A Home Cook’s Kitchen Pantry
Some of the Ingredients I Like To Keep On Hand for a Quick & Easy Meal
A well-stocked pantry gives every home cook, beginner or intermediate, a strong foundation for creating delicious meals without stress. By keeping essential staples on hand, you cut down on last-minute grocery runs and open the door to spontaneous cooking.
These ingredients, from dried pasta, canned beans, and rice to olive oil, spices, and vinegars, let you whip up a satisfying dish on the fly. You don’t need to be a professional chef to appreciate the convenience and creativity a stocked pantry provides.
You can turn leftovers into something exciting or stretch fresh ingredients further with just a few basics. You’ll save time, reduce waste, and feel more confident improvising in the kitchen.
Whether you’re making a quick pasta, building a hearty soup, or dressing up a salad, your pantry can be your best kitchen ally. It empowers you to cook more often, eat better, and spend less.
This post explores what to stock, why it matters, and how to customize your pantry to suit your cooking style. By keeping the right items within reach, you’ll turn everyday cooking into a smoother, more enjoyable experience—no fancy skills required. Let’s look at how to build a pantry that works for you.
What ingredients do you want to have on hand so you don’t have to run out to the market daily?
Just like my must-have kitchen tools, you may consider having these staples in your kitchen to whip up a delicious meal at a moment’s notice. Most of these items you can find in your local supermarket, and some you may need to order online, but they will definitely make your cooking life easier and more fun.
It’s important to remember that some products with long shelf lives, like spices, lose their flavor over time. So you may want to toss the ground cumin that hasn’t seen the light of day since that special grilled shrimp dish three years ago. And if you have a deep pantry like mine, you may want to check in the back occasionally to see what’s there.
So we’ll start with some of the basics, and you can add to them according to your own cooking enjoyment:
| Item | Description |
| Anchovies | A must for many pasta sauces, flat filets in a can, or anchovy paste. |
| Artichokes | Canned hearts packed in water. |
| Beans | An assortment of canned (easier) or dry (more work but tastier). |
| Bread crumbs | |
| Capers | Great in salads and pasta dishes. |
| Chutney | Great for crackers and sauces. |
| Clam juice | A good substitute for fish stock and linguini with clam sauce. |
| Corn meal | Great for dredging foods and a must for polenta. |
| Coconut | Either shredded in a can, coconut milk, or both. |
| Cornstarch | For thickening sauces. |
| Crackers | Assorted types. |
| Dried fruits | Apples, apricots, currants, figs, and raisins. |
| Dried herbs | Basil, bay leaves, chili powder, cinnamon, dill, nutmeg, oregano, paprika, crushed red pepper, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme. |
| Extracts | Vanilla is the most important, but try orange and almond as well. |
| Flour | Unbleached all-purpose. |
| Jams, Jellies, Preserves, and Honey | |
| Ketchup | Always have an extra bottle on hand. |
| Mushrooms | An assortment of dried including shiitake, morels, and porcini. |
| Mustard | Dried and Dijon in a jar. |
| Oils | Olive (pure for everyday cooking and virgin for drizzling), canola, and sesame. |
| Olives | Canned, pitted, and non-pitted, Nicoise and calamata, and olive paste. |
| Pasta | An assortment of shapes and sizes; dried. |
| Peanut butter | I like the chunky style. |
| Peas | Canned petite style. Fresh is better, but these are good to have on hand. |
| Pepper | Whole peppercorns, ground black and white pepper. |
| Pesto, Tapenade, Salsa | |
| Rice | Arborio (for risotto), brown, white, wild (not really rice but a long-grain marsh grass). |
| Salt | Regular and sea salt. |
| Salad Dressings | My favorite is Good Seasons. |
| Sauces | Soy or Tamari, Tabasco, Teriyaki, and Worcestershire. |
| Stocks | One of the most important cooking ingredients. |
| Sugar | White and brown, granulated and confectioners. |
| Tomatoes | Canned – whole plum, paste, and puree; sun-dried. |
| Tuna | Canned, packed in water. |
| Vinegar | Balsamic, white wine, red wine, rice wine. |
| Wines | Marsala, Madeira, and Sherry. |
