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Looking to add to or refresh your pantry with organic essentials? We’ve put together 7 staples that make solid foundations for a well-stocked organic pantry. What’s more, most of these pantry staples are long-lasting, store well outside of the fridge and can be found in home-brand supermarket ranges meaning they’re affordable for every day.
Organic Olive Oil and Ghee
Organic Olive Oil can be used for cooking or eaten raw in dressings for salads, dips for bread or other fresh meals. Make sure you choose quality, organic and extra virgin olive oil. This kind of olive oil is best for uncooked consumption.
Ghee (or clarified butter) is great for cooking at higher temperatures as it has a higher smoke point. This means that ghee can be heated to a higher cooking temperature than say olive oil, before it starts to burn, which makes great for frying including deep or shallow frying. Ghee will give your meals a nutty and rich flavour. Try including it into your Indian dishes, roasts, or even desserts such as apple crumble.
Organic 100% Canadian Maple Syrup and Raw Organic Honey
These are great sweetener alternatives to sugar that can be added to dessert recipes, onto your breakfast cereals, warm drinks or even included in savoury meals like honey soy marinades. A natural, healthy way to satisfy your sweet cravings!
Organic Milk Alternatives
Organic coconut cream, coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, camel milk and other organic nut milks.
These dairy-free organic milk options are great for people with food allergies or intolerances, and can often be found as long-life products which store well in the cupboard. Plant based milks can often be swapped out for dairy milk in sweet and savoury recipes including hot drinks such as tea and coffee. Long-life products are also a great pantry staple for unexpected visitors who may have allergies or intolerances – they’ll thank you!
Beans and Legumes
Canned or dry beans and legums such as cannellini, chickpeas, lentils, red kidney beans etc. beans are great for vegetarian alternatives to meat as they are high in plant-based protein, fibre, and an array of vitamins and minerals such as B-vitamins, iron and zinc (often found in meat sources).
Some perfect meal ideas include cannellini beans in a beef stew, red kidney beans in your Mexican
style mince for tacos, burritos, enchilada or nachos and chickpeas in a fresh Mediterranean salad.
Herbs and Spices
Organic dried herbs and spices are a great way to make your mealsmore flavoursome, and have countless nutritional benefits. Powerful spices such as turmeric and cinnamon are widely praised for their health benefits and can be added to sweet or savoury dishes to give your body a boost.
Staples include: turmeric, cumin, paprika, dried mixed herbs, dried chilli, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla bean paste, curry powder, coriander seeds.
Dried Fruit, Nuts and Seeds
Dired fruit, raw or roasted nuts and seeds can make healthy and filling snacks. They store well and are good additions to meals and in recipes. I love having raw nuts and seeds in the cupboard to make my own nut butter. Dried fruit, raw nuts and seeds can be added to your breakfast bowls and smoothies or a great topping to your salads. These foods are good individually as a snack or combine them together for your own trail mix!
Canned Fish
Canned or tinned fish are good sources of protein which can easily be added or included into meals and add delicious flavours in recipes. Fish is abundant in healthy fats, such as omega 3 fatty acids and should be a staple to any diet. We recommend going for wild or pole line caught for the most sustainable options. Examples include: tuna, salmon, sardines, mackeral and anchovies.
Stock up your organic pantry today and make healthy meals a delicious and easy part of your every day.
