The best food steamers are a great addition to any kitchen, as they can create healthy meals with many different elements. They preserve the flavor and moisture of ingredients and are a healthier way of cooking, locking in more nutrients than boiling. Also, food steamers free up space on your kitchen's stovetop, giving you more freedom to cook with other elements.
Food steamers are great appliances that allow you to cook an entire meal using multiple tiers. One of the best features of these steamers is their digital controls, which allow you to adjust the heat and intensity of the cooking process to suit your preferences.
Not only are food steamers perfect for cooking vegetables, but they can also be used to prepare meat or fish, thanks to their larger tiers. As the cooking process continues, the tiered design ensures that the flavors mix, resulting in a delicious and flavorful meal.
Many of the food steamers featured in our guide have built-in cooking settings for various types of food. These intelligent appliances are capable of steaming meat, vegetables, eggs, and potatoes without requiring you to set specific times. If you prefer hassle-free appliances, our guide also includes more user-friendly and cost-effective alternatives.
Food steamers can hold up to 12 quarts, which means every family should be able to find one that suits their needs. For more appliances focused on healthy living, check out the best rice cookers and the best Instant Pots.
The best food steamers we recommend in 2024
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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
The Hamilton Beach 5.5 Quart is an affordable two-tier food steamer with a removable divider, making it easy to accommodate large items. Its digital display allows you to set it for steaming, delay start, and warming, and it even includes a rice bowl for steaming rice and small foods. This one is more versatile than other steam cookers, thanks to unique features such as the delay start feature and the post-cooking warmer. Given its low cost and smart design, this steam cooker is a good investment for anyone who wants to enjoy healthy cooking.
To get the best results, place foods that take longer to cook in the bottom tier, while shorter cooking times are reserved for the top tier. For example, you could place chicken and potatoes in the bottom bowl and green beans or squash on top. This steamer can accommodate small items or large foods, such as corn on the cob or a head of broccoli. You can also use it to cook seafood, poultry, hot dogs, hard or soft-boiled eggs, and rice.
The best food steamer for professionals
The Cuisinart Digital Glass Steamer is an advanced steam cooker with preset modes for cooking seafood, poultry, grains, and vegetables, along with manual control. It can also reheat food to serving temperature and keep it warm once cooked. The electronic LCD allows you to adjust the cooking settings according to your preferences, and an audible alarm sounds when the meal is finished.
The Cuisinart Digital Glass Steamer might seem expensive, but the high-quality five-liter glass pot is durable and useful in your kitchen for a long time. Additionally, the glass steamer pot is a great option if you are cautious about using even BPA-free plastic while cooking. The pot only has one level, but the tray that lines it can be used to lift food away easily and flipped to act as a steamer stand for versatile use.
One of the significant drawbacks of steamers with only one tier is that your food will all have to cook on the same heat level; if you want to add or remove something from the pot, you'll have to open the glass lid and lose the steam. However, cooking meals all-in-one is a convenient way of preparing meals, and your food will take on the flavor of the parts, saving you from bland potatoes or tasteless greens. It is a well-deserved entry in our guide to the best food steamers.
The best vintage-style food steamer
Food steamers are not always designed with aesthetics, but the BUYDEEM G563 is a stylish exception worth highlighting. Its one-minute heating time is perfect for quick dinners or snacks. Moreover, this versatile appliance offers multiple functions, combining a steamer, stew pot, yogurt maker, sterilizer, and thawing machine.
Filling the bottom tray with water is a breeze, and the steamer has an auto power-off feature that automatically shuts it down when the water level is low, preventing the pot from burning. Its compact and lightweight design, weighing only 9.47 pounds, is also an excellent choice for smaller kitchens.
The best large capacity food steamer
The Secura electric food steamer is a great choice for those who need to make dinner quickly. It can generate steam in just 15 seconds. The digital display is easy to read, and you can adjust it to your desired setting. It's also easy to clean.
The steamer has two tiers you can stack on top of each other. This makes it perfect for steaming vegetables, fish, chicken, or grains. It's also safe to use, with a non-slip upper knob and an anti-scalding handle. The auto-shut-off feature ensures that the machine automatically powers down when no water is left. This prevents the pan from burning and gives you peace of mind.
The Secura model has a substantial capacity of 8.5 quarts, perfect for larger families. Most steamers come with a standard 5 quarts. So, if you love to host or batch cook, this steamer is an excellent choice. The stainless steel design is sleek and stylish and will look great on your kitchen counter.
The best food steamer for vegetables
If you're looking for a simple food steamer to make meal preparation easier, especially if you live alone or in a small household, the NESCO 5-Quart could be the perfect fit. It comes with three tiers that are great for preparing different parts of your meal separately. It also includes a rice bowl, which is a handy tool for adding versatility to your cooking routine.
However, this is an excellent option if you're searching for a food steamer for cooking vegetables. Our testing showed that it produced well-cooked veggies. However, we weren't entirely satisfied with the results when cooking rice in it. While the NESCO 5-Quart doesn't come with the more advanced features of other models, it does everything you need and won't break the bank.
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 FAQ
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.
Are plastic food steamers safe?
The vast majority of plastic food steamers use BPA-free plastics. BPA (bisphenol A) has been linked to a wide range of health problems, and if a manufacturer doesn't state that its product is BPA-free, then it's best avoided.
The wider question about the safety of any plastics is much more complicated, and it doesn't help that there's a lot of online misinformation and scaremongering. This Healthline piece is a good summary of what we do and don't know. It notes that some BPA-free plastics, such as polypropylene, are FDA-approved for food use and have no known cancer-causing effects.
Can I use a food steamer to sterilize bottles?
If you can fit them in with their tops facing downwards and the steamer's lid closed, steam is steam, whether in a food steamer or a bottle. Ten minutes in either will have a sterilizing effect. The positioning is important because the steam rises, so the bottle needs to be vertical to get the steam into the entire bottle.
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.
