Food & Entertaining

13 Must-Have Ingredients in your Pantry

If you love cooking, then you should know among all varieties of ingredients, spices, and food, there are quite some essential ingredients that you must have in your pantry, be it to create emergency hangover food, create brunch for you and your family, or just to create Friday night nachos night.

13 Ingredients That You Must Have in Your Pantry

Here are 13 essentials item and ingredients that you must have in your pantry at all times:

  1. Garlic

He is smeared to make garlic bread used to make a veggie stir fry, recycling day-old rice into perfect egg fried rice, garlic is essentially one of the best ingredients you need to always have in your pantry. From Asian cooking, Italian cooking, and fusion, to even European cooking, garlic is always the queen of ingredients and taste.

You can buy garlic along with the bulbs, and garlic braid or you can also buy it in cleaned cloves of garlic. You can also recycle the old garlic by using it to make garlic oil. You can see our other article on how to make tasty and long-lasting garlic oil here.

  1. Fish Sauce or MSG

Have you heard about MSG? It is said that it enhances the flavor of any cooking, without compromising its taste, the same goes for the fish sauce. Many people said that MSG is bad for your health, but the truth is MSG isn’t inherently bad, MSG makes food that bad for your health becoming tasty and addictive, that’s the reason behind this myth, so a little bit of MSG is safe.

  1. Cherry Tomato

Cherry Tomato provides a natural sweet, umami, and sour taste to the cooking, and it is perfect in a salad, for topping, and to add sour to your soup.

  1. Milk

Milk isn’t just for drinking daily, but it can also be used in a variety of dishes be it for dessert, an appetizer, or even be used for the main dish.

  1. Onion and Shallots

Both onion and shallots are the main components for many dishes from Asian cooking, to Italian cooking. Onion is used for its natural sweetness, while shallots are used for their fragrance and tastiness.

  1. Chili

Can you handle your spice? If you can handle it, then you won’t be able to leave your pantry empty without chili, chili powder, or better yet, authentic Sambal from Indonesia or Malaysia.

  1. Rice

Rice common staple for every Asian household, as every Asian household must have rice, or it is crime for them. Nowadays, everybody can enjoy this white delicious grain every day and everywhere.

  1. Potato

Potato, boil them, mashed them, cooked them, make a salad, fry them, bake them, and make chips from them. You can make dinner with just potatoes as an appetizer, and as a main course to the dinner.

  1. Pasta

Pasta is the ingredient every Italian family must have in their pantry, and can’t get enough pasta every day. Perfect for Friday night Lasagna, or a Pasta party.

  1. Noodle

Who wants some ramen, and noodles, but can’t be bothered with the hassle of a noodle bar, having noodles in your pantry can also be used as emergency sustenance?

  1. Kosher Salt

Kosher salt isn’t just any regular sea salt that you can find. The taste is lighter to your buds; however, it has more minerals and health benefits compared to regular table salt. It is now one of the most have ingredients in your pantry, especially for Western cooking.

  1. Ginger, Lemongrass, Galangal, Bay leaf, Oregano, and Other Herbs

If you are a home cook or a mom who always cooks for dinner and breakfast, then you already understand how important it is to cook with herbs like ginger, galangal, bay leaf, mint, oregano, and many more.

Not only it enhances flavor, taste, and smell, but it also has several uses such as reducing meaty odor, nice salad addition, and many more.

  1. Cheese (Especially Parmesan)

From parmesan to Mozzarella, to goat cheese, Feta cheese, or American craft Cheese, cheese comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and tastes. Cheese, especially Parmesan cheese is a must-have ingredient in the pantry, be it in the form of solid, grated, or powdered parmesan cheese.

It can be used in a variety of ways, used as a topping in your pasta, melted for your nachos or tacos for Friday movie night, melt in for your potato chips, and so on. The use is very flexible, and one of the most versatile ingredients for Italian and western cooking.