A pantry staples list short enough to actually cook from
By Trent Gavron ·
A good pantry staples list is the one you cook from: a core of about fifteen items that turn into dinner with whatever fresh food you bring home, plus a few extras for the dishes you make most. Rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, oil, onions, eggs, a few spices. The rest of the internet's list is optional.
Most staples lists are written to look stocked. They run to seventy items, and a year later a third of them are in the back of a cupboard. This page gives you the short core, a way to add to it for your own cooking, and the items that look like staples and are not.
What counts as a staple
A staple is something you use in many meals and that keeps for a long time. Both parts matter. A jar of preserved lemons keeps well and gets used twice a year, so it is not a staple. Onions get used constantly and keep for weeks, so they are.
That second test is the one most lists skip. They sort by shelf life and ignore how often you reach for the thing.
The core: items that turn into dinner
These cover most weeknight cooking when you add one fresh thing, whether that is chicken thighs, a bag of spinach or whatever is on sale.
- Rice and one pasta shape
- Rolled oats or another breakfast base
- Canned tomatoes
- Canned or dried beans and lentils
- Cooking oil and one vinegar
- Bouillon cubes or stock
- Soy sauce
- Salt, black pepper, and chili flakes
- Onions and garlic
- Potatoes
- Eggs
- Flour
- Butter
- Peanut butter or jam
- Coffee or tea, if you drink it
Why long staples lists end up as stale food
A list tells you what a well-stocked kitchen looks like. It does not know what you cook. Buy all of it and you own tahini you do not use, three half bags of flour and a spice that has lost its smell.
The cost is not only the money. Every item you do not use is one more thing to remember, check and eventually throw out. If that is the part you recognise, how to reduce food waste at home is about exactly that.
So treat any list, including this one, as a starting point to cut down. The real list is the one your own cooking writes.
Build your own list from what you cook
Write down the last five dinners you cooked. Not the ones you meant to make. Look at what they have in common, because that overlap is your staples list.
If three of five started with rice and soy sauce, those stay on. If two used coconut milk, that goes on too. If none touched cumin, leave it off, whatever the list says.
Then add one thing at a time, when a recipe you want to make needs it. A new staple should arrive because of a dinner, not because of a checklist.
Pantry staples on a budget
Starting from nothing is expensive if you buy the whole core in one trip. Do not. Buy five or six items the first week, the ones your next three dinners need, and add a couple each shop.
Dried beans and lentils, rice, oats and store-brand canned tomatoes are the cheap end of the core. Spices are the expensive end, so buy the two you actually use rather than a set.
The main way staples cost money is buying one you already have. A pantry you can check before you shop stops that, and our budget meal planning guide covers the rest of the process.
Items that look like staples and are not
Some products sit on every list and fail the use-it-often test for many kitchens.
- Specialty flours you use for one bake
- A full set of dried herbs
- Large bags of nuts and seeds you do not snack on
- Sauces for a cuisine you cook once a month
- Cans bought on a sale, with no meal in mind
Keep them where you can see them
A staple you cannot see is a staple you buy twice. Put the core at eye level and the occasional items higher up.
For how long each item keeps, use the USDA's FoodKeeper rather than a list's guess. Printed dates are a separate matter, and the FDA explains what date labels actually mean.
What the core makes
A few combinations, to show the core earning its place. Rice, a can of beans, onion, garlic and chili flakes is a pot of spiced beans and rice. Pasta, canned tomatoes, garlic and oil is a sauce in the time the pasta takes. Eggs, potatoes and onion is a tortilla or a hash.
Add one fresh thing to any of them and it is a different dinner. If you want a way to decide which, what can I make with what I have walks through it.
Where PrepWise fits, honestly
You do not need an app to keep a short list. If your core is fifteen items, a glance at the cupboard does it.
Where it breaks down is the middle: the half bag of lentils, the second jar of soy sauce, the can you forgot about. PrepWise keeps the pantry for you and shows which recipes you can cook from it. It reserves ingredients when you plan a meal and writes the shopping list as the gap between the plan and the shelf. The pantry can be loaded from a photo of a shelf or a receipt.
PrepWise is on iPhone and free to download. The free tier holds 15 saved recipes and 20 assistant messages a day.
Who should ignore all of this
If you shop for the day and cook what you buy, you do not need staples, and a pantry list would be extra work. The same goes if you cook the same handful of meals and already know what they need.
And if you are on Android, PrepWise is not available to you yet. The list above works without it.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important pantry staples?
The ones you use in many meals and that keep well: rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, beans or lentils, cooking oil, onions, garlic, eggs and a few spices. Your own list should be built from what you cook, not copied from a general one.
What pantry staples should I stock up on?
Stock up on the few you use every week and can store properly. Do not stock up on anything you have used once. A bulk buy of an item you rarely cook with is how a pantry fills with food nobody eats.
What are the best pantry staples on a budget?
Dried beans and lentils, rice, oats, canned tomatoes, flour, and onions are the lower-cost end of a core list. Buy a few at a time and check what you own before each shop so you do not pay for a duplicate.
How many pantry staples do I need?
Fewer than most lists suggest. About fifteen well-chosen items cover most weeknight cooking, and you add to them when a recipe you want needs something new.
What can I cook with just pantry staples?
Spiced beans and rice, pasta with a tomato sauce, a potato and egg hash or tortilla, and lentil soup are all possible from a short core. A single fresh ingredient makes each one more varied.
How long do pantry staples last?
It varies by item and by how it is stored. The USDA FoodKeeper lists storage times for hundreds of foods, which is more reliable than a general rule. Printed dates are usually about quality, not safety.
More answers on the PrepWise FAQ.