How to Make Homemade Kitchen Staples

It puts the yee-haw in every dish.

It takes less than 5 minutes to pull off.

Mix them into meatloaf, or toast them for crunchy toppings.

Milk, lemon juice, and about a half-hour of your time — that’s all you need to make a batch of fresh, creamy homemade ricotta. You’re not going to believe how easy and foolproof this is! And trust me — once you make your own ricotta cheese, it’s hard to go back to the stuff from the tub.When I say this only takes a half hour, I should clarify that most of that time is actually hands-off.

Liquid gold.

When life gives you cabbage...

Delicious any way.

So rich, so savory.

There’s really no arguing that it’s ugly. And kind of alien-looking. And yeah, even downright gross. But dang it, scobys make some delicious kombucha! If you want to save a few bucks on your ‘booch habit, there’s just no getting around it. You’re going to need a scoby.You can beg a scoby from a kombucha-brewing friend, or you can order a fresh one online. But there’s one more option: you can grow your own. Here’s how to do it.

If your refrigerator is anything like mine, half of the space is jam-packed with condiments. Those tubs of miso, sticks of butter, and bottles of salad dressing can add something special to simple weeknight meals. Instead of buying more sour cream from the store, I like to make the tangy, creamy condiment from what I already have on hand. It helps keep my grocery bill in check (something I prioritize as much as flavor when it comes to meal planning), and it avoids food waste.

It’s absolutely perfect.

They're all keepers.

It’s sweet and salty.

A roux, pronounced “roo,” is one of the building blocks of cooking. It’s a fundamental technique for new cooks to learn, and one of the first things taught in culinary school. It’s the secret to making silky sauces, rich gravies, and luscious mac and cheese. In fact, if you’ve ever made a homemade cheese sauce before, chances are you’ve made a roux — even if you didn’t realize it.

When you really think about it, the whole Thanksgiving meal is one giant twofer. Next-day Thanksgiving leftovers are just as important as the perfect day-of meal. The turkey, however, is even more generous. You roast your turkey on day one; have the leftover meat for turkey sandwiches, chilis, and cheesy turkey enchiladas in the days after; and now you get this glorious sunny stock from the bones and bits leftover even after the meat is gone.

There’s nothing quite like sun-dried tomatoes — they lift up the flavor of anything they touch, from simple pastas and hearty salads to chicken (hello Tuscan chicken!). So what do sun-dried tomatoes taste like? The slow drying process concentrates the flavor of the tomatoes, locks in their summer sweetness, and leaves you with an intensely savory bite.

They’re so versatile!

It comes together so quickly.

Say goodbye to the canned version forever.

Homemade vanilla extract takes just two ingredients — vanilla beans and alcohol (like vodka) — and you can be as straightforward or creative as you like. Though it does take a bit of patience as you wait for the alcohol to extract the flavor from the beans, the delicious results are well worth it. It’s super easy to make and you only need two ingredients! Homemade vanilla extract is the perfect gift for friends and family who love to bake.

Tastes as good as it smells.

On some level, you probably already know that, sure, it’s pretty easy to make your own peanut butter. But if you’ve never actually made homemade peanut butter, I don’t know if you quite understand how truly, incredibly, ridiculously easy it really is. To make easy, delicious peanut butter at home, use your food processor. Then go make Kelli’s 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies. (Trust us on this one.

You probably have all the ingredients you need to make it already.

Every baker needs this.

Tomato purée is a cooking essential you might be missing. Simpler and a bit thicker than its flavorful cousin, tomato sauce, tomato purée is a fast way to quickly prepare and freeze a bushel of fresh tomatoes for future cooking. Plum or Roma tomatoes are best for purée because they are generally grown for preserving. Paste, oven-dried tomatoes, and sauce are all made from these varieties — they are low in water content and rich in flavor.

Once you learn how easy it is to make, you may never return to the store-bought stuff again.

Milk kefir is an easy sell for anyone who loves yogurt, which I most definitely do. KefirsmoothieprobioticsAll you need is a teaspoon of active kefir grains and a cup of whole milk. Milk kefir is a fermented dairy product similar in many ways to yogurt and buttermilk. It’s how kefir is cultured that makes it really unique — instead of heating the milk, adding a culture, and keeping it warm as you do with yogurt, all you need to make milk kefir are kefir grains.

Paneer is the star ingredient in some of my most favorite Indian dishes — and probably yours too! I often find myself scooping just one more nibble of chewy, milky-tasting paneer from the dish long after I’m officially full. Sure, you can buy this firm cheese at the store to make your own homemade curries, but where’s the fun in that?! If you have a pot, a strainer, and some cheesecloth, you can have fresh homemade paneer cheese in about 30 minutes.

While the idea of churning my own butter appeals to the part of me that obsessed over the Little House on the Prairie books as kid, I think that if Laura Ingalls Wilder landed in the present day, she’d ditch that butter churn for a blender in a heartbeat. In a blender, making your own butter becomes a practical, everyday affair for us modern-day home cooks. Find a sale on your favorite heavy cream? Have half a carton leftover from the weekend? Treat yourself to some homemade butter.

This fun trick couldn't be easier.

The iconic image on the cover of Yotam Ottolenghi's cult-classic cookbook "Plenty" is one of the easiest and best recipes from the entire collection.

Baking powder and baking soda are both baking essentials. Depending on the specific recipe, you may need one or the other (or both). They are often used in making cakes, muffins, cupcakes, or any baked goods. In case you run out of it, did you know that you can make baking powder? Just combine 1 tablespoon baking soda and 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, and voila – you already have a homemade baking powder.

You could even make a batch tonight and have homemade yogurt for breakfast by tomorrow morning!

“Begin by cooking the onions …” is perhaps the most common phrases in savory recipes the world over. But what does this mean exactly, and what if you have to ‘sweat’ your onions instead, or cook them ‘until translucent’? Read on for our handy guide (with pictures!) on how to cook an onion. Onions are the backbone of most savory dishes but they can produce a wide range of flavors depending on how you cook the onions.

It's perfect for your morning bagel.

It's an easy process that is 100% worth it.

If you like store-bought tempeh, just wait until you try fresh nutty-tasting homemade tempeh. You might never go back! Plus, when you make it yourself, you can go way beyond soybeans and customize your tempeh with whatever kinds of legumes and grains you want. To make tempeh at home, you just need some beans, a spoonful of tempeh starter, and a warm spot in your house. Today we’ll walk you through each step of the process, from preparing the beans to cooking it for dinner.

When we first discovered microwave potato chips four years ago, it was nothing short of a revelation. Even now, the fact that a short spin in the microwave can transform slices of potato into crispy (truly crispy!) chips without needing a drop of oil still seems like magic. Here’s how to make them. The key to these microwaved chips is slicing them very thinly. Between 1/8-inch and 1/16-inch is ideal, and this is easiest and most quickly done on a mandoline slicer.

If you have heavy cream, you can make butter.

You only need two ingredients.

The secret to better biscuits, faster pancakes, and simpler baking.

If you haven't made it yet, you're missing out.

No fancy tools required.

No more blowing money fast at the grocery store!

Ditch the store-bought option for this easy-to-make at-home version.

Is there anything Martha can't make?

Making your own creamy vegan nut milk couldn't be easier.

From start to finish, you only need five minutes.

Peanut butter, who?

Even at your laziest you can make homemade yogurt.

We love Greek yogurt – the extra-thick, creamy yogurt found in Greek or Lebanese groceries. We like it dolloped on soups or as dessert with a little honey and fruit. We can’t always find it, however, and sometimes we just don’t remember to keep it around. So when we want to get that extra-thick texture, sometimes we resort to the old technique of draining plain low-fat yogurt overnight. This method slowly drains away the extra water, giving us a richer, thicker yogurt.

Try it once to see how you like it!

It’s really surprising how few recipes are out there for homemade bouillon. Stock, yes. Court bouillon, sure. But a concentrated bouillon paste that we can use to whip up a quick vegetable broth or add flavor to a pilaf? Not so much. In fact, we only found one recipe that fits what we’re looking for.

With its signature tangy bite and milky richness, crème fraîche brightens many of our favorite dishes. It has a custard consistency that exists somewhere between heavy cream and sour cream, and we love adding a dollop alongside tacos and even a fresh bowl of berries.Sure, you can buy it in the store, but where’s the fun in that?! Especially when it’s just as easy–and most certainly cheaper–to make it at home.

Making your own soy milk is fast, easy and most importantly delicious. We’ve found dried organic soy beans on sale for as little as $.99 a pound so it makes a lot of economic sense too.The hardest part when making your own soy milk is knowing at least 8 hours before you want it. Otherwise, it’s simply a matter of soaking the beans, tossing them in a blender with boiling water, and separating the okara (Japanese for bean curd) from the filtrate (this is the soy milk).