How To Stock Your Kitchen With Pantry Staples

A well stocked pantry makes it easier to cook healthy meals at home. Here’s my approach for filling my pantry with cooking staples, for ease and versatility. Plus, I’m sharing some pantry organization tips.

An organized and well stocked pantry starts with an organized and thoughtful approach. The pantry often becomes a place of disorganized hoarding, or expired foods. It might be filled with things you bought for a single recipe you made last year, or maybe with foods you don’t often reach for. Maybe you just want a more organized pantry. Regardless, the following tips will help you stock your pantry, so you’re set for healthy cooking.

A pantry full of cooking staples, means there’s versatility. Having versatile basics on hand helps you prepare for recipes across different cuisine types. It should also need to be replenished regularly, because ideally you’ll be actively using up the ingredients.

It might be tempting to grab things for your pantry as you walk up and down the food store aisles, but I think it’s best to create a thoughtful list ahead and stick to it when you get to the store. Picking up extras that look or sound good is a way to potentially accumulate ingredients you won’t actually use (unless you have a clear plan for it in the moment!).

Having healthy meal staples that suit your personal needs is helpful for everyday cooking, but also for nights when you need a lazy dinner. Thinking ahead to keep a couple of quick, easy and nutritious options on hand can be a life saver. It also helps to save money overall, if you stock up on kitchen staples as they’re on sale.

The first step is to consider the type of meals you like to cook and eat. There are a lot of ingredients you could fill your pantry with, but clutter and too many choices can make meal planning and cooking overwhelming. I think it’s better to have an intentional pantry, stocked only with foods and ingredients you actively use and eat.

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Pantry stock list

1. Basics (spices, vinegars, condiments)

2. Healthy carbs

3. Healthy fats

4. Healthy proteins

5. Health Boosters

6. Backups

7. Quick and easy, lazy dinner options

Basic Things to Have in Pantry

Basics include a bunch of different ingredients like vinegars, spices, herbs, hot sauce and condiments. These are base ingredients needed to make sauces, dressings, marinades and seasonings with. It helps to consider what your go-to recipes are to stock your pantry with the ingredients you use frequently. But if you’re newer to clean or healthier cooking, stick with the basics.

A good start with basic spices would be garlic powder, ground cumin, chili powder, dried oregano and dried thyme. My go-to vinegars are apple cider and red wine, but if you do a lot of Asian cooking rice vinegar is good to have. Versatile condiments include a good mustard (like dijon), mayonnaise and tahini. Basics can also include canned ingredients you use often, like sun dried tomatoes, olives and artichoke hearts.

Healthy Carbs

Carbs are important healthy pantry staples. It’s helpful to keep a few varieties of carbohydrate on hand, like beans, whole grains, bread, flours and sweets. I like having canned beans for easy use, especially versatile chickpeas and pinto beans (I make refried beans a lot). For whole grains, I keep corn meal, whole oats, rice, couscous and farro on hand, along with a good whole grain or lentil pasta. Some healthy flours in my pantry include oat flour and einkorn flour (I have unbleached white flour too). A healthy sweet option could be dates, which can be eaten with some peanut butter or used in energy balls like these Baklava Energy Bites. Honey and maple syrup are healthier sweets too.

Healthy Fats

Pantry friendly fats include oils and nuts, though some delicate oils and nuts last longer if refrigerated. I personally keep extra virgin olive oil, toasted sesame seed oil (for Asian recipes), canned coconut milk, unrefined coconut oil, peanut butter, raw cashews and pumpkin seeds on hand.

Healthy Proteins

Many proteins need to be refrigerated or frozen but there are some great shelf stable proteins, both animal/seafood based and plant based. Plant based proteins include canned or dried beans, which contain both protein and carbohydrate. Beef jerky and canned seafoods are easy sources of dense protein. Another shelf stable dense protein option is protein powder. Pea protein, whey or egg white protein can be good options to keep on hand for smoothies, shakes and other recipes.

Health Boosters

I like to keep some superfood or nutrient dense options on hand to add into various things. These include powdered greens like spirulina (great for smoothies and yogurt bowls), ground flax (extra fiber, actually best refrigerated), nutritional yeast (great on popcorn and in vegan creamy sauces) and cacao nibs.

Backups

For foods and ingredients that get used up frequently, it helps to keep backups on hand. This way there’s a buffer if you forget to replace it or if the food store doesn’t have it when you need it. It can also help save money, if you stock up while an item is on sale, rather than when you have to buy it.

Quick and Easy Lazy Dinner Options

The pantry is my best friend on nights when I don’t feel like putting effort into cooking and need a lazy dinner. I utilize the freezer on these nights too, but some simple pantry options would be lentil pasta with a jarred sauce like pesto, or a good vodka or red sauce (you can throw in frozen veggies to boost nutrition!), or some organic mac and cheese with a side veggie. Canned refried beans would be a great for a meatless meal option too, you can pair it with eggs or make a bean and cheese quesadilla with avocado and salsa.

My Essential Pantry List

Fill in with your own go-to choices.

Basics

• Spices

• Hot sauce/sriracha/salsa

• Vinegar

• Condiments

Healthy Carbs

• Beans (canned or dried)

• Whole grains/rice

• Pasta

• Flours

• Healthy sweets

Healthy Fats

• Oils

• Nuts and nut butter

Health Boosters

• Powdered greens

• Ground flax

• Nutritional yeast

• Cacoa powder and/or nibs

Healthy Proteins

• Canned seafood

• Beef Jerky

• Protein powder

Lazy Dinner Ideas

• Organic mac and cheese (+ roasted broccoli)

• Jarred pasta sauces (pesto, arrabbiata…) (with lentil pasta)

• Refried beans (+eggs, avocado and hot sauce) (quesadilla with avocado and salsa)

How To Organize A Small Pantry

I thought it would helpful to include a few of my pantry organizing tips, since it’s useful for ingredients to be visible and easy to reach. These tips are helpful no matter your pantry size, but especially helpful for smaller pantries.

1. Create a spice drawer instead of a cabinet. I like to lay my spices flat in a drawer, which makes them much more accessible, rather than reaching up in a deep cabinet to find the one I need.

2. Group pantry foods by food type so it’s easy to find things. Stack foods like beans and jars. I also like to use containers to group ingredients. I have a container specifically for baking ingredients.

3. Use shelf inserts to create more surface space, like these.

4. Use pretty air tight containers. Containers help to organize various foods and ingredients, but many of them aren’t air tight. This would be an issue if you don’t use that item quickly, as it might lose its flavor and freshness. I also think it’s important to enjoy the look of the things we fill our homes with. I prefer glass over plastic for health reasons, and silicone for sealing. I use these glass and bamboo containers and love them.