There are essentials that we must always have in the fridge (or freezer) and that always depend on our lifestyle and our tastes. An example, in my fridge there are always fruits and vegetables such as spring onions, carrots, peppers and tomatoes, which are staples in stir-fries and stew bases.
The best way to avoid having to throw away food is to always plan what we are going to cook during the week and even practice with batch cooking, which consists of cooking for the whole week in just two hours. It’s fast, it’s practical and it allows us to have a very healthy eating style despite having little time.
But there is a way to always be prepared for an unforeseen event and that is have a pantry with several essential and versatile basicsthat allow us to make many dishes.
Tricks to have a perfect pantry that saves you in the kitchen
You do not need a large cabinet and a pantry full of products, but you need these products to be basics that will help you in almost any dish. This concept of the perfect pantry has inspired, for example, the book Eve O’Sullivan and Rosie Reynolds, who with 10 basics elaborate up to 100 recipes in her book The ideal pantry.
The ideal pantry: With several basic products and a couple of fresh ingredients (FOOD-COOK)
And it is that with just a handful of ingredients we can solve many lunches and dinners. For example: salt, extra virgin olive oil and vinegar are three complements that help us to give grace to a salad, and the first two to cook 100% of the dishes. Garlic and onions are two essential products in the Mediterranean diet, so they should also be part of the pantry.
In the same way, dried legumes, rice and pasta are three foods that can be the basis of countless dishes, as well as flour, sugar and yeast if what we want is to prepare some sweet that other. But what about preserves? which ones are essential?
The essential cans and preserves in the kitchen
canned tomatoes
Canned tomatoes are an absolute must for the kitchen. With them we can do from a classic bolognese up to one simple tomato sauce for pasta, rice or meats. It serves as a base for other recipes such as ratatouille manchego or a delicious tomato risottoand can save us in the kitchen.
We can also count on concentrated tomato, which will add an extra flavor to the sauces using very little quantity and that is what they use in Directo al Paladar for ethis delicious bolognese sauce.
Cidacos – Extra Crushed Tomato, 400 g
Hida Tomato Double Concentrate – 170g x 6 Cans – Total: 1020 g
Artichokes, asparagus, peppers… canned vegetables
With some canned peas, artichoke hearts, cooked green beans or baby broad beans we can improvise a healthy first course by frying them with ham. But it is not the only thing that they allow us. We can make healthy snacks with them, marinating the vegetables and playing with spices and aromatics.
In the same way sweet corn it is not only a classic addition to a saladit can also be used to make a delicious creamy curryfor example or some chicken, corn and leek crêpes. this cereal has many properties and including it in our daily lives is always a good idea, although yes, the one you buy that does not have added sugar.
They are Cooked white asparagus is a must that are not only delicious with a good Homemade Mayonnaisebut can be the basis for a more sophisticated recipe like this warm cream of asparagus with cockles or these pickled asparagusor accompany a dish like this hake in green sauce.
If we continue with canned vegetables, we would put essential in the kitchen canned roasted peppers. They save us a lot of time and they are not only an ideal side dish for roastsfor example, but can become a luxury dish like these Piquillo peppers stuffed with cod or these stuffed with prawns.
Gvtarra – Artichoke Halves 720 g
Bujanda – Extra White Asparagus – 8/12 Very Thick – 425 g
Ibsa Roasted Peppers – 2 Units of 295 gr – Total: 590 gr
canned fish
Tuna cans are not only used to make a simple salad, we can use it to make pasta dishes, spreads or for Dani García’s salad. It is a filling classic dumplingsand an absolute must-have in any pantry.
You would be surprised to know the number of recipes that we can make using as a base, for example, some pickled mussels. from a delicious soft nougat of mussels and light tuna up to a potatoes and mussels pintxo with aioli from their own marinadewhich is ideal as a snack.
In the same way a can of quality anchovies is a guaranteed success since it allows us to accompany some endives or lettuce hearts, to make a delicious classic pasta recipe, known as puttanesca. It gives us a very special flavor and is a long-lasting preserve that then lasts a long time in the fridge once opened.
Calvo – Yellowfin tuna in olive oil – 80 g
Pescamar 13-18 Pieces Pickled Mussels In Can 111 G 111 g
Conservas Ortiz El Velero – Anchovies in Olive Oil 47.5 g
canned vegetables
Finally, it is essential that we keep a space in the pantry for canned vegetables because they are a food that should be basic in our diet and because cooked vegetables save us a lot of time in the kitchen.
We can use them in stews as healthy as this stew chickpeas with squid that we will have ready in just 20 minutes or in a salad, like this fresh bean salad In addition to being delicious, it is low in calories. In Vitónica they offer us more than 30 recipes to make with canned vegetables which assures us that that can will not remain in the bottom of the pantry.
We can make hummus from different legumes, like this original beet, lime and coconut hummus whose recipe we have on video and how original and attractive it is.
As in everything, in the kitchen our pantry will also depend on our taste and our way of cooking, but this basic and simple guide ensures that we will have a wardrobe background for our visitor-proof kitchen unexpected.
Photos | Ella Olson, Dragon Marius and Ella Olson on unsplashDirect to the Palate