How to Cook From Scratch in a Small Kitchen

Organized Tiny Kitchen with Trolley

Small kitchens can be tricky to work with. One of the hurdles to cook from scratch in a small kitchen for many people is due to the small size of their kitchen. However, it is entirely possible to cook from scratch in a small kitchen.

But it does take some strategy.

I grew up in a 1400 square foot home as one of five kids. My mom had a galley kitchen which was the main pass-through from the entry into the rest of the house.

For me, it was a normal size kitchen, since it was MY normal. I didn’t realize, at the time, how many specific strategies my mom utilized to make the relative small size work.

Now, several moves later from growing up in that house, I have honed my own skills at cooking from scratch in a small kitchen. Our last apartment, prior to the cottage we live in now, had a truly tiny kitchen!

What I have learned in the process is that I can totally cook real food for my family from scratch in a small space.

Chunky Pumpkin Soup with canned pumpkin, coconut milk, sausage, potatoes, apples, and veggies

Why cook from scratch if you have a small kitchen?

Cooking from scratch has multiple benefits for your health and your budget:

  1. You can avoid preservatives, dyes, and fillers in your food
  2. It can save you money because you can build your meals around budget-friendly food and sales
  3. You can customize your ingredients for allergies and food sensitivities
  4. It can provide a creative outlet, which can lead to a sense of accomplishment
  5. You can reduce your intake of unhealthy foods, such as highly processed ingredients and excess sugar

If you have never cooked from scratch, it can certainly feel overwhelming to start the process. But it is well worth the effort to learn the skill and then apply it to your life.

Besides not knowing how to cook from scratch, many people find their space limitation an additional hurdles to figuring out how to make more of their own food.

Here are my nine suggestions and tips for how to cook from scratch in a small kitchen.

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dishes drying on towel next to sink in small kitchen during meal prep

1. Clean up your small kitchen as you go

This was my Mom’s Number 1 rule when we were cooking in her kitchen. I absorbed her instructions and it became my own internal reminder even to this day!

Cleaning up as you go is essential to keep the mess minimized during the cooking process. Otherwise, the limited space quickly becomes gridlocked.

One way I have found I can encourage myself to do this is to limit my tools when I’m cooking. I find it a fun challenge to try to make the whole meal with one cutting board and knife. This requires that I have to clean up as I go.

Mixing bowls, spatulas, wooden spoons, etc, I try to hand wash them immediately when I have finished the task I’m using them for. My typical process is to put them on my drying rack to drip dry. Sometimes I need them again. But then I just use them and wash them when I’m done.

This way I don’t have a bunch of dirty wooden spoons stacking up.

It is a very pleasant experience to finish cooking, sit down to eat a hot meal, and then be most of the way done with the kitchen clean up already.

Washing stuff along the way in the cooking process prevents things from becoming dried on and more difficult to scrub off later. It also reduces the potential for things getting dropped and making a mess all over the cupboards and floors, which will then need to be cleaned up later as well.

Cleaning up as you go is essential for me to cook from scratch successfully in a small kitchen.

Chunky pumpkin soup and fresh sourdough bread for one month meal plan

2. Simplify your meals to better suit your small kitchen

I have evolved in my cooking over the years, specifically in simplifying my meals. Growing up, my family ate a lot of traditional farm foods. Typically we had a dish each for the protein source, the starch source, and the vegetables.

In this season of life, I do a lot of mixing those three things into one dish. Soups, casseroles, skillet meals, and hearty salads can all easily contain a complete meal in one container.

I have also found I can simplify when I do have more dish varieties I’m serving. I do this a lot with my kids’ meals, trying to minimize my time in the kitchen during the day. Some other specific examples include:

  • roasting potatoes rather than making mashed potatoes
  • adding vegetables into sauces rather than creating a salad
  • slicing bread to accompany soup rather than making rolls
  • slicing cheese thinly rather than grating it, especially if it is going to melt
  • making focaccia with toppings rather than rolling out pizza dough

Meals made from scratch don’t have to be fancy, holiday-style meals that result in a table laden with food! Trying to accomplish those kinds of meals in a small space is really taxing.

But simple, whole food, real ingredient meals made from scratch are very possible in a small kitchen.

can of coconut cream on shelf in small kitchen for preparation to cook from scratch

3. Organize your plan and yourself (and your kitchen)

One of the biggest mistakes I make in cooking is skipping over the instructions of a recipe. I often just go straight to the ingredient list and jumping in!

I am learning to read through all the directions first. Then I can organize the steps of what I need to do and plan which tools in the kitchen I’ll need along the way.

It is also helpful to organize your space. For example, if I know I’ll need to add a can of coconut milk to a recipe at the end of the cooking process, I’ll pull the can forward in my pantry cupboard and leave it right in front where I can grab it easily when I need it.

I don’t want it on the counter cluttering things up. But I do want it near and easily accessible when the time comes.

Having a small space means you may need to remove something from a cupboard to get to an item that is in the back of the cupboard. It is helpful to do a bit of rearranging before hand when you don’t have things burning on the stove!

And if you need butter at room temperature and it is still in the fridge, it might be helpful to do the microwave in 5-second-bursts to get it to room temp FIRST. Before you’re trying to focus on five other things in the middle of the cooking process!

For ideas on organizing your small kitchen’s layout, I’ve done tours of both my tiny kitchen in our last apartment, as well as my relatively small kitchen in the cottage where we live now. Both posts have a variety of helpful tips and ideas to consider, as well as an in-depth photo tour and explanation of where I store all my kitchen things.

chopped onions, ginger, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes

4. Do what you can in advance to cook from scratch

Along the lines of organizing yourself and creating a plan, I’m a big fan of chopping food items in advance of the cooking process – like, hours in advance!

One of the ways I streamline my time in the kitchen and cook from scratch in a small kitchen is by doing chopping work in the morning.

Since I’m typically homeschooling the kids at the kitchen counter in the morning, I will often use that time to pull out my vegetables and my cutting board and knife, and do the chopping and dicing for dinner in advance.

I store my chopped ingredients in the fridge, and often I’ll double up on what I’m doing and freeze half of it to. So if I chop an onion for a recipe, I’ll just chop a second one while I’m at it and freeze it for another meal down the road.

I find this strategy helpful for things that can get messy easily: chopping cabbage, grating cheese, etc. Because then I can clean them up before I’m in the middle of time-sensitive cooking.

And, when everything is pre chopped and ready to go in the fridge, I can pull meals together and successfully cook from scratch more efficiently in a small kitchen.

tortilla making from scratch in a small kitchen

5. Choose strategically what things to cook from scratch in your small kitchen (it’s OK to have exceptions)

I learned the hard way several years ago that making tortillas by hand (with a rolling pin) takes a lot of space, and it takes a lot of time as well!

Those two things don’t do well in a small kitchen!

So my advice is to choose carefully when you’re going to make from scratch if you have a tiny kitchen. You can probably make more than you think you can, but yes, there will likely be some things that are just NOT worth it to make from scratch.

Moderation in all things, right?

If you need a filter, consider how long the mess will need to stay out.

Shaping dough to make bread or rolls does require a decent amount of counter space, but usually for just a relatively short time. Then you can clean everything up and move on.

Tortillas, on the other hand, requires you to have the mess on the counter for longer. When you’re working with very limited space, that can become obnoxious! It’s hard to do ANYTHING else in the kitchen during that time.

So now, if a meal calls for tortillas, I will often swap the starch for brown rice and create a bowl rather than a wrap. And if I do have a specific hankering for tortillas, I will usually just buy them.

90% from scratch and 10% store bought is worth it for me to avoid a friction point in the kitchen!

cutting board with knives and cheese grater for minimalist equipment in a small kitchen

6. Keep your kitchen tools multi-use

One rule of thumb that I follow in keeping our kitchen relatively minimal is to only keep multi-use tools. A knife and cutting board are, obviously, multi-use. As is an electric skillet, a pot, or a cheese grater.

I don’t keep a waffle maker, a pasta maker, or a tortillas press at this time in my life because I don’t have a lot of extra space for single-use equipment. (If you’re interested in knowing what kitchen gadgets I DO heartily recommend, feel free to check out my recommend 5 Budget Kitchen Appliances That Make Life Easier and Better.)

Although having specific tools for specific things would probably help me be inspired to make even more food from scratch, the space limitation of a small kitchen is a boundary I try to embrace.

In order to keep my kitchen from being excessively full and having to unload tools and equipment from the back of cupboards a lot in the cooking process, I’ll buy my pasta and tortillas from the grocery store so I can cook the rest of the food that goes with those ingredients peacefully in a less-cluttered, small kitchen space.

cans of food in small kitchen cupboard

7. Reduce inventory in your kitchen where possible

Along the lines of minimizing what is in your kitchen cupboards, generally reducing your inventory of stuff in your kitchen can be a great help in cooking from scratch in a small kitchen.

While you want to maintain basic pantry staples to help make cooking easy, I have found having too much food on hand can feel more burdensome than helpful at times.

This is part of the reason why I like to make a specific meal plan for a week or two (sometimes even three weeks), and then shop specifically for what I need. Otherwise this weird “we might run out of food!” survival mentality kicks in, and I end up overbuying.

Of course, an extra jar of olives or brick of cheese aren’t going to sink your kitchen efficiency, but a 20 pound bag of potatoes AND a 20 pound bag of flour AND a bucket full of coconut oil squished onto counters or into cupboards in a tiny kitchen might!

So try to keep your inventory to a manageable amount.

Size limitations are great for this: if one cupboard is your pantry, don’t buy more if the cupboard is getting full, and make it a point to use up some of your stock.

8. Utilize creative storage for your small kitchen

You can store food in places other than your kitchen, if you need to. When we lived in our small garage apartment, I stored pumpkins and potatoes in the utility/storage/kid’s bedroom space.

Even here in our current kitchen, I have a big bag of potatoes and a big bag of flour out in our sleep out (which is our multi-purpose flexible space – you can read more about it here). And I keep fresh fruit on our homeschooling command station cube shelf.

Some other creative storage solutions I’ve used are getting shelf expanders to double my cupboard space. I also use over the cupboard door hooks. And I also have a heavy duty, wall mounted pegs with S hooks for my pots and pans, and small, screw-in hooks from a floating shelf for our mugs.

Of course, when you can nest things or stack things vertically, that also helps.

I’m also a big fan of using baskets or bins to keep things organized in kitchen cupboards. Then you can maximize your whole space. I keep magazine boxes under my kitchen sink to store my cling-wrap, aluminum foil, and large zip bags. On our upper shelves in our cabinets, I also have several bins to store peanut butter and coconut oil. And our aeropress and coffee are in a bin as well. So it’s easy to grab them and pull stuff out from the back of the cupboard.

I find organizing my storage with creativity and intentionality helps me successfully cook from scratch, even in a small kitchen.

9. Keep your kitchen counters clear (have a home for everything)

I have a strong preference for trying to keep our counters clear! It doesn’t always work, but in general, I try hard to “reset” our kitchen counters every night.

And after meals, or before I plan to undertake a cook-from-scratch activity, I try to clean up the kitchen so I can maximize all my useable space.

Now, it is a bit of work to pull the toaster out of the cupboard every few days. But unless we’re doing something with the item multiple times EVERY day, I don’t feel like it has paid enough rent to get a permanent spot on my high value counter real estate.

What this means is that everything that doesn’t get used multiple times per day needs to live INSIDE a cupboard or drawer. I’m a stickler for everything having a home, so each item can return to its home.

When you’re working with a small kitchen, unnecessary stuff on the counter quickly becomes counter productive to your cooking efforts.

You run out of places to set bowls or pots and pans. And you risk getting things splashed or covered in flour or sugar when you’re mixing a recipe. Which then means you have to take time to clean the currently unused items on the counter.

Just put it away, friend! And if it doesn’t fit, you may need to consider downsizing. Or storing something you don’t use very often someplace else.

Cooking from scratch in a small kitchen does have hurdles, but it is completely doable with some intentionality and organization. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve lived with a small kitchen and what hurdles you’re facing or how you made it work!

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