Some one asked me the other day what my main staples are. They have changed over the last few years as prices have risen. Eggs would definitely been on there a few years ago, but I am slowly learning to use a lot less due to the price increases. Oats also used to be on there, but we rarely eat breakfast now as we have aged, and so I rarely buy them these days.
This is a list of the things that I always make sure that I have in, as, with these 12 ingredients, and what I can forage and grow in the garden, I can feed us a reasonably healthy, and varied menu.
Flour (either self raising flour, or plain, or both if possible)
Flour is so useful. Last year I wrote a blog about all the things that you can make with flour if you are hungry, some of them you only have to add water eg. turning grated vegetables into fritters, making flat breads, dumplings, and even a basic pasta. If you have oil or fat, milk, yoghurt, or eggs the amount of things that you can make, increases significantly. Pancakes, gnocchi, pizza bases, scones, and white and cheese sauces are just some examples.
Yogurt
This never used to be on my list, in fact I never used to like it. The thing that changed is that we now make yoghurt.
Home made yoghurt is a lot cheaper than buying it, and we have a much larger quantity to use. There are so many things that you can make with yoghurt and flour, including pizza bases, scones, bread, flatbreads, and bagels
We also eat yoghurt with home made compote from fruit foraged or grown, and make lollies and yoghurt bark. I also use it to make dips, and to coat chicken. Yoghurt has lots of good gut bacteria in it and so is good for your health.
Sugar or honey
This may not be the healthiest ingredient, but sugar means that I can preserve fruit as jams or bottled, and I also make compote each week with foraged, or home grown fruit. I can also make treats for desserts. Honey can add sweetness and nutrition. I know a lot of people give up sugar for health reasons, and I have reduced it, but I think that it is an important ingredient to have in the cupboard for preserving and so I always make sure that I have a few bags.
Tomato puree
I do make some of my own tomato puree, but I also have to buy some. Tomato puree is great as a sauce for pizza, for making a simple tomato sauce with herbs and water to have with pasta, and is good for thickening a stew or soup. Some times I add a little bit of sugar or honey if it is bitter. When my own tomato puree and tomato pasta sauce have run out, tomato puree is a cheap way to add taste to my food.
Chorizo
Chorizo adds a meaty flavour for low cost. I only use about an inch per meal and so one lasts me a couple of months. I put it in stews, on pizza, in soup, in savoury flans, in pasta sauces, in pasties, or in anything that just needs a bit of extra taste. We have even filled home made ravioli with it cut small and cooked with vegetables.
Extra mature cheese.
Unless it is Christmas, and I am making a cheese board, I always buy extra mature cheese. The taste is a lot stronger than other cheeses and so I don’t need to use as much weight to get a good taste. Adding it to plain food takes it to another level. We use it to make cheese sauce for lots of meals, including a vegetable flan or macaroni cheese
Cheese can take plain food to the next level. It is so versatile and can be eaten with home grown tomatoes or pickles in a sandwich, melted on toast, grated on top of potatoes, or used in baking eg cheese straws, lasagne, or cheese scones
Lard.
This is probably a controversial one, as it has been vilified for a lot of years. However, I believe it is healthier to cook with a little bit of this rather than seed oils or margarine. Butter would be my first choice if I have the money, but lard is still inexpensive and useful. As well as cooking in it, it is good for pastry, and other recipes when you would need fat, including cakes, surprisingly. At 50p a block, it is a cheap, useful, staple
Potatoes/Sweet potatoes
We grow about half of the potatoes that we need to feed us, and I manage to get some others from the community fridge. We no longer have the space to grow enough since we gave up our allotments. Christmas is the only time that I usually buy them as they are silly, low, prices to tempt you into the supermarket to buy more. I do buy sweet potatoes now and again as I have not managed to grow any yet. Sweet potatoes are healthier and very versatile as you can bake with them as well.
Potatoes are great fillers, and they can be prepared in so many ways so that you do not feel like you are eating the same meal. They can be chipped, mashed, roasted, baked, and made into wedges, etc. You can also make potato scones, potato cakes, or stretch bits of another ingredient like fish to make savoury cakes.
Salt
Just a pinch of salt can make such a big difference to the taste of a dish, but I always make sure that I have a good supply for preserving and making brine for pickles. We tend to use Himalayan salt or Celtic salt as it has a lot of minerals in it that are good for your health. I have found T K Max the best place to find good quality salt at a reasonable price. Last year I made wild garlic salt. This has added so much taste to my cooking and I use it most days.
Milk
We do not use a lot of milk, but it is handy to have in for baking, making custard, making yoghurt, and milk puddings. I have just started buying a couple of bottles a week from a milk man in my quest to use the supermarkets less, and I also have some organic dried milk for emergencies if I run out. Mr S also uses it in his cup of coffee that he has each morning. It is full of nutrition but I can’t drink it myself. Too many memories of being milk monitor in the days when you were given it free at school, and the smell when they had been in the sun.
Lentils
I only really started using these regularly in the last few years. I use them instead of meat in dishes, to bulk out mince, to make wraps, and I intend to make bread with them as I have seen it done on the internet. They add lots of protein to my meals, are easy to store, and are versatile. I buy them in the world food aisle, or in bulk on line. They are often on promotion during Ramadan and so I stock up them.
I obviously have more ingredients in my cupboards to these, but if I was only allowed to use 12 ingredients to supplement what I could grow and forage, these would probably be the ones. What would you chose for your top 12?
My stapes are : pasta, eggs, carrots, tomato purée, ham, potatoes, flour, butter, bread, jam, bananas, apples, whole milk. I don’t live in the UK, so the prices are probably different.
I love your posts, not a day goes by without me checking your blog. Thank you so much, Toni, for your sound advice.
Aww that is kind of you, thank you. Yes I think that we are quite lucky that as our food is not as expensive as a lot of places, though most things have doubled in price over the last 3 or 4 years. Great choices. Thanks for sharing
I like your choice, I would add tea bags. Strong cheese is definitely a good buy and I’m now thinking about lard. I replaced low fat spreads with butter a year ago and now considering using lard in my pastry. My mum used to grate hardened beef dripping to make pastry for savoury dishes and it was delicious.
I use half lard and half butter, if I have it, as it makes a tasty, crisp pastry. I bet that pastry was lovely with the dripping. I am just experimenting making my own teas, which is saving us quite a bit of money. Thanks for sharing
As we have gotten older our meals have become smaller and simpler. My staples have changed also. Flour, cornmeal, sugar, butter, lard, salt, pepper, potatoes, onions, coffee, and things I harvest from garden or forage. I like the feeling of my kitchen being like my grandparents. I spent my summers with them and though they weren’t wealthy they always had 3 good meals on the table everyday with enough for anyone who happened to stop by.
Aww, lovely memories for you. A great selection. Thanks for sharing
I would go with a lot of your ingredients. Yogurt since learning to make my own, flour especially stoneground white bread flour as it makes such wonderful bread. I can’t live without olive oil, tinned tomatoes as I have no way of growing enough myself, dried pluses of all types, yes definitely sugar as it is necessary for baking, homemade apple vinegar as I use it for flavour and health reasons
Fabulous blog as always. My staples are eggs, onions, cheese,bread and coffee beans ( not cheap I know but a necessity in life). Tinned tomatoes,jar of olives,
worcestershire sauce, anchovies, pasta, butter and flour. Gosh I need a lot of staples!!!!
Great choices, and a few different from the usual ones. Thanks for sharing
We make a lot of homemade apple cider vinegar, too. A great selection. Thanks for sharing
Eggs, milk, cheese, lentils, tomatoes, bacon, potatoes, onions, flour, sugar, yoghurt, dried herbs, yeast & oats.
How do you make your tomato puree Toni?
A good selection. If you can grow your own herbs and dry them it will save you a lot of money, but also, you will be surprised how many nasties are in the ones that you buy from the supermarket. Great choices. Thanks for sharing
Great article Toni and you’ve really got me thinking,
Like you, my staples have changed over the years (and since I started reading your blog).
On my list I definitely have oats as we make our own oat milk and organic oats are not much dearer. Also eggs, as I keep chickens and use them a lot.
Salt, nuts, flour – strong and plain, rice, olive oil, lemons, onions, garlic, sugar, tomato puree – bought but would love to make my own if I could grow tomatoes!
A lovely selection. Thanks for sharing
Great to read other people’s staple food… my egg use has increased over recent years so definitely eggs, tinned tomatoes, oats (overnight oats but also by adding beaten egg you get a baked soft flapjack type dessert / sweet and decent portion), herbs, turkey / chicken (generally use white meat for casseroles but also minced for bolognaise / cottage pie) leeks (I use as a veg / in place of onion add bulk and flavour) flour, yogurt, butter and sugar. I would have to learn how to make the flat breads with yogurt and hope my blueberries in the garden are good to me again this year 😊
The flat breads are easy. A great selection. Thanks for sharing
Oats is definately on the top of my list, it is usually half price early January here and I stock up for the whole year. Lentils, black beans, chick peas, pork stocked up for the whole year when on loss sale before Christmas & frozen. I used to freeze tomatoes when they were on sale late summer, but they do not seem to have a glut of them any more, so proces are now more stable. I must try to grow them again this year in my garden, but had no succes last year. The frozen tomatoes just get popped in with the sauces & casseroles, so easy. I do allways keep a pyrex jug for drippings and this actually keeps me going with fat for frying & pastry for savouries. I keep chickens, so have eggs and 3-4 cockerels/hens a year for meat. I generally batch cook them in the pressure cooker & make little parcels of the cooked meat for the freezer, freeze the broth & put all the fat in with my drippings. I am still at a learning stage with my kitchen garden, but you are so inspiring, I must make the effort. I do however get an abundance of apples, some strawberries, cherries & rhubarb, so I allways have fruit.
You sound very organised. It was such a hard year to grow food last year. Fingers crossed that it will be better this year. Thanks for sharing
My main staples are potatoes rice pasta dried beans milk porridge oats chili flakes garlic yogurt ,butter tinned tomatoes ,cheese,can make quite a lot with these basic ingredients
Great choices. Thanks for sharing
Lentils, tinned tomatoes, eggs, tofu are my absolute go to. I use canned green lentils instead of meat as I’m vegetarian. They are great in spag bol. Also use a lot of mushrooms. Red lentil chilli is one of our favourites.
Great choices