Setting up your kitchen for cooking great foods means having good basic food ingredients. It is easier to start out with just the basic seasonings and pantry staples. Then as you go along and find the need for other unusual seasonings, those items can be purchased.
For ease of cooking, having the proper food items helps with getting good results. Many cooking flops can come about by using the wrong ingredients in a recipe. To avoid that happening, below are the basic seasonings that should be in your spice cabinet. Unless it is a seasoning that you will use a lot of, it is best to purchase the smallest sizes as seasonings can go bad or lose the potent strength.
Basic seasonings below are:
- Celery (dried flakes or seeds)
- Chili powder
- Cinnamon (ground)
- Cumin (ground)
- Garlic powder or garlic salt
- Italian seasoning
- Lemon-pepper
- Non-salt seasoning, like Mrs. Dash
- Onion powder and/or dry flakes
- Paprika
- Peppercorns-black (fresh ground is best, so purchase a good quality pepper grinder)
- Salt (table, kosher, sea)
- Seasoned salt
There are many more seasonings to purchase, but the ones above will give you a good start.
To be able to cook up a meal without having to make extra trips to the grocery store for a staple food, it is best to keep your food pantry filled with the food stapless below:
- Beans (canned or dry)
- Bouillon (chicken, beef, vegetable)
- Cooking oil (olive, canola, vegetable, peanut, grape seed)
- Cooking spray
- Milk (evaporated and/or dry)
- Onions (white, yellow or red)
- Pasta (dry – spaghetti, angel hair, fettuccini, linguine, spiral, macaroni)
- Potatoes (russet, red or Yukon gold)
- Rice, white and/or brown (instant and/or regular)
- Salsa
- Soup mixes (dried)
- Soups (cream of mushroom, chicken, tomato, celery)
- Spaghetti sauce
- Tomato sauces or tomato puree
- Tomatoes (canned - whole or diced)
- Tuna (canned)
- Vegetables (canned – green beans, corn, peas, carrots, beets, spinach, mixed vegetables)
- Vinegars (white, apple cider, balsamic, rice)
For baking:
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- Flavoring extracts (vanilla, almond)
- Flour (all-purpose)
- Fruits (canned – peaches, pears, cherries, pineapple, applesauce, fruit cocktail)
- Sugar (brown and powdered/confectioners)
- Sugar (granulated)
Keeping the above ingredients on hand, you are able to whip up a meal quickly and without fuss.
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