Do you live in a small space? Mary Berg shares her must-have gadgets that will fit perfectly in any kitchen space you have. Plus, she uses these tools to create her savoury and fresh couscous tabbouleh.
Recipe: https://bit.ly/3Hl2SCT
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[Applause] hi hello hello sir what an excellent shirt how are you hi oh my go beautiful eyeliner Hi how are you oh my gosh everybody’s looking great hello over there hi everybody oh my goodness hello everybody and welcome to the show today it’s all about small spaces and making the most
Out of the space you’ve got so of course we’re going to start in the kitchen so fun fact about me I used to live in a apartment it was a tiny little apartment three-story walk up I loved it so much it had the world’s smallest kitchen well maybe not the world’s smallest kitchen
But for someone who works in food pretty tiny not going to lie I lived in that apartment for about 10 years I auditioned for Master Chef Canada when I lived in that apartment I started in recipe development and I even started in TV so this little apartment was Tiny I
Uh shot some your morning segments there this is it you can see it to be honest from this shot this is a a complimentary angle not going to lie uh if I reached out my left hand at any point during this I could basically touch my stove um
It made it very handy I only had to stand really in one spot the whole time I was making anything um I had one drawer truly one drawer uh all those cupboards up at the top there there was one for cups one for plates but really
That was it what you see is what you get um when I first moved into that apartment the counter space I had was a little corner about this big so my husband Aaron at that point boyfri oo H built me like a counter that I could
Work off of and that’s what you saw in that clip honestly I loved working in that kitchen despite its tiny size I developed recipes for social media and my blog at the time basically I I caught the bug of sharing my recipes with everybody who would want to kind of of
Make them I’ve always loved sharing food and in that kitchen I was really able to kind of expand who I shared that food with now because of the size everything had its place now I had these like knife magnets I still have them to this day they’re very very handy because again I
Only had one drawer hardly any counter space so knife magnets had their spot all my knives I used the most were on that wall including all the little like gadgetry that could also get stuck up there using that vertical space was key in that apartment but despite size it
Basically the whole department could fit in the kitchen space of this studio I also wrote my very first cookbook in that kitchen and I even shot all the photos in it yeah I took over the living and dining room which was one small room my husband was very nice I thought if we
Could make that work we could make marriage work it’s a good thing this is us doing our dishes cuz he’s my resident dish doer it’s honestly it’s one of my favorite things in the world it’s so so great but speaking from experience in order to work within a small space
Especially in the kitchen I’ve got a few recommendations for the essentials that you need to make cooking a total Breeze even in the smallest space so let’s start over here with the hot stuff now maybe you’ve got a stove maybe you have a full oven to be honest what I actually
Wrote that cookbook on and shot that cookbook on was one of those apartment siiz stoves with the one big burner and it’s the only one that really worked the rest of the stove uh one the first time I tried to make cupcakes cupcake tin
Didn’t fit in there so I had to go and buy all new stuff um so I’m going to talk about like the extra hot stuff if you don’t have that uh or if you do have that oven space so the first thing I want to talk about is a kettle now
Kettles are a must for me even if you have a big kitchen this is such a space saver a time saer and an energy saver if you need to boil water for even making pasta in a hurry this baby is perfect it boils it way quicker than you’re ever
Going to do on the stove it saves a lot of heat energy so you’re saving on that electricity bill or gas bill it’s absolutely perfect I love a kettle it’s a total must also who doesn’t love a cup of tea in the morning I do yeah now in addition to
That if you have the room a microwave is always a good thing much to the Chagrin of my mom we do not have a microwave in our house I’ve not had a microwave in about 16 years but this baby is a total I know impressive right I miss it for
Coffee warm-ups and popcorn not going to lie but this baby is a great thing especially if you’re not someone who wants to cook really elaborate meals you can do a lot of stuff in the microwave you can get uh squashes ready to go in the oven easier to cut in half really
Really handy tool to have so we’ve got our hot things over here now we’re going to move into mixing things stuff you need to actually prepare the meal so on this show and any sort of show my my cooking show and things like that you see me using beautiful glass bowls and
We do that so you can see what’s going on in those bowls but I’m not going to lie at home I don’t have glass bowls I have stacked stackable metal bowls ones that Nest inside each other cuz essentially all you need to have room for is this biggest bowl everything else
Just Stacks inside they’re durable if you do have a small space I’m betting you might not have a dishwasher so you’re not going to break these in your sink when you’re trying to scrub them up really really handy and a total must they’re light they’ll last forever and
They’re perfect now one thing that I do say that you need a little bit of space for is a good cutting board now I’ve been I think everyone’s been gifted those like tiny little cute ones and you’re like oh my gosh I love it I love
Tiny things it feels like it’s for a dollhouse but you really you could cut a grape on it end of list maybe like some uh uh Citrus for you know cocktails but with a cutting board essentially what you’re looking for in terms of size is get your biggest knife so mine is a
Chef’s knife and place it diagonally on a cutting board surface you need about two or three inches of space on either side to either kind of diagonal Corner around that knife and that’s going to make sure you have enough room to actually use that knife on that cutting
Board if I were to try to use this knife on a small little cutting board dollars to Donuts I’m probably going to cut myself and I don’t want to do that that wastes time in the kitchen and doesn’t taste very good so that is a key that
You might need a little bit of space for now if you don’t love chopping or it’s not like that finesse isn’t your thing I do love kind of a small food processor I’m not much of a gadget gal I like my micr plane I like my small food
Processor with this little baby if you want to be adventurous you can make mayonnaise in it you can make pesto in it you can make salsa in it you can chop your onions for anything just in case you’re not looking for that perfect dice this baby is perfect for that it works
Like a dream now over here I’ve got the kind of final things if you only have room for like one pan and one main utensil everybody in my opinion should have a basic cast iron skillet not the fancy one just go and get the basic one yes it’s heavy but it’s pretty much
Indestructible it works beautifully on pretty much any stove you’ve got it can go into the oven as well so it doubles as a baking dish you can roast a whole chicken in this baby and you’ve got a beautiful dinner so that’s like your one
Pan and done and then in terms of like a stirring or flipping or scooping thing I really like these like spoony type spatulas this works for anything from cakes to flipping a grilled cheese to flipping an egg you are good to go with this and it’s absolutely perfect
Now today is all about thriving in our small spaces and sometimes we’re looking to make something a bit beyond that classic like University Vibe ramen noodle in our tiny little kitchens you know what I’m talking about I I mean they’re always delicious but sometimes we want something a bit healthier so we
Are making my couscous taboule it is easy packed with veg and it is ready in a Flash almost as much of a flash as that instant Ramen that we all know and love so I’m going to get to work first on my couscous couscous is great cuz you
Don’t actually have to like boil it like you would another type of grain or pasta it essentially steams so you can do this with just plain water but I like to amp up the flavor with a little bit of broth now if you were using broth you’d
Probably want to use the stove or the microwave to heat things up but we’re going to use the kettle today so as opposed to putting broth in my Kettle and making it kind of weird my next cup of tea kind of tastes like chicken soup not the best thing in the world I’m
Going to use Boolean now Boolean kind of has fallen out of fashion but basically it’s just dehydrated ated stock you can get it in cubes you can get it in powders you can sometimes even get it in kind of like a really nice paste but essentially you want about 1 and a half
Teaspoons of that Boolean so I’ve got it in a cube here so I’m just going to toss that right on into my bowl and this little baby is like packed with Savory delicious flavor I’m using vegetable Boolean but you could also use chicken for this for sure now into there I’m
Going to add about one and A2 cups of boiling water fresh boiling water from the kettle again saves time cuz I didn’t have to boil it on the stove if you wanted to you could totally do this in the microwave wait where are we 12 oz
That’s 1 and 1/2 cups I got it kitchen measurement we’re good to go now I’m just going to add this on into the bowl and since I’m using the brick style of Boolean it tends to be a little hard so I’m just going to kind of mush it up a
Little bit first and you can feel these babies are salty you won’t need to add any extra salt into this mix but basically this gives you like instant kind of broth it’s super super nice anything that doesn’t dissolve will dissolve once that water gets heating so
Add that in now in addition to that Boolean in that water I’m also going to flavor this up with a little bit of turmeric turmeric is really really nice it’s super bright and yellow it kind of gives um remember that chicken noodle soup that you’d have when you were a kid
When you weren’t feeling good and it was like neon highlighter yellow that’s thanks to turmeric it’s super tasty it’s a little bit lemony so I’m going to add about a teaspoon of that on into my bowl so that’s going to give a nice kind of brightness into here and like instantly
Looks gorgeous now when you’re making couscous you want to use equal parts liquid to that couscous not like uh Pearl couscous but traditional couscous you can use whole wheat you can use regular so I’ve got one and A2 cups of broth so one and 1/2 cups of that couscous goes straight on
In give that a little bit of a mix up just to kind of incorporate everything and then since couscous steams you do want to cover this bowl you could use plastic wrap but I’m just going to pop a dinner plate right on top cuz that’s going to keep things easy for
Clean up for me later especially key when you got a tiny little kitchen now we’ve used that kettle we’re good to go now I’m going to show you obviously we’re going to cut some stuff CU we are cooking so I’m going to cut up a couple of cherry tomatoes so you can either
Have or quarter these again I’m using a cutting board that is big enough for my knife anytime I try using those teeny tiny little cutting boards they look cute but again they’re not your friend they’re decorations put your little salt shaker on there it’s like a coaster it’s
Not cutting board it’s not going to work great so just half or quarter those little cherry tomatoes and to be honest anytime no matter the time of year unless it’s like Peak July August perfect tomato season I’m buying cherry tomatoes they’re always nice and bright and fresh they’re never kind of like
That sad tomato Vibe where you cut it open and you’re like why are you pink what happened to you you’re not a tomato all right I’m going to pop those on into my serving Bowl cuz I’m essentially going to bring everything together into there along with some more
And then into there as well I want to add in some more kind of classic toule flavors so the first thing I need is some red onion now if I wanted to I could chop this red onion up real nice and fine we could do a nice mince I’m
Not going to do that today I’m going to use my handy dandy little Chopper so just toss that onion right on into there pop that lid on we are not going for finesse here right now we’re going for speed and just as fast as that we’re chopped up so that was a
Breeze all also fun fact that worked way better than I I was ready for it to take a bit longer and that was a that was delightful for me all right pop that onion right on into that Bowl along with that tomato then I also want to chop up
Some cucumber now if I wanted to I could totally throw it in here I have some handy dandy friends in the back who chopped up my cucumber for me if you got that also makes quicker work not going to lie I’m just going to add those in
But again if you wanted to and didn’t want those big chunks pop it into that mini chop and it’ll chop everything up beautifully so that’s looking great now we’ve got this couscous here let me take a little Gander at it this usually takes about anywhere from like 5 to 10 minutes
To really be done but even as quickly as this that’s absorbed all of that liquid like look at that beautiful couscous this is something I know this sounds really fancy but sometimes in the morning when I’m making myself a cup of tea or a pourover coffee I’ll just make
Up some couscous at the same time bring it for lunch and you feel like a real like mtha Stewart yeah all right give that a mix up I’m going to add that couscous on into this bowl just toss that on in we’ve got all that flavor from that beautiful beautiful Boolean
That nice turmeric in there too give that a little bit of a tossup with my handy dandy spoony spatula feeling good now anytime you are making a taboule the main thing about it is the herbs so you want a good amount of herbs in here you
Want about one and 1/2 cups of parsley you can use those stocks as well I’m going to CH toss those right on into my Chopper and you want about half a cup of some mint again the stems are going to be fine cuz you’re going to chop those
Up nice and fine pop that in everything’s on nailed it again just chop it up you might have to push some things down classic Gadget robots they’re out to get me sometimes they don’t work on TV as well as they do at home all right so we’re going to
Pretend that’s all nice and minced just take that beautiful mixture which smells so bright and fresh Pop That on in there you’ve got all of that beautiful herbs I’m going to pull out the big ones we’re going to give a little bit of a toss and
That looks beautiful now a little bit of lemon zest on there a little bit of lemon juice to brighten things up a bit of oil you could season it with some salt and pepper but because of that bullion it’s going to be nice and salty already that to me looks like about a
Thousand times better than a bowl of ramen I’m not going to lie perfect to eat serve it up with a little bit of some starbot tziki some store bought hummus if you want to get fancy pop a little sunnd or uh roasted red peppers on top of there makes it look like you
Made it yourself if you really want to go fancy and trendy a little bit of chili crisp on there too pop it on some Baba Gan pea you have got A Feast for your friends and you didn’t even use your stove you’re making this in your tiny kitchen and you’re a total kitchen
Hero we got hey Mary here what did you think drop your comments below and don’t forget to like And subscribe for more of the good stuff