Which staple ingredients are worth buying to start cooking from scratch?

[Lisa4411]

What staple ingredients do you need if you want to start cooking meals from scratch ? ( I am a Recovering take-away addict)

Depends what you like to eat! Are you on a budget? Health conscious? Vegetarian? Like spicy foods? Or not!?

Rice, onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes . You can get frozen onions ready chopped.
Harrisa paste/ curry paste
tofu
paneer
chickpeas tinned
with those ingredients you can make a simple vegetarian curry or a Middle Eastern style meal

Onions
Garlic
Olive oil
Range of spices
Tinned tomatoes, tomato puree
Frozen chopped herbs

Assuming you can afford it, buy the best quality tinned tomatoes. They really do make a difference.

Olive oil
Range of herbs and spices (build these up gradually depending on what you like to cook)
Tinned tomato's
Onions
Stock cubes

Start with a couple of particular recipes you like the look of and start with the ingredients for those.... Then google recipes that share similar ingredients.

The things I keep in are pasta and rice, eggs and cheese, chick peas and other pulses, tinned tomatoes, a selection of spices built up over time according to the requirements of things I've cooked. Then I buy fresh ingredients weekly based on a meal plan

Stock cubes
Potatoes
Dried pasta
Fresh or frozen fish fillets
Fresh or frozen chicken pieces
Fresh or frozen vegetables

Buy a student cook book - they usually have really good lists.

But yes, it depends what you like to cook. Onion, garlic and olive oil are the start of many recipes! Pepper grinder too.

Chopped frozen stuff is great, onions, garlic, soffrito mix. Good quality chopped tomatoes, Mutti is worth the money, and tomato puree. Oils and basic spice rack plus good salt and pepper.

Depends on what you want to cook and your budget.
Eg, if you wanted to recreate chinese/Asian food at home you've probably no need for tinned tomatoes or pulses!

Basic - basic, you'll need cooking oils/butter. Salt and pepper grinders and a decent knife and peeler!

Let us know what you're hoping ti cook @Lisa4411 and ill do you a list 👍

This will probably be helpful.

The £2.50 recipes I made on repeat at university - BBC News

Tinned tomatoes
Tomato puree
garlic
onions
olive oil
red wine (I don't drink so buy smaller bottles for cooking)
Worcestershire sauce
stock cubes.
salt and pepper

With the above I use as a base for things like -
-bolognese (add Italian herbs, mince, tonnes of chopped veg like peppers, courgette, mushrooms, carrots)
-chilli (mixed beans/kidney, black, cannellini, chili flakes and smoked paprika)
-casserole (add smoked paprika, tin of any beans, bacon, chicken or sausages, mushrooms, carrots)
-cottage pie (mince or lentils, carrots, potatoes)
-curries (curry powder or cumin/ginger/chilli and choice of meat and veg/pulses - chickpeas are a good filler as they hold their shape well)

Cornflour is also helpful for thickening sauces (though not essential)
White wine for non-tomato based casseroles

Simple white sauce= butter, flour and milk (if you're not a milk drinker, we always have long life milk in the cupboard which is perfect for white sauce).
Use with bolognese for lasagne, add cheese for a cheese sauce to have with macaroni, pour over sliced layered potatoes/onions/bacons for an oven bake (serve with greens), use as a pasta bake with vegetables/meat of choice, base for a pie filling with leeks/bacon/chicken/mushrooms.

Flour/milk/eggs also used for pancakes (delicious pumpkin pancake recipe in one of the Hiary Dieters books. I will roast a butter squash and mash then put some in freezer if I don't need it all, but the pancakes also last well in freezer - add sugar and cinnamon to the list!)

We always have hard cheese, bacon, eggs in the fridge (spaghetti carbonara, omelettes) and Greek yoghurt for healthy breakfasts/snacks with puffed wheat/oats/raisins/nuts/tinned fruit like peaches and honey

Different types of pasta, wraps, rice, noodles always in the cupboard.

Sometimes I make my own flatbreads as well but can't always be bothered (flour, salt, honey, water, instant yeast). Nice with chilli honey halloumi and home made tzatziki (see below)

We rarely get frozen chips - homemade wedges instead: salt, potatoes, olive oil, smoked paprika.

I generally don't make my own sauces with the exception of tzatziki to have with wraps greek yoghurt, cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, seasoning.

The Hairy Bikers have some great fakeaway recipes in their Dieters books. The Sweet & sour chicken, Chicken Bhuna and Korma are some of our faves. We always buy a tonne of chicken and then do big batches to freeze.

Homemade pizza is very simple (but I only make on a non-working day so I can prep the dough earlier in the day) flour, yeast, salt and water for base, tinned tomatoes/tomato puree/Italian herbs for sauce plus your topping/cheese.

DH and I used to eat so much processed food before we had the kids but the last 10-15 years have really transformed how and what we cook so the majority of our meals are made from scratch. Batch cooking means we always have something tucked away for busy or stressful days. I also usually squirrel stuff away in smaller containers for my lunches (before the DC get a chance for seconds!).

We have a very small kitchen and a regular upright freezer (counter height so 4 draws, one of which is always filled with bread - the one upfront I really haven't been blessed to shift from our house, though I don't eat it much - the kids do though for sandwiches). Our oven is also very small. We did invest in an extra fridge which we mainly use for milk and yoghurt - we get through a lot and our weekly shop would fill our main fridge.

I'd invest in some containers for freezing if you're going to start batch cooking (which is definitely worth doing - saves a lot of time and effort).

Good luck!

Thank you for all responses
Not on a budget as such, mainly want to have home cooked dinners - I got very reliant on take-aways.

Maybe think of some of your favourite takeaway dishes and try to recreate

Flours of all types, proper butter, eggs, milk, small bottles of wine (I hate drinking it, but like French cookery!), salt, vanilla essence, potatoes, onions and garlic are my main ones! Also, stock cubes, unless you want to go the whole hog and do your own stock, too.

Pots of herbs are good, if you are capable of keeping them alive, and don't have a cat who likes to eat them all 😊

Onion, garlic, olive oil and chilli will get you far. Fry veg and/or meat with that, have it with rice, pasta or potatoes. Grated cheese on top where appropriate.

olive oil
butter
onions
garlic
carrots
celery
potatoes
tomato- passata/ tinned/ concentrate
rice
pasta
flour
eggs
A few cheeses
Spice selection and salt
These are the sort of main staples I always have in.

I also have beans/ chickpeas/lentils in the pantry and things like frozen peas and spinach in the freezer. When I want to do something I then just think of the specific meat or fish and vegetables and can make most things I want.

Red lentils
Soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
Spices
Dried mixed herbs
Tomato purée

Fresh or frozen? Tinned etc

Spices are a must. Frozen spinach, garlic, ginger. Frozen veg and mash. Tinned cooked chickpeas quick hummus. Dhal lentils. A rice cooker Joseph and Joseph do a great microwave oneis a must. Air fryer. Steamer. Frozen fish less waste

I try to eat healthily, aiming for 10 a day and I avoid UPFs and carbs. My staples would be tinned tomatoes, garlic, red onions, mushrooms, frozen mixed peppers, frozen spinach, frozen chilis, frozen peas and sweetcorn, various dried lentils, beans and chickpeas as well as feta, halloumi, grated cheddar, Greek yoghurt and eggs. With these butter, olive oil and various spices to taste you can make 100s of dishes. I eat meat/fish 3/4 meals a week.

ETA. Frozen sofrito from M&S. It's cheaper than buying the base ingredients fresh, there's no waste and it's a quick and simple base for so many dishes. I also make my own chili jam and have acquired several flavoured chili oils and vinegars. I don't use salt in cooking so I sometimes need to add a flavour hit!

Pasta
kidney Beans
lentils
tinned tomatoes
oil pref olive but veg oil fine too
herbs
rice
noodles
garlic in a jar if you can’t be bothered to chop it
pesto

Add flour and long life milk because you can make a roux and white and cheese sauce with that.

You mean just non perishables to keep in your store cupboard? Cos obvs you’ll need to regularly buy fresh veg and proteins. Although frozen veg is just as good IMO.

Get a good range of dried herbs and spices.

Salt and pepper obvs, selection of stock cubes, Passata/tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, lazy garlic (fresh is such a faff!), red and white wine vinegar and balsamic, dried pasta, rice, Worcester sauce. A lot depends on the sort of recipes you’ll be making of course but those staples come up a lot.

I wouldn’t preemptively buy stuff, I’d pick a recipe (assuming you won’t be cooking without one if you haven’t had much practice) and you’ll build up basic ingredients as you go.