Talk to Tesco about your store cupboard hero and your top three ways to use it - you could win a £200 Tesco voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

We've been asked by Tesco to find out about Mumsnetters' store cupboard heroes.

Here’s what Tesco say, “The Tesco Eat Happy Project is our long-term commitment to help children have a healthier and happier relationship with their food. We’ve got lots of recipes for healthy, tasty dishes that we think they’ll love – especially if they help you prepare them. But we’re keen to hear your recipe ideas too.”

So, what is your store cupboard hero and what are your top 3 ways to use it? Perhaps you always keep pesto in your cupboard, to stir into pasta, pep up a risotto or spread onto pastry to make a savoury puff? Or maybe you like to have lentils in stock, to add to soup, bulk out a stew or make a warm winter salad with?

Whatever your store cupboard hero is, Tesco would love to hear about it!

Everyone who adds their comments to the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Tesco voucher.

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Tesco in further marketing material (anonymously, of course).

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Another vote for tinned tomatoes here, we use them in so many things.

although I get mine from Aldi along with the rest of our weekly shop

My store cupboard favourite, after tinned tomatoes! (they certainly are popular in previous posts as they're so versatile!)

It would have to be flour, it's really nice to make a pizza base and top with a tomato base and whatever cheese/meats we have in the fridge, or by making a few dumplings to pop on top of a stew, or the kids absolute favourite, Yorkshire puddings alongside sausage and mash or a roast dinner.

Another one voting for tinned tomatoes!! Spag bol, lasagne & chilli are three meals I cook a lot. They are relatively cheap, taste great and there's always enough left so I don't have to cook the next day

Eggs. My nan used to say "If you've got an egg, you've got a meal," and I do agree with her. On toast, an omelette with whatever is in the fridge, or boiled with soldiers.

Pesto

I like red and green pesto, both have their own taste and are equally versatile.

I use it in curries, pasta dishes and casseroles.
I also spread it on pittas to have as a snack.
I also eat it by the spoonful from the jar when I have the munchies on an evening.

Eggs, definitely.

Can make an omelette, a quick frittata with tinned potatoes and any veg at the back of the fridge, quiche, scrambled eggs on toast, egg and chips...

Pearl barley is mine. I add it to mince for cottage pie, Just about every soup that I make and my chicken casserole.

Another vote for tinned tomatoes!

I use them for spag bol, chilli, lasagne,...
I also make a tomato based chilli sauce to go with meatballs, chilli roasties, and roasted pepper & onion which always goes down a treat!

I detest tinned tomatoes - I am clearly alone in this!

Mine is tinned chickpeas. The three ways I use them are: in curries /in a strange mashed thing with white wine that dp got from his running magazine and which makes a surprisingly pleasant light meal when served with toast / baked in wraps with butternut squash, spinach and spices to make a healthy-style enchilada type thing.

Tinned sweetcorn!

Playdate guests always pick sweetcorn as the vegetables with their tea.
We like it with plain boiled rice and a pick'n'mix of tinned tuna, boiled eggs, peas etc for an empty fridge meal.
Also perks up cold leftovers very nicely. Stirred into pesto pasta that had all the meat and veg picked out first time around to make lunch the next day.

Eggs are my storecupboard hero. Poached eggs on toast make a great breakfast or light lunch, can be used for carbonara or for whipping up a quick pudding (e.g. chocolate puddle pudding, etc.)

Mango chutney for home made curry and poppadoms, using with yogurt and spices as a chicken marinade and adding to sausage casserole to sweeten!

Straight-to-wok-noodles are my recent discovery

You can use them to make a quick noodle soup or a quick stir fry. Really useful on holiday too.

Sometimes I make a quick emergency meal just adding some hot stock and a few veg, simmer for 3 minutes. Done.

Quick food that isn't junk food.

Mine is kidney beans. I use them in chilli, mushed up in Jack Monroe's veggie burgers, and in veggie stews to make them more appealing to DH and DD. Didn't used to like them but now I think they're lovely little blighters!

Yeah, tomatoes here too!

As a vegetarian, we always have lots of pulses in the cupboard. I find chickpeas are most versatile and I use them to make humous, tagine and my favourite chickpea and spinach curry. Tagine and curry both also contain chopped tomatoes...

In the fridge/freezer I always keep chilies, garlic and herbs, either chopped in jars or frozen. It's much more cost effective as it stops things going bad before you have a chance to use them. I really like jars of minced garlic and ginger - great as a base for curries or stir fries.

Tinned tomatoes (again)
For homemade sauces for pasta
Vegetarian cottage pie
Chilli non carne (vegetarian chilli)

Mine is tinned tomatoes too. I recently discovered tinned cherry tomatoes, and I love them.

But my second choice is marmite.

I love it on hot buttered toast, the dc like it stirred into hot cheesy pasta. DH likes it in a sandwich with egg mayonaise, or spread on cheese scones. We get through loads of it.

Baked beans.

I use them to bulk out chilli (kids don't like kidney beans), use them in sausage casseroles and as a quick fix, beans on toast or on a jacket potato.

Lentils. Great in soup, whether it's green lentils and the leftovers from a roast dinner made into soup, or red lentils or split peas with ham for a smooth warming soup.

Then they're great baked with sausages, carrots, onions and herbs for a yummy dinner.

They thicken up curries magnificently and are brilliant as the main ingredient in Tarka dhal (my particular favourite).

Need to stretch the mince in a bolognaise or lasagne that little bit further and you'll not go wrong with lentils.

I rarely used them five years ago and now they feature heavily either as a main ingredient or a hidden base to a meal. They not only stretch my ingredients but also my budget.

What's not to like?!

And hear endeth the promotion for lentils!!

We love this - Nando's Coat 'n Cook Lemon & Herb Peri Peri Marinade.

we use it on rice noodles, to coat chicken and in soups - brilliant and always in the cupboard.

Kid love it too.

It really has to be tins of chopped tomatoes - thinking of the last 3 nights we have had a tin of tomatoes with:

tin of chickpeas (another fab storecupboard ingredient) to make curry
quorn mince to make veg lasagne
chicken and frozen peppers to make spanish chicken

none of which would have tasted quite the same without the trusted tin of tomatoes!

Mine is tinned tuna. If I have tuna I can make sandwiches for the kids, salad for me for lunch or tuna/cheese baked potatoes for tea.
That's what we have when I have run out of everything else!
I also add vinegar to my tuna mayo and it is so good!

Bacon bits. Good on jackets and in omelettes.

Pesto for stirring into pasta.

Lentils for soups, cottage pie and pasta sauce (blended in).

Tinned olives are one of my favourites. I have them in a salad, on their own as a snack or add to ratatouille/any tomato based tray bake or sauce. Really livens up a meal.

Mine's pasta; either cooked the night before and mixed with mayo and added to salad, good old pasta bake or with bolognase. Much prefer pasta to spaghetti with my bolognase because it's so much easier to eat one handed, with a Velcro baby on the other arm (even if I try to plan meals around him being asleep, he wakes up the second my food is ready, like a sixth sense!)