Slice Like a Pro: Quality, Affordable Kitchen Knives

If you like cooking your own food, you are going to obviously need knives to chop up fresh produce. For plant-based cooking, you only really need three lives, so it makes life a lot simpler!

• A chef’s knife for chopping hard vegetables
• A paring knife for peeling vegetables
• A serrated knife for cutting bread, tomatoes & peppers

Wash and dry chopping boards upright (don’t place in the dishwasher, or submerge in water). Remove odours by sprinkling on baking soda, then rinsing off. Disinfect by mixing 3 parts water with 1 part cleaning vinegar in a spray bottle (again, rinse and dry).

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).

Before recycling cans, rinse then remove lids (pop ring-pulls over holes). Then use your fingers/thumb to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped. 

Safety tips for using kitchen knives

• Keep knives away from children and pets.
• Choose brands with forged handles (and covers, or use a knife block).
• Keep knives sharp (never try to catch a falling knife).
• Don’t carry knives in pockets (or play with knives).
• Keep blades pointed away when washing knives (don’t put in the dishwasher).
• Carry knives, with blades pointing downward (don’t leave on counters).
• Chop cantaloupe melon on a separate board (store like meat, due to slight risk of salmonella poisoning).

Joseph Joseph knife sets (with sharpeners)

Joseph Joseph (England) offers good knife sets. They cost around £100 a set, but should last for life, as they include easy-to-use sharpening tools. Many have weighted handles and tool rests (to prevent the knife heads touching surfaces, so they stay sharper for longer). And they include safety blocks.

The range includes:

• Knife sets (with silicone heat-resistant spoons) in storage trays.
• Locked knife blocks require adult-sized hands to operate the release button (pulling knives increases the grip). The blocks have smooth rubber insides, to protect blades.
• Knives with chopping boards (different colours for different food) for an all-in-one chopping station. With knife-friendly textured surfaces.
• Knives with integrated ceramic sharpeners, to sharpen just before use. There are also knife sharpeners, that collapse to store in drawers.

Ocean Plastic Scotland (made from fishing waste)

Ocean Plastic Scotland is a unique company that makes professional-level cooking knives (and pizza wheels) with handles made from naturally-coloured recycled waste of broken fishing boxes, recovered on Isle of Skye.

The steels are from Germany or Japan, and the knives made in Glasgow, creating local jobs. Perfect for all your cooking needs, the small range is ideal for home or professional chefs.

The fishing waste boxes are sorted by colour, then washed and shredded, before being moulded into handles with unique marbling. As each knife is handmade, allow a few days for dispatch. Sold in a packaged gift box.

The founder of this company is a professional diver, who learned of a 26-tonne sperm whale that had washed up on a beach (having ingested 100kg of rope, fishing net and plastic) in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides.

Three months later, he found himself on a professional dive to help remove almost 2000 tonnes of shredded plastic waste (all to be incinerated) that had leached from a cargo ship that had hit a reef. The boat was just 20km from the same beach where the whale was found.

Since founding Ocean Plastic Scotland, his company has recycled over 1000kg of rope and net from the Island of Ulva (off Mull), recycled rope and net from six Scottish islands and more from Scottish beaches. How empowering and positive to support a company like this!

Other good quality kitchen knives

• Easi-Grip knives are designed for people with arthritis, with angled handles less likely to twist when wet. They have non-slip grips, so you don’t need to close your hand as much.
• Kuhn Rikon child chef knives combined a safe blade with easy grip handle. For age 3 and over, only with adult supervision.