What is you favourite 'store cupboard' meal

[OMGitsnotgood]

Chatting to a friend recently, I mentioned 'store cupboard meals' - ie dishes you can rustle up from ingredients you routinely have in, for when you've not had time to shop for fresh food. This was a totally alien concept to her. Tuna & sweetcorn pasta bake is my standby, would be interested in hearing other people's favourites.

I love a storecupboard meal 😁

Mine are:
Bombay potatoes
Chickpea tagine and couscous
Pea and garlic soup (freezer not cupboard!)
Tuna pasta
Patatas bravas
Fried rice with that last egg and whatever veggies need using up

Lentil dahl
Pasta puttanesca
Mushroom risotto

Corn beef hash

Soups like lentil, tinned tomato, frozen pea, miso.

Dahl. It has saved me so many times when I’ve thought I genuinely had nothing I could turn into a meal and then I’ve found some chickpeas in the cupboard!

Another vote for patatas bravas

Pasta puttanesca used to be a store cupboard meal i loved but has fallen by the wayside since anchovies got so much more expensive.

Jacket potatoes with tuna or beans.

Macaroni cheese.

Asian style broth with noodles & left over veg.

Sardine pasta.

Mixed bean & vegetable casserole.

Oven baked rice and chicken- https://www.recipetineats.com/oven-baked-chicken-and-rice/

Dal.

Three bean chilli with rice.
again like others dahl
some sort of pasta made with tomato’s
chickpea stew.

Ramen, with whatever veg is in the fridge or freezer

Pea and bacon soup, made with dried marrowfat peas which I buy in bulk from hodmedod, good smoky bacon, dried thyme, and an onion. I usually have decent bacon on standby in the freezer and an onion.

Spaghetti aglio e olio

Chickpea curry
Kidney bean curry if we’ve run out of chickpeas
Vegetable pakora to use up random veg
Spaghetti pangrattato
Fried rice

Bean chilli and rice.

Macaroni cheese

Spicy rice with chickpeas

Nigellas minestrone in minutes.
Spicy tuna rice bowls
Lentil & tomato soup
Chicken noodle soup
Ham & pineapple fried rice
Tuna fishcakes

Tomato sauce for pasta, or a lasagne
Soups, usually with lentils or chickpeas or left over veggies
Bean chilli
Omelettes or scrambled egg (we eat loads of eggs and I usually have plenty of them even when everything else is running low)
Baked potatoes with beans and cheese, or a bean stew
Yorkshire puddings, beans and cheese
Cheese scones
Quesadillas, tuna and cheese are good
Veggie fritters, sweetcorn and cheese are a favourite
’pizzas’ made using pitta breads or crumpets

Wow didn't expect so many responses! Am compiling a list, so many things suggested I could make with things I already have in. Will share with my friend, if only to prove I hadn't made up the concept of store cupboard meals!

It's a new concept to me too - probably because my cupboard's are literally empty when I say empty!

Shared this before on here, and it was well received, but you do have to have the ingredients in and not be averse to processed foods:

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Packet of ready cooked rice
Jar of Uncle Bens (or similar) sauce
Frozen chicken nuggets

for additional verisimilitude, serve with frozen vegetable spring rolls and a bag of prawn crackers. Dinner in 20 minutes or so.

Spaghetti puttanesca- loads of stuff you can just shove in it.
Baked potatoes with whatever fillings you can rustle up.
Pasta bake with a tomato sauce and whatever protein you have lying about.
Butter and Parmesan spaghetti.
Garlic pizza baguettes - bread, garlic, tomato sauce, cheese, herbs.

Nasi goreng.
Leftover cooked rice.
Tin of tuna (preferably in oil).
Tin sweetcorn.
Onion and garlic.
Frozen peas.
Bits of veg at bottom of drawer (almost anything works - mushrooms, french beans, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, courgette, peppers, etc).
Mild curry powder
Bonus - frozen or tinned prawns

I use the oil from the tuna for added flavour, so a normal stir fry starting with onion, add garlic, add handfuls of other veg, throw in about half the corn and all the tuna and any frozen things, add the curry powder and give a good stir, add the rice and another good stir, check if it needs salt, cook another few minutes until rice thoroughly hot.

Some places serve with a fried egg on top which DH loves but it's just as good without.

I usually also have tins of beans, tomatoes, tuna, corn. Packets of rice, pasta, couscous. Plenty of onions and garlic. Usually potatoes. Cheese and eggs. Tomatoes. Bacon lardons. Flour and cornflour. Dried mushrooms. Butternut squash in winter. Frozen breadcrumbs. I keep a tin of bean sprouts for really bad days when fresh veg is very low to pad out a Chinese stir fry. Lots of different seasonings from around the world.

So doing a Parmesan or mushroom risotto is straightforward.

Pasta carbonara.
Some kind of pasta and tomato sauce or cheese sauce with veggies and bacon.
Scrambled eggs or omelettes with extras.
Stir fry with whatever is there.

dhal
often with aubergine