An interesting email popped up in my inbox recently on the topic of what I considered “pantry staples”. Those things we all keep in our kitchens because they’re either basics or things that are easy to grab and make into a meal on the fly. The gal who emailed me and I had an interesting email “chat” about the topic, which prompted me to think this would be an interesting idea to post about: what do you consider “pantry staples”? I wrote up a small list of my necessities; it pretty much just encompasses dry good items, although I threw in a few things that stay in the ‘fridge or freezer but are still things I always keep on hand!
- Canned tomatoes: diced are my preferred, since I can puree them even more to make spaghetti sauce or use in curry.
- Pasta: usually spaghetti noodles of some sort.
- Rice: white or brown; I use this not only as a side dish, but in soups and even our favorite turkey “meatloaf” recipe.
- Chicken and vegetable broth: I usually stock up on the large containers and freeze what I don’t use when I open them. Useful for everything from soups to using in place of oil when sauteing vegetables.
- Flour: all purpose white, whole wheat, bread flour and usually there is some cake flour somewhere as well.
- Dried and canned beans: various types of course!
- Oatmeal: more of a breakfast thing, but I occasionally make bread and such that requires it.
- Cornmeal: used for baking pizza, a few bread recipes, or cornbread!
- Cooking oils: good olive, canola and sesame oils.
- Vinegars: balsamic, good red wine, rice wine, and usually a good “basic” one like white or apple cider.
- Soy Sauce: sometimes a couple varieties, but most often just a basic soy sauce.
- Nuts: a few varieties of them; again great in just about anything.
- I also have a lot of the usual pantry accouterments like cornstarch, baking powder, sugar (white and brown), etc. on hand.
- Various condiments: chili-garlic paste, Dijon mustard, Sriracha, some sort of gourmet hot sauce, capers, wasabi. (Yes, we like our spicy foods!)
- Dairy items: eggs, milk, yogurt (good for all sorts of things–not just breakfast!)
- Fresh produce: garlic, basic yellow onions, carrots, green onions, limes, lemons, sweet potatoes, and usually some fruit (whatever is in season).
Although not a “pantry” item exactly, I also keep a variety of frozen vegetables in the freezer at all times. I can throw them into soups/stews, curries, stir fry or even pan saute them to use on things like burritos.
I also have a large spice cabinet. My dad is a great cook, and he really impressed on me the importance of having a hefty selection of spices. Even though most of my pantry basics aren’t terribly exciting, adding spices really can change things up. We eat a lot of curry, Italian and Asian dishes, so I tend to skew most towards spices from those regions. Plus they tend to be cheap!
That’s pretty much what I would call my basics list! The only things missing are the breakfast cereals we eat. Otherwise I find that most of the other things I have in there are items I bought for specific recipes and just sit and only are occasionally used. If I were stranded on a desert island and only could bring the basics, this is what I’d take! I usually try to do a “big” grocery shop every couple weeks, but the past month I’ve been unable to regularly except run to the store to get milk and yogurt (two other “basics” in my refrigerator!). So I’ve been having to pull things from the pantry and be creative with dressing up the basics. What do you consider your pantry basics?
Chocolate and coffee, I have to have a little in the house for a quick desert, very much staples to me!. Frozen pizza dough for a fast dinner my kids will eat. Cereal for sure.
My staples list looks a lot like yours : ) I also have these though…
* canned coconut milk (we make thai-style curries a lot)
* a couple extra types of rice and flour (I like jasmine, but keep basmati and sushi rice on hand for other recipes; I also bake rye bread fairly often)
* I keep cubes of chicken stock and tomato paste in the freezer (SO USEFUL!) as well as chives from last year’s garden (this year’s chives are *just* starting to wake up)
* both frozen and canned corn (and I can’t manage without frozen peas)
* chickpeas and lentils (dried or canned)
* fresh ginger
* dried mushrooms
* potatoes
* a healthy stash of homemade granola
…and lastly — and I’m not sure how this didn’t manage to make your list of staples?! just kidding! — but CHOCOLATE. I keep semi-sweet chips for cookies, bittersweet bars for other stuff, and occasionally some “treat” dark chocolate to snack on. : )
Well, since you are my daughter, my staples are so similar it’s not worth listing. I have found lately, though, that I count both plain and vanilla yogurt, as well as fresh lemons as part of my staples.
Love John and Paul!!!!
Mom
Wine.
I adore the fabric of the dress (?) you are wearing in the pic.
Ours are about like yours. Our condiments are a little less exotic but at least we have two kinds of hot sauce on hand: Tabasco for heat and bite, Crystal for less heat but more flavor.
There used to be a commercial on TV for . . . something. I forget what. The kids bring their parents a pancake breakfast in bed. Dad says, “Oh, wow! Thanks, guys–this looks awesome!” Mom gets a horrified look on her face and whispers, “We don’t have the stuff to make pancakes” (implying that anything could be in them).
It used to drive me up the wall: Who doesn’t have the stuff to make pancakes??
Do they eat out three meals a day, seven days a week, that they don’t have milk, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder??
I think you pretty much cover it on your list Casey, it’s always good to have these staples as it makes the weekly shops a lot cheaper! Spicy sauce has gone way up our priority list recently – at current count we have 3 types!
When you say vegetable broth do you mean like stock to add to stuff? In the UK we use broth as a word for the soup you make with stock – I love different words for food, when I was younger I remember being so pleased the first time I hear new ones, like zuchini for a courgette or eggplant for aubergine!
I’m with Chris on the chocolate – some dark chocolate is definitely a staple for me plus peppermint tea, earl grey tea and red wine.
I always need eggs! They’re my fallback quick meal ingredient anytime. I also like to have an assortment of fresh leafy greens around (spinach, kale, chard, lettuce), plush a stash of dried asian noodles (soba, udon, rice sticks) since they cook so fast. I like to stir-fry veggies a lot, so I go through a lot of onions and shallots, plus some garlic and ginger.
that’s about what i have in my pantry as well. only i would like to stock up on more spices! there is an asian market that i discovered awhile ago and i’d like to shop there sometime. i love cooking asian food and have heard that buying ingredients from a market is better than buying from your regular grocer. i try to avoid grocery shopping for more than a couple times a month. it can get so expensive!
Sounds similar to mine, but I ALWAYS have asian noodles (ramen noodles or rice noodles) on hand to make quick noodle soups, which are one of my go-to dinners when I don’t know what else to eat!
And chicken stock – have you tried making your own? I make it everytime we have chicken (which is almost every week) so I’ve got a freezerful. It’s so easy to do!
I don’t have a basic pantry list, after all I live off of cafeteria food, but there is always fruits in my refrigerator when I need a snack.
One tip is getting soup stock in the health food aisle since a lot of them are available in low sodium, lower than even the low sodium options in the soup aisle. They don’t last as long but so better for your health!
I actually think I first heard about the concept of pantry staples from one of (shhh don’t tell) Rachel Ray’s cookbooks. Many of yours definitely overlap ours as well. To add to that we always keep around a variety of canned fish– tuna, sardines and anchovies. Tuna can get whipped into tuna salad quickly for lunches or sandwiches or mixed into a pasta dish like a mac n’ cheese bake; sardines can also go into pasta or be eaten with crackers, cheese, mustard and a bit of hot sauce when we’re feeling lazy or snacky; and anchovies are also great in pasta, particularly just with some garlic, butter and herbs in spaghetti. Or, we also try and remember to chop of excess herbs in the summer and keep them in ziplocs in the freezer for use later in the year. (Can you tell we’re both part Italian? LOL)
Haha, I love Little Black Car’s comment on not having stuff for pancakes!
I will add potatoes to my staple-list, and lentils. I’m a big bread-baker, but with a sort of “wing it” attitude towards what goes into them, which is pretty much whatever is on hand that could possibly go in bread; seeds, oats, barley, brown rice, flax seeds, potato flour, excess maple syrup…
I agree with the frozen vegetables – I keep a bag of green peas in the freezer, and even if I’m having just pasta with shredded cheese, the peas will add a little “real food” to the meal.
I love all the staple suggestions. You’re all making me miss having a house.
I also always have a selection of tea, both bagged and loose. My family all drinks iced and hot tea, so having it to offer to guests is a southern staple.
I think you covered just about everything! I have an insane amount of spices and I really love the company Penzey for their blends. I also have wasabi paste, cornichons, capers and a variety of jarred olives for whatever the occasion.
I also have a freezer packed with frozen fruit and veggies. It really does help with time.
p.s. even though I’m not much of a sweet tooth, I have a variety of dark chocolates on hand as well as treats my husband likes so just when he thinks he has nothing to snack on, I surprise him.
Mine is pretty much the same. I also tend to have a steady store of stale bread in the freezer to make croutons/stuffing or just basic breadcrumbs. Plus, if there’s no cans of tomatoes in the pantry, garlic and olive oil make a quick sauce for pasta!
Mine is pretty much the same, but I ALWAYS have a can of Vigo Italian-style bread crumbs with romano cheese in the cupboard. I like to experiment, which means some of my experiments fail–come out with a not-quite-right taste or consistency or some such thing. These bread crumbs have saved more meals than I can count.
i’m not even sure if i know what curry is…you should share a curry recipe and i shall make it!!
Oh my goodness Nikki, you’re missing out! : ) Basically it’s a sort of thicker, spicy sauce or broth that you cook up around meat or veggies (or both). The mix of spices depends on where the curry is from — most south-east Asian countries have their own regional flavours. Aside from acquiring the spices (or you could buy a pre-made curry paste), curries are super-easy to make — they’re probably my favourite quickie dinner! Get some rice cooking, chop up whatever you have in the fridge, throw it all in a pot (or the oven) for a bit, dish up over the rice, done!
I try to always have canned or frozen artichokes, great to sauté for a quick pasta dish, and frozen shrimp to add to salads or pasta. I also chop up my onions and celery as soon as I buy them and keep them in one-cup bags in the freezer for when recipes call for them.
hmmm… I blogged my answer since I wasn’t about to take up all the comments section LOL
http://jacobiterose.blogspot.com/2011/05/pantry-staples.html
Basically everything you included, minus the pasta. (I try to make as much as I can from scratch!) We also need a handy supply of tea, cheese, butter, and lots of different kinds of peppers!
My staples are very similar. My fridge is stocked with a variety of stir-fry sauce, and I always have a packet of frozen veges & potato chips for I’m-lazy-and-don’t-feel-like-cooking-tonight nights. They make great ice packs as well
Our staples are very simple, as the ‘other person’ living in this house is allergic to a great many things that I’d consider staples (among other things, tomatoes, chocolate, peppers, and ginger), so sometimes it forces me, ie. the one who does most of the cooking, to get creative.
But most of mine are the same as other people have listed. Usually I’ll make something, separate out half, and then add whatever I want, like ginger, tomato sauce, or Tabasco. And parmesan; I hate getting caught out without parmesan!
Mine is pretty similar to yours although I also like to have bacon drippings, lard, shortening, coconut oil on hand. These aren’t my main cooking fats but there are times when only these will do when making something like a pastry. Because of lard’s bad reputation (I mean, yeah, if you use it all of the time you will get a “lard butt”), it is getting harder and harder to find it in neighborhood.
I, too, loved Little Black Car’s comment about the pancakes. I’ll bet my younger sister wouldn’t be able to make them! If it isn’t something she can pop into the microwave or toaster, she doesn’t have it!
My list is a lot like Rachel’s but we like organic fruits and vegetables and quinoa instead of rice it’s less bloating, but still filling.
Have you been in my kitchen?! My list looks exactly like yours especially the spices, as a veggie I use spices a lot, we also mostly eat Italian, soups/stews, curry, stir fry and mexican influenced meals.
This is a great post! Thankyou for the brilliant advice, you never cease to amaze me and I aspire to be a domestic goddess like you. Thankyou for writing your blog, I’ve been following silently for a while, but just wanted t let you know I think you’re grand! xo
Oh, and my staples are so similar to yours! The exception is that instead of your spicy foods, I love my sweets, so lots of vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, sugar and chocolate xo
Where would the world be without garlic and olive oil??
In my boyfriend’s kitchen, that’s where.
I never realized how stocked my pantry was until I tried cooking at his house. I have three types of vinegar, 4 types of cooking oil, 3 kinds of rice, loads of pasta and sauce (store bought and home-made) home-made granola fixin’s (roasted soy beans, raw pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, etc), home-grown and dried herbs, 2 Kinds of shortening, multiple baking essentials, and about half a gallon of local honey. That’s just on the top shelf…
He has instant rice, instant mac n cheese, protein shakes, popsicles and chips. He didn’t even have butter when I met him. We are slowly working on getting the shelves stocked…
This is fun!
Whole-wheat spaghetti
short-grain brown rice
quinoa
canned diced tomatoes
black beans
Spaghetti sauce (that goes fast, though)
onions
garlic
curry powder
chili powder
cumin
ginger
cinnamon
red and black pepper
basil
kale
cabbage
sweet potatoes
carrots
red potatoes
cheddar cheese
feta cheese
lemon juice
white vinegar
olive oil
With these things, I can make all of our favorite meals.
Sweet potato oven fries
Lemon sauteed cabbage
Carolina coleslaw
curry (I like chicken in this with some sweet potato and onion)
black bean chili
Pecan Ginger rice (or quinoa)
Greek grain salad
Algerian carrots
Spaghetti and marinara sauce
colcannon (using kale instead of cabbage)
I love reading all the comments, they give me some good ideas for my menu, which I downloaded from Casey ! : ) Love your blog Casey. I’m in the process of making vaniila, should be ready in October. It’s fun to peek at it every so often. I love to cook , bake and sew, though my sewing needs more practice,but I still enjoy it. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone.
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY CASEY!! So sorry I haven’t got to it sooner, I’ve been so busy with other commitments! Anyway I have a 26th birthday coming up at the end of May so we are very close in birthdays.
I always have most of the staples you talk about in this post – frozen veges are especially a god send along with tinned tomatoes and lots of different spices to mix it up. Plus baking things too
I do love making a good brownie to take to work with me for a little treat.
butter
bread
cottage cheese
oil
syrup
peanut butter
jelly
flour
sugar
baking soda
coconut oil
pasta
sauce
milk
Casey, I am so proud my e-mail inspired this post
. Your list helped me a lot when we got our Costco membership last week. After a little bit of planning, the stuff I want to keep stocked includes:
…)
-scallions, carrots, potatos, garlic, onions, lemons or limes (cucumbers, tomatoes when I want to make Greek salad)
-at least one giant bag of pre-cut frozen vegetables for quick stir fries
-salsa
-sour cream, coconut milk, feta cheese, Parmesan cheese powder
-curry powder, black pepper, bouillon cubes, cayenne pepper, cumin, tumeric powder, balsamic and white vinegars, peanut butter, Ritz crackers (for smashing up and using in place of bread crumbs)
-whole wheat pasta, couscous, brown rice
-lentils, chickpeas,cardamom and other items from the Indian grocery (we have one in Taipei, it’s selection of dried pulses and spices is much less expensive than other grocery stores)
-canned tuna, canned diced tomatoes, canned black beans, black olives
-eggs
-Tostitos, shredded cheese and anything else to make nachos quickly
-almonds once I can figure out the cheapest place to buy them around here
-vodka (I mix it with some fabric softener and lavender oil to make a homemade wrinkle releaser… it works better than regular rubbing alcohol because it is also a deodorizer. Also, I like to make cocktails with it
I forgot to add… flaxseeds! I throw them into everything and if you grind them up in a blender with some water, they can make a quick, vegan egg substitute in baking recipes.
My wife is leaving and i need to learn how to cook. I am learning from you a bit so I have bookmarked the site. i need so much help. Thank you for making a nice site that I can use to get hints. I am getting there.
Peter
http://birkenstocks.sandals4less.com
I have a really similar list–I think our household would cease to function without diced tomatoes!
Our main additions would be both red and green salsas and tahini. We eat a lot of salsa, and homemade isn’t always easy if the produce isn’t good. And, they can be pureed for quick sauces in a pinch. Tahini makes hummus with canned beans easy, and is a surprising shortcut ingredient in Mexican sauces that use nuts as thickeners.
I also keep a jar of chicken soup “base” handy. It’s a kind of paste bouillion ( I get it from Penzey’s Spices, but there may be other sources.) Seems like I either don’t have chicken broth handy when I need it, or only need a cup or so and the rest of the package goes to waste because I forget about it in the fridge. The soup base lets me make just the amount of broth I need, and it keeps a long time.
Also, I keep kefir in the fridge always. I use it in place of buttermilk in biscuits, pancakes, and quick breads. Works great, but keeps far, far longer in the fridge because it has active cultures like yogurt!
Love the list! Like you, I keep frozen veggies in the freezer at all times, however I also have a “staple” of frozen berries. Great to make frozen drinks, add to desert, or even into salads!