31 Foods You Should Be Making From Scratch

While everyone's priorities vary, it's safe to suggest that preparing staples from scratch rather than succumbing to the allure of processed alternatives is a superior choice. For one, homemade goods offer a certain comfort and greater flavor that comes from clean, familiar ingredients. Thrifty cooks can save money by buying beans in bulk and repurposing overripe fruit or vegetable scraps. The adventurous flavor seekers can customize their seasoning mixes and snacks and fill their pantry with homemade preserves. If health is your priority, you can nurture gut health with unpasteurized fermented goodies. Finally, environmentally-minded folks can reduce packaging waste by crafting their own drinks and vegan yogurts.

The only costly resource required for all these artisanal delights is time, but once you've savored freshly hand-crafted goodies, we guarantee you'll want to create more space in your schedule for making them — for your health, your wallet, and the planet.

While making your own marinara will take longer than dumping a store-bought jar into the pan, we suggest you embrace the satisfaction of a homemade sauce devoid of excessive sodium, oil, or preservatives, tailored to your specific taste and dietary preferences. It might even be cheaper when tomatoes are in season! This saucy endeavor grants you the reins of control, allowing you to capitalize on flavor and concoct a meal that's not only brag-worthy but also a true reflection of your individuality. Just sidestep those common spaghetti sauce mistakes, and you'll be on the path to pasta perfection.

The convenience of store-bought smoothies may be alluring, but it's a poor trade-off for the nutritional benefits of crafting your own. A powerful blender is a worthwhile investment that unlocks a world of fresh, creamy drinks free of added sugar and artificial coloring. Homemade smoothies give you the freedom to experiment with seasonal fruits, vegetables, and superfoods, ensuring nutrient retention and flavor tailored to your preferences that off-the-shelf alternatives can't match. Moreover, by making them yourself, you'll be saving the environment from unnecessary packaging waste. Follow our perfect smoothie-making tips, and you'll bid farewell to buying them for good.

Mastering the art of an all-purpose vinaigrette is essential for any self-respecting home cook. The golden ratio you should aim for is three parts oil to one part vinegar. If you end up with an overly acidic salad dressing, there's an easy fix: Balance it out with a touch more oil, tahini, avocado, or another fatty ingredient.

While store-bought dressings boast a longer shelf life, they're also more expensive. Homemade versions offer the advantage of being crafted in just the right quantity from pantry-friendly ingredients, ensuring you'll savor every last drop before it even reaches its expiration date.

Stale bread is undoubtedly one of the foods you need to stop throwing out. If it's a couple of days past its prime, it's a great French toast or bread pudding base. But if it went full rock on you, it's time to turn your stale bread into breadcrumbs. You don't even need fancy equipment: if you own a box grater, use the freeze-and-grate method and never pay for breadcrumbs again. Once you have them ready, the possibilities are endless. For example, toast them with Calabrian chiles and sprinkle them on top of spaghetti aglio e olio.

Delving into the art of syrup-making allows you to craft unique flavor blends, such as orgeat almond or honey elderberry, that won't easily be found on store shelves. For those who fear the dreaded burnt sugar, our no heat, no fuss simple syrup recipe lets time do its magic, sans burning risks.

While they have a shorter shelf-life, homemade syrups boast higher-quality ingredients and can be made in any batch size to suit your needs, meaning you can make precisely what you can consume. Additionally, reusing glass bottles from other beverages eliminates paying for excess packaging and creating waste.

While hot cocoa and hot chocolate are often confused with each other, the former usually comes in the form of a powdered mix which is easy to recreate at home. From an ethical standpoint, a homemade mix is better because you can use organic, Fair Trade-Certified cocoa powder and sugar and avoid dried milk powder or animal-derived vitamins. You can skip any unwanted components and go for the classic trio of cocoa, sugar, and salt, which are enough for a comforting, chocolatey drink.

Any nut butter lover knows that it can be an expensive habit. And while some store-bought brands might appear cheaper per ounce than homemade, that's typically due to lower quality source material and "filler" ingredients such as oils and sugar, which will be absent from your own concoctions. Homemade cashew butter, for instance, requires only two ingredients: raw cashews and salt. You'll also need a powerful blender or food processor — a costly but versatile appliance that will help you make peanut butter at home in no time (as well as countless other goodies, from smoothies to sorbets).

While fermentation is an ancient art, it's been having a moment in recent years. Suddenly, everyone started making their own kimchi, sourdough bread, and, of course, kombucha. And for a good reason — a home-brewed kombucha is easy and inexpensive to make from a handful of ingredients.

However, for fruitful drink-making, you should follow a few rules. For instance, avoid using herbal teas when making kombucha because they lack the necessary compounds essential for the fermentation process, such as caffeine, nitrogen, and theanine. Another thing to look out for is SCOBY mold growth, preventable with proper sanitation routines.

Making your own vegetable stock is a game-changer. Not only does it help you save money and cut down on food waste by repurposing vegetable scraps, but it also allows you to lower your sodium intake. The beauty of making it from scratch lies in its customizability. Adding dried mushrooms creates an umami-rich stock, perfect for hearty winter soups. In contrast, naturally sweet squash peels, corn cobs, and carrot bits are the best choice for lighter, sweeter spring stock. Steer clear of bitter greens, potato skins, and anything beet-related, and your homemade stock is primed for success.

All pasta, if done right, tastes better when it's freshly made. However, we singled out gnocchi because they're particularly easy to make at home for a fraction of the price of their store-bought counterparts. You can even skip the eggs and still get delectable pillowy pasta, further lowering its price point while keeping it vegan.

While there are plenty of ways you can mess up homemade gnocchi, don't fret, as they're all easily preventable. If time is of the essence, try an unconventional gnocchi shortcut: use instant mashed potatoes to bring dinner to the table in no time.

With commercial tortillas being inexpensive and easy to find, you might ask yourself: is making your own worth the trouble? Well, if you like a good tortilla, the answer is a fervent yes. There is just something about a freshly charred, warm tortilla that store-bought ones just can't match.

An easy flour tortillas recipe calls for just five ingredients and comes together in half an hour, start to finish. Classic corn tortillas are even less demanding: with only three ingredients and the help of a tortilla press, you can have taco night seven days a week.

Homemade ice pops are the perfect refreshing summer treat. For one, they are highly customizable. You can keep it simple or decadent, healthy or indulgent, child-friendly or boozy — the choice is yours. Plus, they are a great way to utilize seasonal fruits, especially those that are too ripe and at risk of being wasted. In addition to being a fun, family-friendly activity, these homemade treats can even be one of the ways to trick your kids into eating veggies, if you add neutrally flavored spinach or naturally sweet veggies into the mix.

If you're a pizza fan (who of us isn't?), you probably tasted all its most popular varieties and likely dabbled in creating your own at home, relying on store-bought crusts and sauces for convenience. But true connoisseurs know that the best pies come together from scratch. Though it may require extra effort, the quality and flavor payoff is immeasurable.

But even armed with the best Neapolitan pizza dough recipe, you likely won't become a seasoned pizzaiolo overnight. Luckily, with a handful of pizza-making tips, your crust will rise to new heights, transforming each homemade pizza into a masterpiece.

A truly crave-worthy guacamole is one that's freshly made and enjoyed immediately. Making it from scratch requires selecting the finest, ripest avocados and blending them with the freshest flavors. Store-bought guacamole, on the other hand, often relies on unnatural additives to maintain its alluring green hue far longer than it should. Sure, it's convenient, but it falls short in both flavor and healthfulness. While homemade guac is easy to make, it's just as easy to ruin. But with a little care and attention, you can easily dodge common guacamole mistakes and proudly serve up a delectable, vibrant bowlful.

As seductive as the convenience of ready-made seasoning mixes might be, don't fall for it. Instead, embrace the high-quality, freshly ground spices, and let their fragrance awaken your senses. Get to know them better by mixing your own all-purpose chili seasoning and playing with the ratios in your taco mix.

You can also elevate your culinary game and lower your food waste one spice blend at a time. Show those limp, forgotten chili peppers at the back of your fridge what they're capable of — transform them into vibrant red flakes, and repurpose other dried veggie scraps as bouillon.