Meal Prep Power Tools: Pressure Cookers, Air Fryers & Other Time-Savers

Let’s be honest: all you really need to meal prep is a pot, a pan and enough counter space to chop some vegetables without sending them flying onto the floor. Our grandparents were making a week’s worth of meals before pressure cookers had an Instagram following. If you have a stove and an oven, you can absolutely make great meals for the week ahead. But if you’re reading this while staring at a sink full of dishes at 10 p.m., you might appreciate a few gadgets that make the process less of a slog.

Meal prep is a habit, not a competition. Don’t feel like you need to buy every appliance ever marketed on late-night TV. The key question is: will this tool save you time or make your life easier? If the answer is yes, then it might deserve a spot on your counter. If it’s going to collect dust and guilt, maybe skip it. Below are the time-saving heroes I use on rotation.

First up is the pressure cooker. Whether you’ve seen one explode on a sitcom or you’ve drooled over electric models on YouTube, the modern pressure cooker is not the scary pot your mom warned you about. Electric pressure cookers (like the Instant Pot) are basically multi-cookers with a pressure setting and, in my humble opinion, they’re one of the best inventions to hit busy kitchens. They turn rock-hard brown rice into fluffy kernels in half an hour. They take stew meat and make it fall-apart tender in 35 minutes. And the best part? You dump everything in, press a button and walk away. No babysitting, no stirring, no adjusting heat levels. The drawback is that you’ll need to store another appliance. If your counter space is at a premium, think of the pressure cooker as a replacement for a rice cooker and slow cooker combined. For meal prep, it’s a lifesaver because it turns what would normally be a Sunday afternoon of simmering into something you can knock out while answering emails.

Speaking of slow cookers, don’t count them out. I used to think slow cookers were for potlucks and bad chili. I was wrong. A slow cooker is essentially a time machine: you throw ingredients into it before work and come home to a finished meal eight hours later. For meal prep, it shines with big batches of soup, shredded meats or beans. You can cook enough pulled chicken to fill burritos, salads and sandwiches for days, all while you’re somewhere else. There’s something magical about waking up on a Sunday, tossing chicken thighs, salsa and spices into the slow cooker, and coming back after running errands to a tender filling that practically shreds itself. Clean-up is minimal, and the low temperature means it won’t heat up your kitchen the way the oven does in July.

Then there’s the air fryer. When the first wave of air fryers hit the market, I dismissed them as glorified convection ovens for people afraid of oil. And while that’s partly true, I now use mine constantly. It preheats in about three minutes, cooks vegetables until they’re crisp-tender and caramelized, and makes the best “fried” chicken thighs without drenching them in grease. For meal prep, the air fryer is especially good at keeping texture. Roasted sweet potato wedges stay crisp, Brussels sprouts don’t get mushy, and even reheated leftovers can be revived. It’s not essential by any means, but it can cut cooking time in half and save you from having to clean an entire oven tray. Plus, if you’re prepping just for yourself or one other person, you can skip heating up the big oven altogether.

Other honorable mentions include the immersion blender (hello, five-minute soup), a good food processor for chopping and blending, and a set of sharp knives. Remember, an appliance only saves time if it does a job you’d otherwise be doing manually. There’s no shame in sticking with the basics either. My stove gets more use than any device in my kitchen, and my oven still produces more roasted veggies than the air fryer simply because of volume. The point is to use tools that match your lifestyle.

A word on cost: these appliances vary wildly in price. If budget is a concern, start with the appliance you’ll use most often. An entry-level pressure cooker will run you less than a nice dinner out and will pay for itself the first time you cook a pot of beans instead of buying canned. Air fryers come in all sizes; a smaller one might be perfect if you’re short on space. Don’t buy something just because a blogger swears it changed their life. Think about how you cook. If you make a lot of grains and stews, pressure cooker. If you love crispy textures and quick reheats, air fryer. If you want dinner to cook itself while you’re on shift, slow cooker.

Also, take advantage of multi-use appliances. Many pressure cookers have a slow cook setting; some air fryers come with rotisserie attachments. Consolidating functions means fewer gadgets. And if you need guidance on which specific brands hold up and which ones are overpriced hype, I keep a running list of my personal favorites over in the Best Tools section. I test these tools the same way I test recipes: by abusing them during a hectic week and seeing which ones survive.

At the end of the day, the best meal prep tool is the one you actually use. A shiny appliance doesn’t magically chop vegetables or marinate chicken. You still have to plan, shop and cook. But good tools can reduce the barriers between “I should meal prep” and “Dinner is ready for the next three days.” They help you turn a big cooking session into something you do on autopilot while binge watching a show or catching up with a friend. That’s the real magic.

So yes, you can absolutely meal prep with nothing more than a stove and an oven. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. But if you’re looking to save time, cut down on dishes or just make the process more fun, a pressure cooker, a slow cooker or an air fryer might deserve a spot in your kitchen. Just be warned: once you start using them, you might wonder how you ever survived without.