These are my favorite easy kitchen gadgets for cooking without a stove. We’re not experts, so we always recommend talking to the pros for the best advice. This post contains affiliate links, which may lead to a commission if purchased. This comes at no extra cost to you. Thanks!
My Favorite Easy Kitchen Gadgets
We’ve been living in a temporary rental while we build our next house on our land. Our current rental doesn’t have a full kitchen, but it does have a lovely little kitchenette. I’m not sure where the exact cutoff is for these definitions, however I call it a kitchenette because it doesn’t have a stovetop. Since we used to do nearly all of our cooking on a stovetop, this was quite the adjustment for us in the beginning. Fortunately, these easy kitchen gadgets helped us transition to move of a kitchenette-friendly way of cooking.
I’m normally very averse to cooking “gadgets” and devices. Previously, I thought they just took up space and went unused. However, these easy kitchen gadgets have proved themselves well worth the cabinet space they occupy. I’m going over my favorite easy kitchen gadgets that have made cooking so much more enjoyable. Especially when it comes to heating food with no stove top!
Rice Cooker
This is probably our second most used easy kitchen gadget. I can’t believe I didn’t get one sooner! Granted, we do eat a lot of rice. But I will absolutely continue to use a rice maker, even when we have a stove top again. I love the rice cooker for four reasons.
- It cooks the rice faster. This device cooks rice much faster than when I used to make it on the stove top.
- There’s no spillage. I have a remarkable habit of not monitoring the pot temperature close enough when cooking rice on the stove top. This causes the dreaded “boiling over” and starchy water cleanup. Thanks to the rice cooker, no longer!
- It keeps the rice warm. This easy kitchen gadget automatically switches from “cook” to “warm” as soon as the rice is finished.
- The rice doesn’t stick. I’m not always a fan of nonstick cooking, but in this case, it’s well worth it. I’ve never had a grain of rice stick to this surface, and cleanup is a breeze.
Electric Burner
Since we don’t have any burners on a stove top, we purchased this electric burner for when burner cooking is a must. This isn’t our most-used of the easy kitchen gadgets. However, it does come majorly in handy when the occasional burner cooking technique is necessary to perfect a recipe. It takes a little longer to heat up than most stove top burners, so I don’t like to use it every day. However, the electric burner is easy to set up, and it gets the job done when it needs to!
Microwave Egg Dish
I know, I know. “Microwave” and “egg” sound pretty awful together as a first impression. However, this little dish has totally changed my opinion about microwave egg cooking. Since we raise our own chickens and collect their eggs, we eat a lot of eggs as well. I love using this little microwave egg dish to cook an egg patty and put it in a breakfast sandwich each morning. Somehow, it always comes out fluffy and perfectly cooked after just 60 seconds. Plus, it’s the only prep dish I have to wash! When it comes to the most frugal of the easy kitchen gadgets, this one takes the cake.
Slow Cooker
Am I the only one who is still obsessed with my slow cooker? I feel like when the Instant Pot came out, slow cookers became “no longer trendy” and “old news”. However, to me, there is nothing like a meal cooked low and slow, with lots of time for flavors to blend and mature. Even with all the “newer” and “more trendy” easy kitchen gadgets on the market, my trusty slow cooker is still my favorite and most reliable way of cooking without a stove.
Air Fryer
While I still can’t get totally behind the Instant Pot (I know, know), I do really enjoy using our air fryer from time to time. The air fryer cooks food faster than our oven, and the food often comes out crispier and more evenly cooked. I especially love the air fryer for cooking side dishes while the main dish is cooking in the oven. Between the two of them, I can have a delicious, home-cooked meal on the table in no time.
Dutch Oven
While the dutch oven isn’t an electric easy kitchen gadget, I find it incredibly useful for cooking without a stove top. To me, it kind of doubles as a faster, more versatile slow cooker. While I wouldn’t originally have thought I would need two versions of a slow cooker, I use them both very often. The dutch oven comes especially in handy when I have two “slow cook” dishes I’m making. Better yet, when I didn’t get the meal in the slow cooker soon enough for it to be finished by dinner time, I just throw it in the dutch oven and have it done in just a few hours.
I’ve heard this dutch oven is well worth the investment, but I know the price might be too much for some. Amazon also offers this knock-off version which seems to get good reviews, as well!
Electric Kettle
I never used an electric kettle when I had a stovetop for heating water. But now that we’re cooking without a stove, I find the electric kettle to be extremely useful for bringing water to a boil. We use a stainless steel electric kettle like this one, but there are so many different styles to choose from. I like to boil water in the electric kettle to make pasta, which surprisingly, only takes about a minute or so.
Waffle Maker
Hear me out. We don’t make waffles a ton, but it is definitely nice to have the option when we get sick of eggs and oatmeal. We used to make Kodiak Cakes pancakes all the time on the stove top. While we have an electric burner now, it’s too cumbersome to get out all the equipment and make one pancake at a time. We just don’t end up doing it. Instead, the we make Kodiak Cakes waffles! They’re the perfect treat. With the waffle maker, they’re ready in just a few minutes, and cleanup is a breeze.
Extra Large Glass Bowl
Is this really considered one of the easy kitchen gadgets? Perhaps not. I guess a bowl collection isn’t exactly cutting edge technology. However, it’s so useful for cooking without a stove! To make pasta without a stove, I just boil water in the electric kettle, and pour it over uncooked pasta in a big glass bowl. Then I put the whole thing in the microwave, and heat it until the pasta is cooked through. It depends on the kind of pasta, but it can take as little as 2 minutes. An extra large microwaveable bowl is well worth adding to any collection of easy kitchen gadgets. Especially for those without a stove!
Easy Kitchen Gadgets Collection