Kitchen tools that cut steps: choppers, rice cookers and multi-cookers

What to look for in kitchen tools that cut steps

The best kitchen tool removes the step that makes you skip meals, and does not add a harder one at washing-up time.

• Which step it removes. Chopping (a chopper), watching a pan (a rice cooker or egg cooker), juggling several pans (a multi-cooker) or timing the oven (an air fryer). Be honest about which one actually stops you cooking.
• Parts to wash. Every extra piece is another reason to leave it in the sink. The OXO chopper's grid comes out for cleaning and the chopper is dishwasher safe. Ninja says its air fryer drawers and crisper plates are dishwasher safe.
• Hand strength. Pull choppers need a few tugs of a cord. Push choppers need a firm press; M&S reviewers of the OXO say tough vegetables take real force.
• Size and weight. The OXO is 26.2cm wide. The Ninja Double Stack is 28cm wide but 38.5cm tall. The Instant Pot Duo is 32 by 33 by 31cm and weighs 5kg. If it has to come out of a cupboard every time, weight matters.
• Signals. A buzzer or keep-warm setting means you can walk away. Lakeland's egg cooker has a timer and buzzer; the Instant Pot has a keep-warm setting, so food waits for you rather than the other way round.
• Guarantee. The Lakeland items we checked come with a three-year guarantee. Ninja gives two years when you register the air fryer.

Kitchen tools compared

Which kitchen tool saves the most steps?

For most kitchens, a multi-cooker saves the most steps, because it replaces the hob, the pans and the watching; a chopper is the cheapest win if knife work is what stops you.

The Instant Pot Duo pressure cooks, slow cooks, and does rice, porridge, steaming, sautéing and yoghurt in one 5.7 litre pot at 1,000W, and holds food on keep-warm when it is done. Tip it in, lid on, press a programme, walk away. The catch: pressure cooking has rules about how full to fill the pot and how to release the steam, so the first few uses mean reading the manual. When we checked on 11 September 2026, Amazon UK listed it as usually dispatched within three to seven months, so look at other retailers if you want it this month.

The Ninja Double Stack cooks two things at once in two 3.8 litre drawers, and its Sync function times them to finish together. That solves the old problem of the chips being ready ten minutes before the fish. Ninja says it is 25% slimmer than side-by-side models, which matters on a narrow worktop.

Small single-job tools are underrated. The Lakeland mini rice cooker makes one or two portions in a lift-out 500ml non-stick pan, and the egg cooker does up to seven eggs with a buzzer. If a handful of foods get eaten reliably in your house, making those foods effortless is worth more than a gadget for meals you rarely cook.

If worktop space is tight

If you only have room for one thing, choose by the food you actually eat: rice most days, the rice cooker; oven food, the air fryer; stews, curries and soups, the Instant Pot.

The choppers and the rice cooker fit in a cupboard. Lakeland calls the soup maker ultra compact, and it is a jug, so it lives happily in a corner. The Ninja and the Instant Pot really need a permanent spot, because anything heavy that lives at the back of a cupboard tends to stay there.

The cheapest set-up that covers a lot of ground is a pull chopper and a mini rice cooker, for well under £50 together. Add the Instant Pot later if one-pot cooking turns out to be what you reach for.

Things to know

• Blades are sharp. Chopper blades are exposed when you wash them, so use a brush, not fingers.
• Steam burns. Keep your face and hands away from the Instant Pot's steam release, and follow the manual on filling levels.
• Power. The Ninja draws 2,470W. Check the manual before running it from an extension lead alongside other appliances.
• Air fryers and multi-cookers get hot on the outside and push out hot air, so leave space around them and keep them away from the edge of the worktop.
• Lakeland's own product pages did not show prices when we checked; the prices here are from our data on 11 September 2026.
• We have not tested these tools. Specs come from Lakeland, M&S, SharkNinja and Amazon UK pages on 11 September 2026.