YES I have a pantry. Wooooohooooo. I have wanted a pantry for such a long time. Some people would call it a store cupboard but to me it’s my pantry.

Now that I can have the space and the means to store everything the way I want I thought I would share with you my pantry essentials. Food products that I always always have in my kitchen and which I use all the time. Things which save me money, time and give me great flavours. Staple products which mean that I can create a meal in minutes even without ANY fresh goods.

Spices and herbs – cumin, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme,bay leaves, curry leaves, curry powder,allspice, Chinese 5 spice, cloves, fennel, garam masala, ginger, mustard seed,celery salt, garlic powder, paprika, sweet smoked paprika, saffron, turmeric, star anise ,oregano and tarragon.. There are probably more!

I also use a lot of the Schwartz perfect shake line.. Including chargrilled chicken, fish blend, season all, piri piri and Thai 7spice blend. I was sent a few to try a while ago and I love them. We have used them to make homemade fish fingers and beautiful crispy griddled chicken recently.

Baking goods –

Plain flour, Self Raising flour and Cornflour. I always have a full stock of these three. Plain flour with a little olive oil,salt and water means I can always make the most beautiful flatbreads. Self raising flour to make cakes at least once a week 😉 Cornflour to thicken my stews and to make sauces from scratch. I also have bread flours, pastry flours and more.

Jars of flavoured caster sugars such as vanilla and lavender for baking. Icing sugar and granulated sugars also.

Cocoa powder – for baking and hot cocoa.

Nielsen Massey vanilla pastes/extracts – I adore these products. I also always have vanilla pods.

Hobbycraft food colouring paste – I like these as you only need a tiny amount of paste to create really vibrant colours.

Oils – I have a full stock of plain olive oil, vegetable oils, rapeseed oil and flavoured garlic/chilli oils from The Preservation Society.

Salts and Peppers – I only really use sea salt but I have a fair few varieties of it such as smoked,chilli and more. I use a LOT of black peppercorns but I generously have a stock of Sichuan peppercorns and mixed too.

Tins and cartons – Chickpeas, butter beans, kidney beans, passata, chopped tomatoes,baked beans, coconut milk, new potatoes, sweetcorn,tuna and some dessert emergency essentials such as custard and rice pudding 🙂

Sauces and condiments – soy sauce, sweet chilli,fish sauce, worcester sauce, jerk paste, Thai green curry paste, garlic paste, curry sauce mix such as, I have stock cubes and gravy granules for thickening stews/adding flavour.

Pasta, lentils and rice – I stock up on pasta when stores like Asda do a promotion. Recently they sold all of their pasta products for 50p a pack so I now have a huge stockpile of lasagne sheets, linguine, twists and shells. Pasta has a long shelf life and is something I always buy so buying it in bulk at a reduced cost saves me a fortune.

I buy dried red lentils in large packs in the world food aisle – they seem to last forever. The same goes for rice, cous cous, bulgar wheat and quinoa.

I will probably add more to this list as I finish organising but this is a great place to start if you are looking at doing more home cooking and if you buy one or two things each week then it won’t really affect your shopping budget. Most of the products I have last me ages.

Photos will be added when my pantry is completely finished and organised. A nesting pregnancy woman’s dream hey?