Pinterest Food Hacks That Actually WORK

Pinterest and I have a love hate relationship. There are days when I can spend HOURS pinning things I’ll never try. Then I’ll go weeks without touching the thing. But in creating boards for A Measured Life, I found a few super neat kitchen tricks I just had to try for myself (and for you, of course, dear readers). Here are the ones that worked:

The Garlic Peeling Trick

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Dude. I was so freaking surprised this actually worked. It was amaze. I used a Mason jar for mine, because that’s what I had. I stuck the entire head of garlic in the jar, unadulterated, screwed on the lid, and shook vigorously. The first shaking broke up the head into separate cloves, but they were still covered in their papery skin. So I poured out the contents of the jar, separated the cloves from the “chaff”, and stuck the cloves back in. Again, I shook vigorously, for maybe 15 seconds. Poured out the contents again. Half the cloves were peeled! So I separated those out, and returned the remaining cloves to the jar for an additional shake. Yes, okay, there were a few cloves I had to peel by hand, but only a few, and the skins were looser so it was easy to do. Total elapsed time? Less than 2 minutes. No joke. This WORKS! I planned on using a lot of garlic this week so I just stuck the peeled cloves back into the jar and stored them in the fridge until I needed them. Bonus: no garlicky fingers!

The Speed-Caramelizing Onions Trick

I am so impatient. Seriously. Recipes that require standing over the stove for 30 minutes or more stirring? SCREW THAT! Steel cut oats? Pshaw! (I solved the stirring problem by making it in the oven.) Risotto? Never! (Uhm, made Farro Risotto a few weeks ago. I am a liar.) Polenta? Instant! (Also a lie, I do make regular polenta but I hardly ever cook it as long as recommended, because reasons.) They SAY you can make caramelized onions in a slow cooker but if it burns while I’m at work I do not want to have to try to scrape burned onions out of the crock. So what’s a girl to do? Apparently, use baking soda! I caramelized an entire large onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil in less than 10 minutes by using a pinch of baking soda. Now I didn’t measure the baking soda, but next time I’ll use less, because my onions kind of disintegrated, but they were totally CARAMELIZED. Like, dark, delicious brown goodness with that almost-burnt sugar smell. I was using them in a prune spread for a galette, so it was fine they were basically paste, but holy crud did it work!

The Pomegranate Seeding Trick

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I love pomegranate seeds, and I found this delicious sounding recipe for a quinoa bowl with spiced sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pomegranate seeds, so I bought a freaking pomegranate. I toyed briefly with the idea of making my husband seed the pomegranate for me before I got home from work, but I figured I would check Pinterest first, since I knew I was writing this post. Basically, you cut the pomegranate in half, hold it in your hand cut side down with your fingers spread so the seeds fall through your fingers, and whack it super hard with a spatula. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. IT WORKED. Exactly like the tutorial. Yeah there were a few seeds left at the end, but seriously? It took me maybe 3 minutes or so. And it was mostly mess free, although you can see I put down paper towels as protection, and I absolutely took off my white sweater before even attempting this.

So not one, not two, but THREE tricks I learned on Pinterest to save time and effort! Have you discovered any tips or tricks on Pinterest?

Want to see it on my board?
Follow A Measured Life’s board Food Hacks That WORK (Tested by Me) on Pinterest.