Kitchen Essentials – Stock Your Pantry With These Ingredients

Every kitchen needs a set of ingredients to help prepare any meal. You can consider these to be kitchen essentials. Much like cookware and appliances, no kitchen is complete without the necessary ingredients. So what are the ingredients that every kitchen pantry should have? We will look at that in this article.

Oils and Vinegars

The staple of modern-day cooking, oil, and vinegar are solely responsible for “spicing” the flavor of our food. From all the types of oils that exist, olive oil emerges as a fan favorite. Every chef on the face of the planet prefers olive oil to sunflower oil. Not only is it healthier, but it makes the food much tastier.

Vinegar, on the other hand, is the main ingredient in salads. While no doubt everyone has heard of cider vinegar, one type of vinegar that we recommend you stock the pantry with is balsamic. Balsamic vinegar is tastier and much easier on the tongue than cider. You can also stock the pantry with red wine vinegar as the best all-purpose vinegar and rice vinegar for preparing Asian dishes.

Flour and Sugar

The two main ingredients in baking, stocking the pantry with flour and sugar will be a lifesaver when preparing baked goods. The pantry is a great place to keep flour as it keeps it away from the sun. More so, the pantry is nice and cool, meaning you won’t have to keep it in the refrigerator.

Everyone knows the sort of baked goods we use flour for. From making pizza dough to homemade bread, flour is absolutely essential. Sugar, on the other hand, can be plain white or brown. Quite a lot of households prefer using brown sugar lately. That’s because, according to Healthline, brown sugar contains more minerals and fewer calories and undergoes less processing.

But with all that said, the difference isn’t all that spectacular. Nonetheless, stock the pantry with lots of sugar – both brown and white.

Salt, Pepper, and Spices

Is it even possible to prepare meals without salt, pepper, and spices? Salt might be the most important ingredient in modern-day cooking. Every meal needs salt, even sweet baked goods. So the last thing you want is for your kitchen to be missing the most important ingredient of all. If you’re looking to diversify the salt in your cooking, make sure to get lots of kosher salt.

Kosher salt doesn’t contain any bitter additives, and it will allow you to make healthier meals. Himalayan salt is also a great option for healthy cooking.

Pepper, on the other hand, is plain and simple. Soups, stews, and foods of all kinds should contain this ingredient. Pepper is an ingredient that has a unique taste, which makes it a must-have in every kitchen pantry.

When on the subject of spices, there is plenty to talk about. For starters, you’ll need the “essentials” when it comes to spices. These are cinnamon, ginger, curry, cumin, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper. But that’s not enough. These spices might be essential, but garlic powder is just as important as ginger in cooking.

So, in addition to these spices, make sure to stock the pantry with lots of nutmeg, fennel, sweet paprika, thyme, sage, oregano, and anything else you’ll find at your local supermarket.

Honey and Syrups

There isn’t a healthier ingredient to stock the pantry with than honey. You can take honey as it is, or you can prepare all kinds of healthy meals to get your kids to eat more healthily. After all, who doesn’t love honey? More so, did you know that honey doesn’t come with an expiration date? If you notice that your honey looks quite strange, that’s because it has crystalized.

This isn’t a problem as all you need is to microwave it for a few seconds to bring it back to its old shape. When it comes to syrups, who could resist maple syrup? Maple syrup is the staple of American breakfast. Pancakes with maple syrup are probably the choice of breakfast for millions of households throughout the US and abroad. More so, did you know that maple syrup is Canada’s biggest export?

When on the subject of syrups, how could we forget corn syrup? Luckily for us, America produces tons of corn syrup. It is a frequent ingredient in many pies. So if you love baking pies, make sure to stock the kitchen pantry with plenty of corn syrup.