Keep these ingredients on hand so you can make a delicious, nutritious meal every night of the week. Life is busy, but dinner doesn’t have to be. A well-stocked pantry is the best way to ensure you’ll have everything you need to make a healthy and flavorful dinner every night, even during the busiest weeks, when stopping at the grocery store just isn’t realistic. A combination of classic pantry staples (such as canned tomatoes, chicken broth and canned beans) and flavor-boosting convenience items (such as herb mixes, soy sauce and jarred pesto) is key to keeping your kitchen dinner-ready. No need for expensive takeout when you have what you need to make a healthy dinner at home.
This list includes many of the items you need to prepare healthy recipes, plus a few other ingredients that will make impromptu meals easier and more delicious. If you’re building a healthy pantry from scratch, start with the basics, and slowly expand your pantry as you try new recipes and experiment with new cooking techniques.
Don’t have a large kitchen to stock? You can hone this list to go-to foods, the ones you are most likely to use again and again in meals. This way, you can stock a smaller kitchen pantry cabinet without overwhelming your limited space.
Oils, Vinegars and Condiments
Oils, vinegars and condiments are the backbone of many recipes. They’re necessary for quick marinades, salad dressings, pan sauces and more. For a cook with an eye toward healthy ingredients, this collection of pantry staples helps you swap out convenience foods that are often filled with too much sodium, added sugar, and other unnecessary ingredients. (Bottled salad dressing, we mean you.)
A collection of oils is particularly important for home cooks. Some oils, like extra-virgin olive oil, are best used in uncooked dishes, such as salad dressings, or brushed on chicken and fish after cooking. (Olive oil has a low smoke point and can burn in a hot pan or grill.) Meanwhile, canola oil is a high-quality oil that can tolerate high temps. Flavorful nut and seed oils are next on the list, for when you’re expanding your pantry; they add unique flavor to salad dressings and stir-fries.
PANTRY BASICS
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Canola or grapeseed oil
• Unsalted butter
• Mayonnaise (olive-oil mayo has less saturated fat)
• White, red-wine, white-wine and cider vinegars
• Hot sauce
• Dijon mustard
• Ketchup
• Flavorful nut and seed oils, such as toasted sesame oil and walnut oil
• Balsamic and rice-wine vinegars
• Reduced-sodium soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Hoisin sauce
• Chile-garlic sauce
• Curry paste
• Kalamata olives and green olives
• Capers
• Barbecue sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
Seasonings
A seasoning cabinet or drawer can quickly begin to burst at the seams. Unique spice mixes you used just once sit stale beside the cumin and coriander, which do get a fair share of use in a variety of recipes, from Mexican and Southeast Asian dishes to beef stews and more. Paring down to the basics will help you save space and make sure you’re utilizing everything before the flavors fade.
This seasonings list also includes foods that make up the foundations of many recipes: the aromatics. These are the first things you throw in the pot (with canola oil) to start simmering— onions and garlic, for example. They add a depth of flavor and heft to many dishes, even fast ones, so keeping them on hand can help you turn basic tomato soup into a deeply-flavored tomato soup that’s good enough to serve to guests!
PANTRY BASICS
•Salt, including kosher salt, coarse sea salt and fine salt
•Black peppercorns
•Onions
•Fresh garlic
•Dried herbs: bay leaves, dried thyme leaves, dried oregano, dried herb seasoning blends
•Spices: chili powder, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, curry powder, dry mustard, paprika, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, turmeric, garlic powder
•Citrus: lemons, limes, oranges (The zest is as valuable as the juice.)
•Granulated sugar
•Brown sugar
•Honey
•Fresh ginger (store in the freezer for longer life)
•Anchovies or anchovy paste for flavoring pasta sauces and salad dressings
•Dried herbs: dill, crumbled dried sage, tarragon
•Spices: allspice (whole berries or ground), caraway seeds, cinnamon sticks, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, ground ginger, nutmeg, za’atar
•Pure maple syrup
•Unsweetened cocoa powder, natural and/or Dutch-processed
•Bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate chips
Canned and Bottled Goods
While your first inclination may be otherwise, using canned foods can be essential to some healthy-cooking recipes. Canned tomatoes, for example, can be used in soups and stews, but they’re also a boon to many quick and healthy skillet meals and one-pot pastas. Cooking dried beans takes time and effort (though it’s worth it if you can manage it), but canned beans make black bean tacos or a tomato-bean shakshuka happen in a hurry.
PANTRY BASICS
•Canned tomatoes, tomato paste
•No-salt-added diced tomatoes
•Unsalted chicken broth, beef broth and/or vegetable broth
•Canned beans: cannellini beans, great northern beans, chickpeas, black beans, red kidney beans
•Clam juice
•Light coconut milk
•Canned tuna (chunk light) and salmon
Grains and Legumes
Beans, rice, whole grains and lentils can be added to a plethora of dishes for instant protein and filling fiber. They also store well, so you can keep them on hand for a considerable time, and they go from season to season—in soups and stews in the winter and in light grain sides in spring and summer. You can use some of these pantry staples to turn basic chicken breasts into crispy oven-fried pieces or leftover steak into a hearty burrito bowl or to make black-bean patties in a pinch.
PANTRY BASICS
•Whole-wheat flour and whole-wheat pastry flour
•All-purpose flour
•Assorted whole-wheat pastas
•Brown rice and instant brown rice
•Rolled oats
•Whole-wheat breadcrumbs
•panko breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat
•Pearl barley, quick-cooking barley
•Whole-wheat couscous
•Bulgur
•Dried lentils
•Yellow cornmeal
•Dried beans (black, cannellini, chickpeas)
•Polenta
Nuts, Seeds and Fruits
You may think these kitchen pantry staples are best suited for snacks and trail mixes, but a cook with an eye toward healthy eating knows they can be used in everything from salads and grain bowls to muffins, quick breads and quick coatings for proteins. Most fresh nuts and seeds should be stored in the fridge or freezer to keep their oils from turning rancid.
PANTRY BASICS
•Walnuts
•Pecans
•Almonds
•Dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
•Natural peanut butter
•Hazelnuts
•Pine nuts
•Sesame seeds
•Tahini
•Natural almond butter
•Assorted dried fruits, such as apricots, prunes, cherries, cranberries, dates, figs and raisins
Refrigerator Basics
We use the term kitchen pantry to refer to your cold storage, as well as dry storage. These ingredients should be kept stocked in your fridge, as they can quickly and easily be used for many fast dinners. Yogurt, for example, is a great snack, but it can be a dipping sauce for fish or pork or turned into a dressing for falafel or shawarma. Eggs are staples for many dishes, but they can star in fast omelets and frittatas too.
PANTRY BASICS
•Milk or soy milk
•Unsweetened coconut or oat milk beverage
•Plain strained yogurt, such as Greek-style
•Sour cream
•Parmesan cheese and/or Romano cheese
•Sharp Cheddar cheese
•Eggs (large)
•Orange juice
•Blue cheese
•Dry white wine
•Water-packed tofu
How to Organize a Pantry
These tips will help you cut down on food waste, save money and keep your kitchen well organized.
START WITH A CLEAN SLATE
First clean out the space you intend to use for your kitchen pantry, whether it is a stand-alone closet or a smaller kitchen pantry cabinet. The same goes for your fridge and freezer. Toss outdated items and anything you know you’ll never use again.
REMEMBER THAT EXPIRATION DATES AREN’T EVERYTHING
Sell-by, expiration and best-by dates aren’t actually useful for the purposes of knowing whether a food item is good or not. Each means something entirely different, and relying solely on them can lead to some serious food waste. Instead, use your intuition: if the food looks and smells fresh, keep it if you’ll use it.
TAKE STOCK OF WHAT YOU HAVE & ORGANIZE AS YOU GO
What’s left? As you take stock of what you have, organize ingredients in a system that feels intuitive to you, whether that’s grouping grains in one bin and oils and vinegars in another, or giving areas a “theme,” such as proteins, grains or baking. You’re not married to this system forever, but it’s a good way to help you assess what you have and what you need to buy.
FILL IN YOUR STORES & ADD MORE OVER TIME
A food pantry is only as useful as the items you have on hand. Replace items as you use them so your pantry stays stocked. As you cook new recipes that require
beyond-the-basic ingredients, you’ll naturally expand your pantry to help you get to that well-stocked state.
USE THE OLDER ITEMS FIRST
When you add new staples, be sure to place them behind or below the old ones. This way, you can use up what remains before opening a new bag, bottle or box.
MAKE THINGS VISIBLE
If your pantry or cabinet shelves are deep, consider putting tall items in the back so they are visible over the shorter items. Unfortunately, foods that are shoved into the back of the pantry tend to be lost—and forgotten. Revolving trays can help with this issue as well. Put a few on deep shelves so you can rotate your stock and see everything at once.
THE BOTTOM LINE
You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars filling out your kitchen pantry during one trip to the grocery store. Start with the basics and expand your pantry as you expand your cooking skill set. Over time, you’ll find it easier to make meals from scratch using what you have on hand.
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