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In Your Pantry: Cupboard Essentials

What should I have in my kitchen?

For the most part this list contains canned or bottled foods that will keep very well. You’ll always have a back up and can use any of them to make meals in a hurry.

While this isn’t a complete list of items you might want in your pantry, it is a good starting place for you. Each time you go to the grocery, add two or three of these to your list and in a few months time you’ll have a well fitted pantry.

Canned tomatoes – Keep whole, peeled tomatoes on hand and have a couple of 15 ounce cans.

Beans and Legumes – Canned no-salt-added beans are readily available in most groceries. There are some recipes that call for dried beans but you can use canned.  1 cup of canned beans is the equivalent of about 1/3 cup dried beans.

Canned:
Garbanzos (chick peas)
White beans (both cannelllini and great northern beans)
Red kidney beans
Black beans
Blackeye peas
Pinto beans

Dried:
Lentils (green, red and yellow)
Split peas
White beans (both cannelllini and great northern beans)
Red kidney beans
Black beans
Blackeye peas
Pinto beans
Light coconut milk
Roasted peppers – Consider jars of red peppers on hand and possibly the yellow peppers as well.

Stocks – If you are cooking for only two get the 15 ounce cans otherwise purchase the quart carton. Keep at least 2 or 3 cans or a carton of chicken stock on hand.

You are better off making your own vegetable stock.

Pasta – Keep your pasta in plastic Tupperware type containers. I always have on hand:

Spaghetti
Penne
Ziti
Fettuccine
Linguine
Orzo
Riso

Consider a number of Asian noodles such as udon, buckwheat udon and soba noodles.

Rice –
Short grained sushi rice
Long grain jasmine rice
Medium grain brown rice
Short grained brown rice
Arborio rice (for making risotto)
Purple sticky rice
Basmati rice
Wild rice – I like to collect wild rices too because there are so many different varieties.