The best food steamers are a great addition to any kitchen. They allow you to cook healthy meals with many different ingredients, preserving the flavor and moisture of food. Steaming is a healthier cooking method because it retains more nutrients than boiling. Steamers also save space on your stovetop, so you can cook other things simultaneously.
With multiple tiers, you can prepare an entire meal. They feature digital controls, so you can adjust the heat and intensity.
Steamers aren't just for cooking veggies; because of their larger tiers, they're also great for cooking meat and fish. As the food cooks, the flavors meld together, resulting in a flavorful meal.
We put together a list of food steamers that come with built-in cooking settings. If you want hassle-free options, our guide also includes user-friendly and budget-friendly options. These smart appliances steam meat, vegetables, eggs, and potatoes without setting specific cooking times.
For more appliances that promote healthy living, check out our recommendations for the best slow cookers and best Instant Pots.
The best food steamers we recommend in 2024
Why you can trust Top Ten Reviews Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Top Ten Reviews is on a mission to review everything we feature in our buyer's guides. Still, while we work hard to make this a reality—or where this isn't possible—some of our guides still feature rankings based on our team's considerable expertise and research.
While we haven't been able to test any of the units in this guide in person, we've instead honed in on top-rated brands and used our knowledge of the best features to help you make the right decision for your home, all for the best price.
The best food steamer overall
Users love the AROMA ARC-914SBD Digital Rice Cooker for its versatility and ease of use. It can cook up to 8 cups of rice and has a steamer function, so it's a great addition to any kitchen.
Some users like the ARC-914SBD because it's easy to use. The buttons are easy to press, and the included manual has detailed instructions and recipes. Users also like the removable non-stick pot, which makes cleaning and cooking easy. The steamer function is especially well-received and works great for veggies and other foods. No matter what kind of rice you cook, whether jasmine, basmati, or another, the rice comes out fluffy and well-cooked.
The ARC-914SBD is said to be great for its price. Users love that it respects their budget while still delivering quality results. It's considered a mid-range option that competes well with more expensive models.
The best budget food steamer
The DASH Mini Rice Cooker Steamer has gained popularity among people looking for a compact and efficient cooking solution. This appliance holds up to 2 cups of cooked rice, which is great for those who like rice, oatmeal, soups, and stews.
Because of its compact size, it fits in small kitchens or dorm rooms. It's great for cooking single servings or meals for two, especially if you're conscious of portion control. People rave about how easy cleaning the removable nonstick pot is, so you don't have to worry about it while cooking.
Customers have reported consistent results when cooking rice, saying it always cooks fluffy white rice. Users love experimenting with different grains and veggies with the cooker, and it's great for preparing all kinds of food. Another feature that users find useful is the keep-warm function, which lets them keep their meals warm without overcooking.
It takes a while to figure out the rice-to-water ratio, and some people say their initial attempts resulted in overly wet rice. They found that adjusting their measurements improved results a lot. In addition, while the cooker is generally well-received, some users had trouble with the initial units, but customer service helped them fix it.
The best premium food steamer
The KitchenAid KGC3155BM Grain and Rice Cooker has received enthusiastic feedback from users who appreciate its innovative features and reliable performance. This appliance is designed to simplify the cooking process for rice, grains, and beans. It's got an 8-cup capacity and an automatic water-to-rice ratio that many users like.
Many users highlight the cooker's ability to handle a wide range of grains and beans, not just rice. Users also like the automatic water-to-grain ratio, which eliminates guesswork and gives perfect results every time. Integrated scales make it easy to measure ingredients. In addition to cooking perfectly fluffy rice and grains, users love the KGC3155BM's keep-warm function, which lets them enjoy their meals at the perfect temperature.
Although it's more expensive, many users feel it's worth the investment because of its incredible performance and versatility.
The best food steamer for rice
Despite not being the quickest, the Cosori 5.0-quart Rice Cooker consistently produces fluffy, flavorful rice. It's a great multitasker in the kitchen because it's versatile enough to sauté, steam, slow cook, and make soup. Its sleek black cube design and steel-trimmed top make it a nice addition to any counter.
With a generous capacity of up to 10 cups of dried rice, this cooker is perfect for larger families but can also handle smaller batches for other cooking modes. The control panel has preset buttons and a delay timer for convenient meal prep. The VeSync App is really handy when you're serving food. It only has recipes and ingredient adjustments but doesn't support Wi-Fi.
One notable aspect of this rice cooker is its fixed cooking times in rice mode; one cup of white short-grain rice will take about 51 minutes to cook. It uses Fuzzy Logic to adjust cooking as needed, but it can be frustrating if you want to set your meals up in synchrony. Even though I encountered some problems with rice pudding, the results were good with steaming and slow cooking.
For instance, preparing basmati rice for four on the stove takes only 15 minutes, while cooking it in the Cosori can take 45 minutes for smaller quantities. Steaming vegetables takes about 10 minutes, and 30 minutes to sauté them. Even though it takes a long time to steam vegetables and 30 minutes to sauté them, the rice cooker runs quietly, adding style and functionality to my kitchen.
Read our full review of the COSORI 1.8L Rice Cooker
| Attribute | Notes | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | stylish, easy to set up, and intuitive to use | 8/10 |
| Design & Features | sleek and user-friendly, with a generous capacity, solid build, and useful features like a Keep Warm function and recipe app | 8/10 |
| Performance | excels in cooking but lacks adjustable rice times, taking longer than stovetop methods. Steaming and sautéing are efficient, with minimal noise | 6/10 |
| Care & Maintenance | easy, with dishwasher-safe parts and minimal maintenance | 8/10 |
| Value | priced at $99.99, with an Amazon offer for $84.99 | 8/10 |
Sure, the Cosori 5.0-Quart Rice Cooker isn’t going to win any speed races, but what it lacks in pace, it makes up for in precision. Expect some of the fluffiest, most flavorsome rice you’ve ever tasted—and lots of it. Beyond rice, it multitasks like a pro, with sauté, steam, slow cook, and soup settings all in its repertoire. Oh, and did I mention it looks seriously sleek on the counter?
The best compact food steamer
The Aroma Housewares 6-Cup Pot-Style Food Steamer has received positive reviews from users who appreciate its affordability, simplicity, and versatility. It's a great rice cooker and steamer for a reasonable price, especially for people who don't want to spend a lot.
One of the biggest advantages is its simplicity of operation. With its one-touch lever mechanism, you add rice and water and can steam vegetables or other stuff. It's convenient for busy lifestyles because meals can be made in 15 to 20 minutes. For novice cooks who might feel intimidated by complicated appliances, this straightforward functionality is especially useful.
Many users praise the Aroma steamer's cooking performance. They say it produces fluffy rice and steams vegetables well, retaining flavor and nutrients. The steamer basket makes meal prep easier because you can cook rice and veggies at once.
In addition, the nonstick pot makes cleaning a breeze. Many users like how easy it is to clean after use, which is important for those trying to minimize their kitchen cleanup time.
The best large capacity food steamer
Users love the Cuisinart STM-1000 Cook Fresh Digital Glass Steamer because of its design, efficiency, and cooking ability. Thanks to its glass and stainless steel construction, it has a modern aesthetic that looks great in the kitchen and allows users to watch the cooking process.
Users often rave about the steamer's powerful steam system, which delivers steam from the top down, cooking the food evenly and quickly. Many have reported excellent results when steaming vegetables, fish, and even rice, saying the food stays flavorful and nutrient-dense. A 5-liter capacity is another plus, so you can make family-sized portions, which is great for meal prepping or entertaining.
The digital controls are often praised for their simplicity and functionality. Users love the preset cooking times for various foods, which take the guesswork out of steaming. Its automatic shut-off feature gives you peace of mind when cooking unattended. Reviewers say that it heats up fast and reaches the desired temperature quickly.
Cleaning the Cuisinart STM-1000 is pretty simple, with many users finding the glass pot easy to wash. Some users say cleaning the steam tray can be hard, especially if food gets stuck. However, despite this minor inconvenience, the overall performance and results outweigh any cleaning challenges.
The best food steamer oven
The Fotile 4-in-1 ChefCubii oven has a sleek design in white, featuring a hinged front door, two sturdy knobs, and a discreet LED screen. However, the lack of clear labeling on the knobs makes it difficult to determine their functions, and using Celsius adds complexity, especially for air-frying, with temperatures ranging from 356°F to 446°F, incrementing by 9 degrees with each click.
Despite these challenges, the oven includes helpful features like preset codes on the door for quick reference and a humidity-controlled chip for dehydrating. It offers 40 presets for steaming, air frying, roasting, and cooking rice. However, the tray labels and instructions can confuse new steam oven users.
The Fotile 4-in-1 presented some difficulties for our reviewer, Marah. The knob controls were complex, particularly when roasting a whole chicken, which resulted in a burnt top and an oddly gray interior, although it was cooked. Steaming vegetables for her kids' lunches also didn't work well, and she scrubbed the oven unnecessarily after use.
Marah encountered similar issues with the dehydrator; the grapes didn't dry as expected with the preset. She appreciated the air fryer's functionality, but the Fotile 4-in-1 didn't fully meet her expectations.
Read our full FOTILE ChefCubii 4-in-1 Countertop Steam Oven review
| Attribute | Notes | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | relatively straightforward; users can easily insert the racks, plug it in, and run a quick cleaning cycle | 8/10 |
| Design & features | modern and attractive design with a hinged front door; variety of cooking functions; lack of clear labeling; self-cleaning function and sturdy construction | 7/10 |
| Performance | mixed results; uneven cooking and difficulties with specific presets; struggled with dehydrating grapes and steaming vegetables; ooking temperature often ran higher than set | 6/10 |
"The Fotile 4-in-1 ChefCubii oven looks great, but when I tested its more niche settings, I found that it falls short in functionality."
How to choose the best food steamer for you
According to an article published by Healthy Options, steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook everything from beef to broccoli. Eating steamed food can help you lower your cholesterol – steaming meat removes fat, unlike frying, baking, and grilling. Also, you don't need to use butter, oil, or any other fat to cook meat when you use a steamer.
Steaming is also an excellent way to prepare vegetables since it cooks them thoroughly without sapping them of essential vitamins and minerals. In addition, steamed vegetables retain their taste, color, juices, and freshness better than those cooked in other ways. Other cooking methods, such as boiling, can destroy naturally occurring vitamin B, riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, biotin B12, pantothenic acid, and vitamin C, as well as minerals like calcium, phosphorous, potassium, and zinc.
An article published online by Shape Magazine also encourages steaming many foods, especially vegetables, chicken breasts, fish, and shellfish. "It's perfect for fish and shellfish because it doesn't dry out the delicate flesh. Halibut, cod, and snapper steam particularly well," the article states. Shape recommends jazzing up your steamed meals with herbs and other natural flavorings and avoiding using salt, which will wash off. For example, you can steam a fish fillet in foil with some garlic, grated ginger, onion, basil leaves, and a bit of lemon juice.
Size
Food steamer size is measured in quarts; most models are 3 quarts or bigger. They also usually have one to three tiers. When you buy a model with more than one tier, you can stack different items and steam them simultaneously or cook large foods in big batches.
If you buy a combination rice cooker and food steamer, the size is relative to the number of cups of rice the cooker makes. The larger the rice cooker, the larger the steamer basket. Small steamers are great for cooking a single dish, while a three-tier model can cook a whole meal.
Versatility
Dedicated food steamers can accommodate a variety of foods, but if you often cook rice, it makes sense to get a rice cooker and food steamer combo. These machines typically limit the variety of food you can prepare simultaneously because there is only one basket for steaming other foods. Still, if you usually eat rice, meats, or vegetables together, a food steamer and rice cooker combo is a convenient meal preparation.
Ease of Use
Food steamers come in electronic and stovetop varieties. Electronic steamers have timers, so you can set them and do other things while you wait for your food to cook. Stovetop varieties need some monitoring – you must monitor water levels and perfect your timing so your food is cooked the way you want. The best steamers are dishwasher safe, so no pots can be cleaned.
Food steamer FAQs
How do food steamers work?
Cooking food with steam preserves nutrients, flavor, and texture, so food steamers are great. Food steaming works by heating water to produce steam, which then circulates the food, cooking it evenly without directly coming into contact with boiling water.
Food steamers have water reservoirs. When the appliance is on, a heating element heats the water, vaporizing it. Steam rises and fills the cooking chamber, where food is placed in perforated containers or trays. Steam flows freely around the food in these trays, cooking it from all angles.
With most food steamers, you can set the timer and temperature to cook what you want. Vegetables, for instance, take less time to cook than grains or proteins. Steaming is gentle, so vitamins and minerals don't get lost as in other cooking methods like boiling.
With multiple tiers in steamers, you can cook food at the same time without mixing flavors. For instance, you can steam fish on one level while vegetables cook on another. Some models even have features like automatic shut-off, which prevents overcooking.
A stovetop steamer is a pot with a steaming insert that uses the same principle as an electric steamer but requires a stovetop.
Are food steamers worth it?
One of the biggest benefits of food steamers is that they allow you to cook food quickly and efficiently while preserving nutrients. Steaming also retains the colors, textures, and flavors of vegetables, fish, and grains for longer than boiling or baking. This method doesn't contain much fat, so it's great for people trying to lose weight.
Also, food steamers can be used to make a wide range of foods, like vegetables, meats, seafood, and desserts. Many models have multiple tiers, so you can cook different things at the same time. This feature is perfect for families or meal prep enthusiasts.
There are some things to consider before buying a food steamer. If you already have a kitchen with slow cookers, pressure cookers, and microwave ovens, it might seem redundant to have a steamer. Some people might not like the steaming process for some foods since it produces softer textures than grilling or frying.
How much does a food steamer cost?
As ever with kitchen gadgets, prices vary widely. Our current top pick has a typical retail price of around $45, while more high-tech options can cost four or five times that. At the other end of the scale, there are plenty of simple but effective options hovering around the $20 mark.
Although price is, of course, important, we'd recommend concentrating first on what you want to steam and how you want to steam it: there's no point saving a few bucks on a steamer if it doesn't have the capacity or features you need; it'll just end up in the back of a cupboard.
Are food steamers healthy?
Yes! Steaming is considered one of the best ways to preserve food's nutrients and flavor. And with steaming, you're not cooking in unhealthy oils or fats.
In addition to locking in nutrients, steaming has other health benefits. Because it's so easy to do and the results are so much tastier than food baked dry or boiled into blandness, steaming your food is a great way to start and stick to healthier eating. Steaming isn't just for veggies, as good as steamed veggies are: it's used for other tasty foods such as spring rolls, dumplings, and fish.
How much electricity does a food steamer use?
Not much. Food steamers are relatively low-energy appliances. An air fryer might run at 1500 to 2,000 watts, while a steamer will typically require about 400 to 800W unless you've gone for an extremely powerful model. And because steaming is so quick, you're not using that power for extended periods, either.
How long to food steamers last?
According to several factors, such as the quality of the appliance, frequency of use, and maintenance practices, food steamers can last between 5 and 10 years. A higher-end model usually has better materials and construction and lasts longer.
Well-known manufacturers usually use higher-quality components that can withstand regular use better than cheaper ones. It's important to clean your steamer regularly to prevent mineral buildup, which can affect performance over time. If you use it a lot, it'll wear out faster.
The best way to ensure the longevity of your food steamer is to keep it clean, including periodically descaling it. If you live in an area with hard water, you must follow the manufacturer's cleaning and care instructions.
When you're not using your steamer, store it in a dry, cool place and ensure it's clean and dry before storing it.
When is the best time to buy a food steamer?
A food steamer is a great deal during major sales like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or clearance sales at the end of the year. When retailers offer significant discounts during these periods, you can get high-quality steamers for a great price. Also, people look for kitchen gadgets to gift or use for festive cooking during the holiday season, which can lead to promotions.
There's no better time to buy a food steamer than at the beginning of the year. Many people set health-related resolutions, and steamers can be a great way to prepare healthy meals. Retailers often stock up on kitchen appliances during this time, so you'll have a bigger selection.
Identify your cooking habits and when you will most likely use a steamer. Buying a steamer before a busy cooking season—like summer barbecues or holiday gatherings—can help if you plan to incorporate more steamed dishes into your diet. You can experiment with recipes and get to know the appliance.
Manufacturers usually release new models and features in the spring and fall. If you're interested in the latest technology or design, wait for these releases.
