitchen essentials

Cookware
Bakeware
Utensils
Food prep
Appliances
Meal plan

No kitchen craftsman can work without proper tools or equipment, and that includes those that follow low carb or keto.

Whether you’re looking to set up a new kitchen or you’re ready to dig deep into your culinary pursuits, we’ve got a simple guide to help you determine all of the tools you might need.

For the purposes of this guide, we’ve broken down kitchen essentials into five categories: cookware, bakeware, utensils, food prep, and appliances.

Within each section, you’ll find a list of cooking tools, all listed according to necessity — basics first so that you can customize your kitchen based on your needs and budget.

How well is your kitchen stocked? Read our guide and find out.

Cookware

This category includes any pot or pan used for cooking on a cooktop. We’ve focused on the size, shape, and function of each.

Keep in mind that different materials may be ideal for different ranges, such as gas, electric coil, solid surface, or induction. Rely on the manufacturer’s instructions for your appliance to determine what works best.

Cookware basics

Skillet: At the very least, you need a good skillet. Whether you buy a nonstick one is up to you. Butter, coconut oil, or bacon fat can make any skillet nonstick.

Skillets are handy for frying things: burgers, sautéing meats and veggies, or warming leftovers such as our Keto pork and green pepper stir fry. While they come in a variety of sizes, a standard 9-inch (23 cm) skillet is ideal for most uses.

Saucepan: Use a saucepan to simmer soups, steam or boil vegetables, or to make boiled eggs, which can be used to make yummy deviled eggs. A 2-quart (2 liters) saucepan is a good standard size although it might be a bit large for smaller quantities.

Intermediate cookware

Various sized skillets: As you can, add to your collection of cookware by purchasing various sizes of skillets and saucepans to use for larger or smaller yield recipes.

Additional sized saucepans: Just as with skillets, a variety of sizes of saucepans are useful when making sauces, steaming or stewing vegetables, or simmering a pot of soup.

Cast iron: Many people enjoy cooking with cast iron pans. Like a Dutch oven (see below) they can be used on a cooktop or in the oven. Cast iron can be a bit difficult to care for since the pans must be seasoned, cannot be washed with soap, and must be stored without moisture.

Dutch oven: A Dutch oven can also be used on a cooktop or in the oven, which makes them ideal for casseroles like keto Tex-Mex casserole when you need to brown or cook some of the ingredients prior to baking.

Advanced cookware

Stockpot: A stockpot is large and deep, making it perfect to use for making homemade bone broth or particularly large batches of soup. Use it to simmer our keto No-noodle chicken soup and your entire house will smell amazing.

Crepe pan: A crepe pan is a small, lightweight skillet that isn’t entirely necessary, but it is super fun to make crepes as a family activity. And, if you have a crepe pan, you can make our delicious crepe recipe!

Wok: A wok is definitely in the category of nice to have, but more advanced. You can make near perfect stir-fries with a wok. Its shape allows you to cook on high heat and by using the highly sloped sides control which foods are cooked most and which are cooked less.

A wok also allows you to add sauce by pouring it in slowly on the sides of the pan so that the temperature in the pan stays stable.

Bakeware

As you might have guessed, bakeware are those oven-proof dishes and pans that can be used for roasting, baking, or broiling. They range from flat cookie sheets to deep roasting pans with or without a rack.

Bakeware can be made of a lot of different materials such as glass, ceramic, metal, or cast iron. Remember that cast iron, glass, and ceramic may take longer to heat, but will also stay hot longer after your dish is removed from the oven.

This is important because the food may continue to cook and you may want to keep the dish warm for serving purposes.

Glass is not as good at conducting heat like metal, but it does cook evenly. Unlike glass, metal tends to cool quickly when removed from an oven. Most baked goods such as cakes, brownies, and pies cook best in metal.

Also, keep in mind that dark pans cook more quickly than than lighter colored pans since the dark pans absorb more heat.

Bakeware basics

Set of rimmed sheet pans: At the very least, you want to have a basic set of rimmed sheet pans which vary in size. Use these for roasting veggies, sheet-pan recipes, or baking our keto bread twists.

Casserole dish 8-inch or 9-inch: While you will likely amass a variety of casserole dishes in different shapes and sizes, if you are just beginning to stock your kitchen, begin with a basic 8-inch to 9-inch square dish (20-23 cm) to make recipes that call for 4 to 6 servings.

Remember to check the recipe to see if a specific size dish is used as using something smaller or larger will also affect baking time.

Roasting pan with a rack: An inexpensive roasting pan with a rack lifts meat out of the pan juices to make it crisp and toasty all over. See, for example, our low-carb Sunday lamb roast, roast turkey, or roast chicken.

Sunday lamb roast with gravy and roasted vegetables

Intermediate bakeware

Cookie sheets: Cookie sheets are ideal for baking cookies or rolls and allow for more even browning all over.

Cake pans: Cake pans should be metal. The standard size is 8- or 9-inch (20-23 cm) round.

Muffin tin: Muffin tins are typically metal and can have either 6 or 12 wells and are ideal for not only baking muffins, but also for making mini cheesecakes, cupcakes, and egg muffins for a speedy breakfast.

Springform pan: For full-size cheesecakes, you will want a springform pan with a spring release that allows you to serve a perfectly gorgeous cheesecake every time.

Mini keto coconut cupcakes with lime-curd topping

Advanced bakeware

Only serious bakers are likely to need these types of pans. A push pan can be ideal for cakes or cheesecakes since they are designed to allow the sides of the pan to be easily removed. Also, a muffin top pan can be used to make our low-carb cloud bread in uniform portions.

Push pan
Tart pan
Brownie pan
Muffin top pan
Bundt pan, tube pan, etc.

Utensils

Utensils are used to handle, move, mix, or otherwise manipulate foods or ingredients. Folks who enjoy cooking will have their favorites, and you may have to play around with different types and sizes of utensils to find what feels best to you.

Consider selecting utensils that have a solid, one-piece design such as silicone spatulas. These are easier to clean and less likely to harbor bacteria than utensils made from two or more pieces.

Basic utensils

If there is nothing else in your kitchen, you need to begin with a set of eating utensils, serving spoons, rubber spatula(s), and at least one flipper or turner.

Rubber spatula (scraper)
Serving spoons
Flipper or turner (metal spatula)
Eating utensils

With these basic utensils, you can mix, cook, and serve simple foods.

Intermediate list of utensils

If you ever use a pair of tongs, you’ll wonder how on earth you ever cooked without them. Tongs make browning meats or turning foods easy because they mimic our pincer grasp.

When choosing utensils, you’ll also want a small whisk, which is perfect for beating eggs to make one of our delicious breakfast casseroles.

Tongs
Whisk
Kitchen shears
Ladle

Use kitchen shears to do everything from opening food packages to cutting meats. Most also have a built-in bottle opener. They are also handy for finely cutting herbs.

Advanced list of utensils

A cheese slicer might be a necessity for a keto or low-carb eater who loves cheese, but we added it to our advanced column since you can accomplish similar results with a regular knife.

Cheese slicers allow you to serve yourself without touching the whole block of cheese, making them a great utensil to have on hand when hosting.

Cheese slicer
Slotted spoon

As for a slotted spoon, these allow for serving when you want to avoid any pan juices. Simple to use and effective in avoiding a mess!

Food prep

The staples needed for food preparation are probably the most numerous. These are items that you use to prepare ingredients and make recipes. Depending on your food preferences, some of these items may be more important than others.

Basic food prep tools

The list of basic items may seem long, but most are relatively inexpensive.

You want to begin with methods for measuring by volume and by weight, which is why we included dry measures, liquid measures, and a food scale. A food scale will be most accurate, and we encourage you to use one.

A set of mixing bowls generally includes a range of sizes and can be plastic, metal, or glass. Glass or metal is generally most desirable because those are easiest to clean.

You will also want a handy set of knives and a cutting board to use them on. Start with a paring knife, chef’s knife, and serrated knife. Cutting boards can be plastic, glass, or wooden. Glass is least likely to harbor bacteria.

If using plastic or wood, it’s good to designate one board for raw meats and another for vegetables.

Measuring spoons
Dry measuring cups
Liquid measuring cups
Food scale
Mixing bowls

Cutting boards
Cheese grater
Can opener
Parchment paper
Knives

Intermediate food prep tools

If you tend to cook frequently, a meat thermometer is an ideal way to ensure that meats are properly and thoughtfully cooked, especially when roasting large pieces of meat such as our Cuban roast pork or smoked turkey.

Meat thermometer

Tools like a vegetable peeler or spiralizer can make prepping veggies a breeze, and you can quickly enjoy zoodles with a low-carb or keto sauce. Use a colander to rinse fruits and vegetables without letting them get waterlogged.

Vegetable peeler
Spiralizer
Colandar

A cooling rack helps to make cookies or crackers crisper and can also help foods like waffles, pancakes, muffins, or bread cool without getting soggy.

Similarly, wooden skewers help to lift foods off of a grill or baking sheet to cook more evenly and more efficiently as in our grilled pork skewers.

Parchment paper is ideal for lining baking sheets to make clean-up easier, and parchment paper muffin liners let you enjoy every morsel of muffin or cupcake because it won’t stick to the tin or the paper liner.

Cooling rack
Wooden skewers
Parchment

Grilled pork skewers with ribbon zoodles

Advanced food prep tools

Utensils that are nice to have — but aren’t totally necessary — include a pizza cutter, used to slice into any of our delicious low-carb or keto pizzas, a sieve for straining things like bone broth, or a garlic press, which is super convenient as compared to mincing fresh garlic with a knife.

Pizza cutter
Sieve
Garlic press

If you make our popular seed cracker recipe or one of our recipes made with dough like our low-carb empanadas, you could use a pastry roller to make sure the dough is uniform in thickness.

A pastry brush is ideal for brushing your low-carb dough with butter or egg whites. You can also use it to coat roasted or grilled meats with a sauce like our recipe for low-carb barbecue ribs.

Pastry brush
Pastry roller

Appliances

Our great grandmothers managed to cook without a lot of these appliances, so we kept the basics category minimal. These are truly the items that make our lives easier and more efficient in the kitchen.

Basic appliances

A hand mixer is ideal for whipping up fresh cream, blending batters like keto bread, or smoothing creamy sauces. They’re compact, which means they don’t take up a lot of space, and they’re relatively inexpensive.

Hand mixer

Intermediate appliances

If you do a lot of chopping or blending, say for cauli mash, or something like our low-carb granola, then a food processor or blender comes in handy.

An immersion blender is especially useful for pureeing soups like our creamy low-carb broccoli and leek soup or making mayonnaise. Last, a stand mixer is ideal for blending larger yield items such as a cheesecake.

Food processor
Blender
Immersion blender
Stand mixer

Advanced appliances

The larger appliances included here often have multiple functions, minimize heating larger appliances, and are typically portable.

Most importantly, many of them allow us to enjoy passive cooking without actively standing by the stove. Anyone who’s ever used a slow cooker can appreciate tossing in all of the ingredients and coming back to a fully cooked meal in 8 hours or less.

Slow cooker
Air fryer
Instant pot or other multifunction cookers

Pulled Indian beef with low carb roti bread

A few of these, such as the waffle iron and sous vide are simply fun to have and use. Who doesn’t love a chaffle or savory waffle?

Toaster oven
Sous vide
Waffle iron

Meal plan

The Diabetes Program: Week 1

Welcome to Diet Doctor’s Diabetes program! Let’s kick off the first week with a collection of some of our favorite meals. If you haven’t tried our recipes before, you’ll be amazed at how delicious and filling it can be to eat healthfully.

Our dietitian has optimized the meal plans for the following 10 weeks to lower your blood sugar and keep it at a safe and stable level throughout the day.

Full meal plan →