Guide To The TEFL Kitchen: Top 10 Kitchen Tools

So you’ve made your new flat your own, but now you have to furnish your kitchen? You may not want to spend a lot if you’re only going to be there a year, so here is the TEFL Logue’s top ten kitchen “things” (aside from the obvious cups, plates and silverware), in no particular order:

1. Hand blender (at the least a mashing utensil like this) – mash potatoes or avocadoes, blend fruit for smoothies; a hand blender widens your edible horizons.

2. Grater – obviously for cheese, but you can also make bread crumbs or grate vegetables for salads.

3. Can opener – this is a no brainer.

4. Corkscrew – think of the money you save being able to open your own wine and not forced by circumstance to visit bars.

5. Spatula – does this need an explanation?

6. Serving Spoon – a tablespoon is just not big enough to dole out soup.

7. A pan with high edges – with this you can make cookies and cakes, whereas with a cookie sheet – you’re out of luck on cakes.

8. A large saucepan – bigger is better. And you might even be able to get away without a frying pan.

9. A frying pan – for almost everything. Except boiling water for coffee or tea.

10. A strainer of some kind – even a small tea one – for canned vegetables or pasta, which I think I can safely say makes up a large portion of what gets cooked in many a TEFL kitchen.

Things that you really don’t need: a garlic press, a whisk, a toaster (use the frying pan!). Alright, there are plenty of kitchen tools which are nice to have – and which you may get if your kitchen is already furnished – but these are the bare essentials. Once you have these, you are good to go with TEFL Recipes Part 1 or Part 2. Bon apetit!