DIY Recipes from The Kitchn

We love DIY recipes. Every recipe is to some extent DIY, of course, but what we mean is that we love to take packaged products or restaurant dishes and recreate them in our own kitchens. These recipes often save money and are healthier and tastier, too. It takes so little work to make your own butter, for instance, and it tastes so good!

Here's a roundup of dozens of DIY recipes from The Kitchn. And while we're at it, do you have any DIY recipes? If so, enter them in our February Jumpstart Project. If you've been meaning to knock off that restaurant dish you love, or make that batch of apple butter, that's a great winter DIY project! Do it, show us, and inspire everyone!

Comments (12)

oh no! the diy tahini link is broken.

I was just thinking store bought may be outside of my budget this week.....

I really need DIY frozen lunch recipes. For those days with no leftovers and no time to make a proper lunch, I'd really like to have something ready-to-go from the freezer. The grocery store versions always have so much salt and fat that I'd ideally like to avoid. Any suggestions?

Angorian, lately my healthy "freezer" lunch has been meatloaf I made and baked in muffin cups - needs little time to bake and is easy to freeze and thaw in reasonable portions, then I roast some veggies over the weekend (enough for 3 or 4 days) or make lots of mashed sweet potatoes. Grab a couple "meatloaf muffin" and some veggies and you're good to go.

Thekitchn has done lots of helpful brown baggin' it posts in the past, try poking around a little. Frozen homemade stews/chilis/lasagna are always good too.

oh look its those potato chips again!

Funny this weekend we had some extra potatoes laying around and I dug that post up and gave them a try. They really were surprisingly easy and crispy.

I actually want to buy a proper mandolin to make them better, as the thicker ones despite practically burning them had a bit of a raw taste still. The really thin ones turned out great.

Wait... you put toothpaste in your cocktails?!

LOL. Fixed the heading - thanks eclectica.

"The Colgate Martini..."

Link to the firestarters heads to cranberry sauce! So much linkage...

I am currently experimenting with DIY chai packets. I get them from the Indian store, but I think with instant tea and dried milk powder, I can make my own. One part tea to one part milk is what I have right now and it's not bad. Also grind some cardamom to a fine powder for an extra kick. And don't forget sugar!

A ginger ale recipe that uses sparkling water is a bit odd - ginger ale is traditionally carbonated naturally, using yeast. It's easy to do, the instructables recipe works well:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-ginger-ale/

It's only fermented for 24-48 hours, so it's not alcoholic at that point.

I love making my own sweet potato chips. so yummy and full of vitamins! try sprinkling some minced rosemary on them prior to cooking.

and I still remember making butter in fifth grade for 'pioneer day'... we used jars and were less than enthusiastic after a while.

I don't think making your own is really about cost effective so much as controlling the ingredients or better quality results. That being said, about a cup of cottage cheese costs $3.30 in Tokyo and cottage cheese is incredibly easy to make. In that case, I always make it myself as the cost is 50% more for store bought.

I think bread is either marginally cheaper or about the same price if I make it myself, but I can't get whole wheat bread easily in Tokyo.