9 of the best kitchen gadgets – reviewed

Technology and food are a match made in heaven – and it’s never been easier to get some digital help when cooking a great meal. Smart kitchen appliances abound, and some of them are even pretty good. We’ve spent a few days gorging ourself on ice-cream, hot dogs and smoothies to bring you this selection of our favourites.

KENWOOD EXCEL JUICER JE850 (£220/$260)

The single best thing about juicers is the delicious juice (naturally). The single worst thing? Cleaning up all the pulpy mess that you’re left with in the machine. Thankfully, the JE850 has been equipped with a mighty 1500W motor to extract more juice and leave less pulp behind. It also has two speeds, which makes it ideal for squeezing juice from hard fruits and veg.

MOVENZA AUTOMATIC BLACK BY KRUPS (£180)

If you’d like to have your coffee served to you by an extra from Alien, Krups’ Movenza eats Dolce Gusto coffee pods and spits out a hot black brew. It’s bigger than it looks in the pictures, with a distinctly 3D-printed feel to the machined plastic, but it’s very easy to use: just follow the instructions on the individual pods and you’ll have the perfect latte macchiato (or whatever you’ve loaded it with) every single time.

SAGE SMART TOAST (4-SLICE) (£170/$180)

This isn’t a stupid toaster. It’s a comparatively intelligent one, with two hugely useful functions: ‘a bit more’, which heats the bread for an extra 30 seconds, and ‘a quick look’, which lifts it up for a progress check without interrupting the toasting. All this happens with motorised slots that glide up and down like the doors to a Bond villain’s lair.

BREVILLE 3 SLICE SANDWICH MAKER AND PANINI MAKER (£36/$39)

In practice, toasties can be surprisingly hard to get right. This Breville does them with ease, though. It’s essentially two hot plates: you switch it on, give it a minute to heat up, then pop your sandwich on the bottom plate. Then close the top and wait for a few minutes while it works its magic. And what magic it is.

NUTRIBULLET RX (£170/$149.99)

Time was, making your own soup meant slicing, simmering and stirring a broth of fresh veggies. The Nutribullet RX changes all this: its Souperblast mode will blitz your bits in a jiffy, heating as it goes to serve up homemade soup without the usual hassle. Once it’s whirring, you can leave it to do its thing: a seven-minute blend-and-heat cycle will turn your chunks and herbs into delicious liquid.

SMART RETRO POP-UP HOTDOG TOASTER (£41/$43)

This one’s just like a regular toaster, albeit with specially shaped holes, so you can place a frankfurter and bun inside. Pick a heat setting, wait a few minutes for them to pop up and, once they do, you’ll have a surprisingly tasty hot dog. You don’t get separate dials for the bread and meat, though, so it’s best to put the sausages in first if you don’t want burnt buns.

TEFAL COOK4ME CONNECT (£320/$528)

Connect to the (sometimes unintuitive) app via Bluetooth, choose a meal and follow the recipe: this gadget takes the guesswork out of the pressurised part of pressure cooking. Occasionally it’ll emit a jet of steam like an angry whale, and when it’s done it’ll play a little tune. The food we made was decent but not mind-blowingly tasty – which is fine, given the price.

MORPHY RICHARDS SEAR AND STEW COMPACT (£55)

This slow cooker is a bit of a TARDIS. Smaller and lighter than it looks in pictures, it’ll still hold a family meal’s worth of meat and veg – and cook them to tender, unhurried perfection while you go off and play Overwatch for the whole afternoon. There’s no timer so you’ll have to keep an eye on the clock yourself – but with cooking times as long as these, you’re not going to burn the place down if you leave it a few minutes longer.

SAGE SMART SCOOP ICE CREAM MAKER (£350/$383)

You could probably buy an old ice-cream van for the same price as Heston Blumenthal’s Smart Scoop ice-cream maker – and there’d probably be less preparation involved. Even after splitting eggs, heating things, cooling things, stirring things, watching things and transferring things, you’ll only get a litre of actual ice cream. Good job it tastes amazing.