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)

Go to your local Asian supermarket and get the 400g tubs of curry paste for Thai curries like simple green, red,or panang etc. then simply have a tin of coconut milk in stock and whatever you want in it, be it chicken, prawns, chickpeas and some veg - frozen green beans are my cupboard staple.

50g of paste, tin of coconut milk (not light as too thin) plus your meat/veg = 10 minute curry!

once mastered that you can start making it more interesting with lime leaves, or other extras, but the paste has almost everything you need for flavour. It’s also a really cheap meal.

If you want to make Chinese food you need fresh ginger as well as garlic. Also soy sauce, teriyaki, fish sauce, sesame oil.

I think a good place to start is what sort of food you prefer eg Indian, French, Thai, Chinese, Italian? They often have different base ingredients, as a group.

I think a cheese sauce is worth learning (roux based) as you can use it with lots of things.

Fresh carrots! I get through a good sized bag a week (not sure how). Frozen are not the same - they go soggy and watery. I add them to soups, stews, chilli and bolognese (chopped up small) and any other mince based dishes, with Sunday dinner, grated in salads and wraps. I reckon I eat carrots 4-5 times a week.

Asda does frozen cubes of crushed garlic and ginger. They’re really useful as they don’t go off. Similarly most supermarkets do frozen chopped onion and some (Tesco for instance) do frozen sofrito. Spices - if you like Indian food then ground coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder are staples. Although it’s cheaper to buy bigger quantities they do go stale so until you know what you want to cook I’d just buy the small jars.

You can buy jars of ginger/garlic paste in Asian supermarkets - much cheaper than the tubes and keep indefinitely. I always have lemons in the fridge, grated lemon zest is useful in all sorts of dishes and you can freeze the lemon juice if they start to go off. You can buy powdered coconut milk to mix with water, just make up what you need rather than waste half a tin.

Tomato puree
Tomato pasata
Dried mixed herbs
Eggs
Oxo cubes
Stock cubes

Fresh eggs, extra virgin olive oil and a stick blender for home made mayonnaise

Garlic, chilli, paprika, chives, lemons for flavoured mayo but mostly the life contacting upgrade to real from synthetic.

Enjoy.

Would you consider recipe boxes for a few weeks to try things out? We use Gousto and like it because we don't end up with loads of spare ingredients when you only need a tiny amount. You can get a lot of different offers thru and there is a lot of choice. It has also taught DC to cook as the recipes are very clear with everything packaged out so easy to follow. I have a referral code for a discount if you want it but thats not why I am suggesting it, I genuinely think that if you aren't on a budget it may be the answer to your problem. We also like that we decide what we eat a few weeks in advance and so no daily pressure of "what to cook" which is bizarrely stressful 😂

You get 70% off the first box then 40% off the next 2 so it's worth it if only for that massive first discount, you can cancel any time.

https://www.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=JOANN41397093&utm_source=iosapp&raf_messaging=true

What are your favourite things to eat OP?

I would start with a small repertoire of not too complicated recipes and buy the ingredients you need for those.

BBC good food is a really good source of simple reliable recipes to get you started.

I think it's a good idea to have a mix of stuff you can batch cook and freeze the leftovers (so you have a free hit another day) plus a few options to get dinner on the table super fast for other days.

Do you like pesto? Pasta pesto with some green veg (peas are the speediest option, green beans, broccoli or sauteed courgette also work well) and chicken or prawns for protein is a great speedy option.

If you eat takeaways most/all nights a week, there little chance you'll switch to home made food 7/7 overnight.
Why do you eat takeaway? CBA? If you can be bothered, batch cook on a Sunday so you can bung something in the oven in the week.
CBA to cook in the first place? Buy ready meals and freeze, defrost overnight fridge.

Good luck OP, it's hard to break a cycle! We do love a good take away 😁

Have a look at some good recipes sites and see what you fancy making. Or a good book if you've not really cooked before. You can't beat Delia's How to Cook for starting out - she says what basic equipment to have also.
BBC good food is great and easy to follow for classic homecooking.
Recipetineats.com is my Go To! for anything Asian (plenty of other recipes on there too including easy breads, pizza, inyernational etc) I've taught myself to make all out takeaway favorites at home with surprising few ingredients!

My store cupboard always has...
Dried herbs and spices. (Pick them up as and when you chose a recipe)
GOOD stock cubes, chicken, veg and beef.
Tomato puree/tinned toms/passat
Onions, Garlic, spuds, carrots,celery
Mustards, dijon, powder
Good oils, veg and olive BUTTER!!!
Vinegars...
Cream
Dark soy
Light soy
Oyster sauce
Mirin
Rice vinegar
White pepper
Honey
Rice(s)
Pasta(s)
Noodles(s) 😁
Lentils/pulses (I prefare dried over tins 🤷)
All flours, including. Cornflour, yeast
Baking powder/bicarb.
Salt, pepper, brown sugar

Anything else will depend on your set up and equipment, time and what you fancy making.

As long as you've a good knife and peeler you're good to go!
But I would never be without my decent, metal handled, deep non stick frying pan with lid. The slowcooker and a nutri bullet! www.recipetineats.com/