Vegan cooking leans harder on prep work than meat-and-two-veg cooking does. There’s more washing, more slicing, more turning chickpeas and cashews into something smooth, and doing all of that by hand every night gets old fast. A handful of gadgets take the tedious parts off your plate so the actual cooking stays enjoyable. Here are three that genuinely earn their cupboard space for a vegan kitchen, based on their real specs and what UK buyers actually say after using them.

At a glance

  • Best for: anyone batch-cooking vegan meals who’s tired of washing leaves by hand, slicing veg one piece at a time, or reaching for a full-size processor to make a small batch of hummus
  • Top pick if you only buy one: the OXO mandoline, it’s the cheapest of the three and cuts the most repetitive task (uniform veg slicing) down from minutes to seconds
  • Watch out for: mandoline blades are genuinely sharp enough to cut you if you get complacent, always use the hand guard
  • Skip if: you’re already cooking for one and don’t batch-prep, the time savings mostly show up when you’re processing larger quantities at once

Why vegan meal prep needs different gadgets

A lot of vegan cooking is built around ingredients that need more handling than meat does before they’re edible. Beans and lentils need rinsing and sometimes soaking. Leafy greens need washing properly, not just a rinse under the tap, or they turn a salad soggy. Chickpeas, nuts, and root veg regularly need to become a smooth paste rather than staying whole. None of that is difficult, but doing it with a knife and a colander every single time adds up over a week of batch cooking. The three gadgets below each solve one specific part of that.

The shortlist

KitchenCraft Deluxe Salad Spinner and Dresser

This is a 25cm spinner with a locking lid and a smooth-turn handle rather than a pull-cord or pump mechanism, which some people find easier on the wrist for a big batch of greens. The inner basket doubles as a colander for washing, and the outer bowl works fine as a serving bowl once everything’s dry. It’s made from BPA-free plastic and weighs 650g, so it’s light enough to store in a cupboard without being a hassle to pull out.

Owners rate it 4.5 out of 5 on Amazon UK, and the recurring praise is that it dries leaves properly rather than leaving them half-damp, which matters if you’re prepping salad bases for the week rather than one portion at a time. The lid has a small opening so you can add dressing and spin it through the leaves directly in the bowl, which is a nice touch if you’re taking a portion straight to a container. The main limitation is size: at 25cm across, it handles a couple of lettuces or a big bag of spinach comfortably, but if you’re washing greens for a household of four or more in one go, you’ll be doing it in batches.

KitchenCraft Deluxe Salad Spinner on Amazon UK

OXO Good Grips Handheld Mandoline Slicer

This one has three thickness settings (1mm, 2.5mm, and 4mm), a stainless steel blade, and a food holder that both protects your hand while slicing and snaps over the blade for safe storage afterwards. It’s rated 4.5 out of 5 across over 19,000 UK ratings, which is a serious amount of real-world use to draw on, and the recurring theme in reviews is that it turns a repetitive job (slicing courgette, cucumber, carrot, or potato for batch cooking) into something that takes seconds instead of minutes with a knife.

The honest caveat, and it comes up constantly in the reviews, is that the blade is properly sharp. Several UK reviewers describe cutting themselves even after being warned, and one review specifically flagged the guard as feeling inadequate on thinner vegetables that don’t sit firmly in the holder. Another noted that slices can come out slightly uneven front-to-back if you don’t keep steady pressure through the whole cut. None of that makes it a bad tool, mandolines are sharp by design, but it’s worth using the guard every time rather than treating it as optional once you’ve got the hang of it.

OXO Good Grips Mandoline Slicer on Amazon UK

KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper 830ml

An 830ml electric chopper with two speeds plus pulse, a drizzle basin for adding oil while it’s running, and a stainless steel multipurpose blade. It’s smaller than a full food processor, which is exactly the point for a lot of vegan cooking: hummus, cashew-based sauces, pesto, and salsa are usually made in quantities that get lost in a bigger machine’s bowl. Reviewers consistently mention using it for exactly that, with one describing it as making “beautiful and smooth” hummus and preferring it over a bigger blender that couldn’t handle small batches well.

The genuine downsides are minor but real: a few UK reviewers wish the power cord were longer for more flexible counter positioning, and one noted you have to hold the button down continuously rather than lock it running, which gets tiring for anything that needs a longer blend like a smooth mayonnaise. A couple of buyers also found the included instructions thin and had to work out bowl removal by trial and error the first time. It’s rated 4.5 out of 5 from UK buyers, and the size that frustrates some reviewers of the bigger KitchenAid processors (not enough capacity) is the reason this one works well for smaller vegan batches.

KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper on Amazon UK

How to use them together for a batch-cooking session

If you’re setting aside an hour or two to prep for the week, a sensible order is: wash and spin your greens and herbs first so they have time to dry fully while you do everything else, then use the mandoline for anything that needs uniform slices (carrots, courgette, cucumber for quick pickles), then finish with the chopper for anything that needs to become a paste or sauce, hummus, a cashew dressing, or a pesto. Doing it in that order means the chopper, which is the messiest to clean, only gets used once at the end rather than being washed and dried between tasks.

Cleaning and safety

The salad spinner’s basket and bowl are dishwasher safe, though the lid mechanism is usually better off hand washed to keep it turning smoothly long-term. The mandoline’s blade should go straight into the guard after use rather than being left loose in a drawer, and if you are washing it by hand, use a brush rather than a sponge held directly against the blade. The food chopper’s bowl, lid, and blade are all dishwasher safe, but let the blade cool and handle it by the plastic hub rather than the edge when you’re removing it.

FAQ

Do I need all three, or can I start with one?
If you only get one, the mandoline gives the biggest time saving for the lowest outlay, since knife-slicing veg by hand is usually the slowest part of vegan meal prep. Add the other two once you know how often you’re actually batch cooking.

Is the mandoline safe for a beginner?
Yes, as long as you use the food holder every time rather than holding vegetables by hand once you get confident. Most of the injuries mentioned in reviews happened when people skipped the guard on a “quick” cut.

Can the mini food chopper replace a full-size food processor?
Not for large batches or dough, but for the quantities most vegan sauces and dips are made in, it’s arguably a better fit than a bigger processor that leaves ingredients too spread out across a larger bowl to blend properly.

Will the salad spinner fit in a small UK kitchen cupboard?
At 25cm across and 650g, it’s on the compact end for a spinner with this capacity, and the bowl can double as a mixing or serving bowl if storage space is tight.

The verdict

None of these three gadgets are essential in the way a knife or a pan is, but they each remove a specific, repetitive bottleneck from vegan batch cooking. If you’re prepping meals for more than just yourself, or doing it in one sitting for the week ahead, they pay for themselves in time fairly quickly. Start with whichever task you dread most and go from there.