Whether there’s a food shortage, or you just don’t feel like running to the shops, having a well-stocked pantry ensures you’ll always have meal options. Here are some of my favorite items to keep on hand.
Pulses
This category of food includes the dried seeds of legume plants, like beans, peas, and lentils. The word “pulse” distinguishes the dried form from fresh. For a variety of tastes and textures, I keep a few different kinds.
- Lentils: I love how quickly lentils cook, and how easily they absorb flavors. They’re great for soups and stews, and perfect as a substitute for ground beef.
- Chickpeas: Mild-tasting and creamy in texture, chickpeas are great in soups and stews. You can also grind them up after soaking to use in hummus and Burmese-style tofu.
- Black beans: Their firm texture means they take longer to cook, but there’s something so meaty and satisfying about them. Cuban black-bean soup is a family favorite, and who doesn’t love a black-bean and cheese burrito?
- Soybeans: I always keep soybeans in the house. Peeled soybeans are especially convenient. I use them to make firm or silken tofu, and in Tempeh.
Nuts and Seeds
Like pulses, many nuts and seeds are high in protein. You can use them on their own, or combine them with other ingredients to create different textures and flavors.
- Walnuts: Full of healthy fats, minerals, and protein, walnuts are extremely useful in meat substitutes (for example, combined with mushrooms). They’re also a core ingredient in our Red-Pepper and Walnut Dip.
- Almonds, cashews: These nuts tend to be more expensive, but I do like to keep some in the house. I often toast them with walnuts and spices to make a smoky-sweet snack mix. Cashews can be soaked and blended to form the base of various dips and sauces, too.
- Pumpkin seeds: One of the most nutritious foods available. By the way, pumpkin seed milk makes delicious tofu and it’s self-coagulating. You don’t have to add anything to get firm curds.
- Sunflower seeds: Toasted, baked into breads and crackers, or softened and mixed into our high-protein Chocho-Sunflower Dip, sunflower seeds are a versatile high-protein food.
- Flax seeds: High in protein and Omega 3s, flax seeds can be ground and mixed with water to make a binder in several vegetarian recipes, including our Chocolate-Quinoa Truffles. They’re also super easy to sprout! The sprouts are mild and crunchy, similar to alfalfa sprouts, but with much higher protein.
Grains, Cereals, and Pseudo-cereals
I keep a range of grains and cereals, including some that are high in starch and some that are high in protein.
- Rice: I keep long-grain and short-grain varieties in my pantry. Rice is an easy choice for a side dish. You can also grind it up to make rice flour for gluten-free noodles. If you’re very adventurous, you can even ferment rice to make either Chinese-style rice wine or South American chicha de arroz.
- Quinoa: Rinsing is the trick to tasty quinoa. Rinse well before cooking to remove the saponins (and save the rinse water to use as a mild household cleanser!). Cooks up as quickly as rice and has far more protein.
- Amaranth: Similar in protein content to quinoa, amaranth is a pseudo-cereal with many uses, including amaranth milk. Puffed amaranth is key ingredient in our light and crispy Amaranth Crackers.
- Oats: Oats are high in magnesium and fiber. Great on their own as oatmeal or oat milk, they can also help add bulk to other recipes. If you’re having trouble sleeping, try eating a little oatmeal or drinking some oat milk before bed.
Flours and Starches
- Wheat flour: Besides baking with it, did you know that you can separate the wheat protein from the starch to make imitation chicken nuggets? It’s a long process, but it’s fairly easy. Look for high-protein wheat that does not have any baking powder added to it.
- Cornstarch, pea flour: These make great thickeners for soups and sauces. Cornstarch is also perfect for dusting foods before frying, to make them extra crispy. Pea flour has a slightly more savory taste.
- Yuca starch: Another great thickener with a slightly sticky texture. Combine with fresh cheese to make gluten-free yuca bread, or combine with eggs for easy home-made noodles.
- Chickpea flour: Can be used to make hummus or Burmese-style tofu without having to grind the beans yourself. It loses a bit in texture, but it’s so convenient.
Flavorings and Seasonings
The motto for this website is “Delicious, Nutritious, and Economical.” Honestly if it’s not delicious who cares how nutritious it is? You gotta want to eat it, right? Pre-mixed sauces and seasoning blends have their place, but a lot of times I use them for one recipe and then they just sit around forever. I prefer to stock things that I can mix and match for a variety of cooking styles.
- Basic spices and seasonings
- Granulated garlic
- Onion powder
- Powdered ginger
- Cumin
- Oregano
- Smoked salt
- Cayenne
- Cinammon
- Specialty spices and seasonings
- Nutritional yeast: besides making vegan “cheese” sauce, nutritional yeast gives a kick of umami to many recipes.
- Star anise: a must-have for authentic Asian flavor.
- Candied ginger: great long-term storage and tastes like fresh ginger when rehydrated.
- Monosodium glutamate (MSG): try replacing some of the salt in your food with MSG. You get more umami flavor with lower sodium!
- Oils, vinegars, and sauces
- Kikkoman or McCormick brand soy sauce for Asian food.
- Oriental brand soy sauce: adds caramelized flavors to sauteed foods; it’s similar to Jamaican Brownings sauce.
- Good quality olive oil
- Toasted sesame oil
- Achiote oil
- Vinegars: plain white vinegar plus at least one specialty vinegar like balsamic or red wine.
- Liquid smoke: an absolute must-have for meaty flavors in vegetarian and vegan dishes.
- Miscellaneous
- Dried fruits such as raisins, dates, cranberries, and unsweetened coconut.
- Dried mushrooms
- Dried tomatoes
- Canned roma/plum tomatoes
- Powdered whole milk
- Powdered coconut milk: so much more economical than buying a can and using only half!
- Freezer items (okay, they don’t go in the pantry, but important and worth mentioning)
- Basil: when I can buy fresh basil, I chop it up and make basil ice-cubes. They keep for months in plastic bags in the freezer. The flavor of dried basil doesn’t even come close.
- Roasted red peppers: it’s a bit of a chore to roast and peel them, so I do a bunch at a time and keep them in the freezer.
- Fatty rice: I cook rice al dente, then finish cooking it with a few tablespoons of neutral oil. I use this in my imitation burgers to keep them juicy.