Top smart appliances for your kitchen

There are endless options for kitchen appliances, and most tend to take up a large chunk of counter space even if they only perform one task. If you really want to improve your kitchen, it pays to invest in a few tools that will make your life easier. Some of these are multipurpose, so essentially function as multiple devices, and others make the cooking and cleaning process more accessible, more pleasant, and fun.

SEE IT

If you tend not to cook, but still aim to make healthy food choices, the Vitamix A2500 is a great choice, because it comes with tons of different options for nutritious meals that don’t require extensive prep time. The different settings let you chop, grind, and blend ingredients to make salsa, soup (it will blend as well as heat up your soup), ice cream, or sorbet, and of course, smoothies. This Vitamix comes with a timer for each setting, but will also help you keep track of your recipes for consistency.

SEE IT

A sous vide lets you evenly cook your food at a specific temperature, making it pretty darn hard to overcook your meals. The Anova precision cooker is an immersion circulator, meaning it moves and heats the water it’s submerged in. It connects over WiFi, so you can monitor your food’s progress from your phone. There’s also an app with more 1,000 recipes. In short, to use a sous vide, all you do is place seasoned food in a plastic bag, drop the bag in a deep pot or container of water, and let the Anova cook it at the right temperature.

SEE IT

This stainless-steel smart Crock-Pot connects via Amazon’s Alexa, so you can change the settings from your phone. You can change the temperature, modify the cooking time, or check how much time is left. The removable, six-quart, heat-saver stoneware is dishwasher-safe, so it’s all relatively easy to clean.