Raw Food Appliances that Won't Break Your Budget

I think one of the biggest obstacles to overcome when transitioning into a raw vegan diet is the number of appliances you feel compelled to buy. The appliances that are most commonly recommended by raw cookbooks are not necessarily the cheapest, either; on the contrary, they're usually top of the line! While I do agree that these expensive appliances may help you get the most nutritive value out of your food, by no means do I think that they're necessary for you to become a raw foodist. Here are some cost-friendly alternatives to help you on your way.

Tribest Personal Blender or Magic Bullet. These high-speed blenders are perfect if you don't want to (or can't) shell out close to $500 for a Vita-Mix or Blendtec blender. They are versatile as well as convenient, and they are sized appropriately for the new raw foodist who isn't necessarily planning to go 100% or trying to feed the entire family on raw food. Both are generally around $60 depending on where you buy them, but take into account that the Tribest blender is preferred by people who want to grind nuts.

Food Pantrie Hanging Dehydrator. Unlike the Excalibur dehydrators that use fans to dry the water out of food, this dehydrator uses convection heat and uses much less electricity; it's also much quieter. It does take longer to prepare food this way, but dehydrating is a long process anyway. Not to mention it's usually sold under $50, unlike the cheapest Excalibur unit that costs close to $200.

Ito Manual Juice Press. The drawback to this product is that you have to shred the vegetables and cut up the fruit before pressing them. This can be accomplished easily enough with a food processor, however. It is a manual press, so it uses no electricity, but as far as I'm aware it does not require much force to do the pressing. It presses through a cheesecloth, so there is virtually no pulp in the juice. Best of all, it costs $60 from DiscountJuicers.com, as opposed to the GreenStar juicer that can cost more than $500.

Vegetable Peeler for making raw vegetable fettucini. Since you can get these anywhere, I won't bother recommending a brand. Although the Saladacco, and Spirooli vegetable spiralizers are a LOT of fun and easy to use (and not really very expensive at under $50), they're not really essential for making raw pasta. All you have to do is take a vegetable peeler and peel a zucchini into a bowl to get thick fettucini-like noodles. The bigger the zucchini the better, so that your noodles can be long like pasta.

I hope this was helpful, and remember, don't let the lack of appliances keep you from jumping into the raw food movement! It's all worth it.