New home kitchen essentials checklist
Quick answer
Build the kitchen around meals you actually cook. A compact set of correctly sized, durable essentials is more useful than a large bundle of rarely used pieces.
Core cooking pieces
Start with one pressure cooker, one deep pot, one frying or sauté pan and one kadai-sized vessel appropriate to your household.
- Pressure cooker in a practical family capacity
- Deep pot with lid
- Frying pan or tawa
- Kadai or sauté pan
Utensils and preparation
Add a strong ladle, turner, serving spoon, knife, chopping board, strainer and measuring tools. Select utensils that will not damage the cookware surface.
Storage and serving
Choose containers based on the staples you buy, then add plates, bowls, tumblers and serving pieces for the number of people you regularly host.