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

Woah! My Store Cupboard Hero is Oatmeal!! (its a secret!!) strangely topical with burns night coming up!

Oatmeal is soo cool! You can use it straight with water and salt or milk and sugar as a delicious flavoured breakfast, use it to bulk up stews and give a warm bready flavour to them or use them to top a stew as a crumble, and if you fancy something sweet make them into no-bake biscuits with butter, sugar and a fridge!

Mmm oatmeal... now I fancy my fave warm milk with oatmeal sugar and a bit of vanilla for supper..lovely! (That's farmer friendly milk tesco.. I'm watching you. ..)

Mustard - I use the powdered version to perk up cheese sauce for pasta bake and to make my own salad dressing and I use it from the jar for sandwiches.

My store cupboard hero has to be smoked paprika. I add it to all sorts of dishes including pork meatballs,jambalaya, soups and spicy wedges. It makes dishes that have some spice and lots of flavour but are not too hot for the dc.

i am a ponce with tinned sardines. The boring ones in no sauce

1. I like them mashed up on brown toast with tabascao for a ' oh not ham again" replacement

2. I like them in Passata and with olives on pasta

1. and i like them thrown over a bag of salad with lemon juice - preferably eaten out of a pyrex cooking bowl with a tea towel around your neck like a cowboy, to catch the oil and lemon dressing

Anchovies all the way. On homemade pizza obviously, melted into onion base of any tomato sauce to make it super tasty, and for days when there's truly nothing fresh in the house - warm a little olive oil, add anchovies, capers, olives, artichoke hearts and mix through spaghetti. Delish!

Red or green lentils: dhal, soup, braised lentils
Tinned tomatoes: on toast, pasta sauce the aforementioned dhal
Chick peas: channa masala, hummus, soups

We're veggie so all staples for us. DS would disagree and say pasta and pesto!

Mine's cinnamon. Used in making yummy flapjacks with the kids, as a natural sweetener with yoghurt/cereal and for flavouring in tons of things - apple pie, cottage pie, spag Bol, curry, stew, tea loaf, pastries, popcorn, eggy bread and of course mulled wine.

We're very big on spices in our house and have a whole cupboard dedicated just to herbs and spices. And cinnamon adds something to so many recipes, it's fab.

For me it has to be red kidney beans and butter beans. Flour is great too and bottles if olive oil and sun flower. Curry powder is a must to have in my cupboard together with the oxo cubes.

Extra virgin olive oil here.

Use it for salad dressings, to dip bread into (with balsamic vinegar) and for all sautéing and frying as it's by far the healthiest oil & tastiest too

Marmite.

Marmite on toast under poached eggs.
Marmite on cheese on toast.
Marmite in jacket potato with butter.

I've done this wrong, haven't I? Not much of a cook. I feel a bit intimidated by all your herbs and spices.

Soy sauce - with runny honey, grated ginger and fictive-spice, it is the basis for a teriyaki marinade, to go with chicken, veg and rice noodles for a stir fry. Ds1 uses it to season boiled rice. I also use it in Asian pork burgers - soy sauce, grated ginger and five-spice (again) - mix with pork mince and make into burgers (or meatballs) and dry-fry/chargrill.

Hmm - not sure why five-spice autocorrected to fictive-spice.

Sriracha chilli sauce - it goes with everything and in everything. It's fantastic on eggs, in chilli and dotted on rice and couscous. I have it in sandwiches (it goes really well with hummus and with cheese) and in salad dressings and pasta bakes. And I swirl a bit into soups as well: it turns packet noodles into spicy soup and livens up a bland leek and potato soup.

Of course, I have never just poured it onto a spoon to have all by itself, oh no, not me. Well, not when anyone else is there to see me do it.

I wonder if it has any ingredients in common with green Pringles?

Tinned Tuna here.

• tuna mayonnaise on a sandwich, wrap or baked potatoes
• fried with mushrooms, tomatoes and broccoli (or whatever else is in the cupboard) and mixed with pasta.
• DH's tuna pasta - the first thing he ever made for me - jar of tomato and mushroom sauce, cheese, mayonnaise, lots of garlic, tin of tuna. Sounds a bit bleurgh but is now one of my favourite meals.

Fine polenta (cornmeal) is my storecupboard hero.

• boil potatoes for 5 mins, then sprinkle on polenta and 'bash' by shaking in a lidded pan before roasting. Perfect crunchy roasties!
• use instead of flour when rolling out pizza dough, gives a lovely professional finish to the base
• great for gluten-free cakes and crumbles

It wasa mistake to start reading the thread before posting, as every thing I read I thought "oh yes, that too" except chickpeas which are the work of the devil and should NLR be allowed in any form whatsoever and now I can't decide. We have well stocked store cupboards, but definite up there in my list are basic dark chocolate (cake decorating, brownies, chocolate sauce for pancakes....) And pearl barley (added to all stews and most soups)

Strong flour is one if my favourites. Its a base for pasta with our eggs, fresh bread, garlic dough balls, pizza bases and chelsea buns.

Its a relatively cheap ingredient and what ever you cook with it the smell fills the house with that homely welcoming smell you get when baking.

I can't count. Limit to three ways...

Strong flour as pasta, pizza and fluffy fresh baked bread.

Sultanas here, I like them stired into porridge, in a curry, on breakfast cereal, as a snack for the kids, in fairy cakes...
I like the tesco value ones as they are nice and soft.

Agree tinned chopped tomatoes. Make soup, pasta sauces, pizza topping. I have been trying to think of something else as it has been said, but it is the overall winner.

The only thing I have wanted to talk to Tesco about is their shit food delivery service, and how they pawn near out of date food on their online clients.

I will always remember Tesco as the Scamming supermarket who sold me 4 boxes of Thorntons chocolate that were last summer seasons, at Christmas, and with a use date for end of December December the same year, delivered on the 19th. And how they asked me to bring the boxes to my nearest Tesco for them to verify the state of the boxes. Some boxes were open, some were eaten from, and all the chocolate had gone white. The customer service person blamed me for not checking the boxes, they stack of four boxes were under ONE perfect box of chocolate of a different brand. Even their Twitter person just said "tough luck" to me.

They have a responsibility to select adequate stuff for people who trust their service, not dump any old shit on them.

I will happily talk to M&S and Waitrose about store cupboard favourite, as they are good!

Another vote for tinned tomatoes - used in chilli, spag Bol, pies, casseroles.

Chick peas. To make hummus, falafel or to have in a stew. Delish, and cheaper than chips

Tinned tomatoes, passata and kidney beans. These are the things I always have to have in.

And pasta- usually fusilli . Easy to make a meal for the dcs with pasta.

Does flour count? If so that would be mine.
For pancake/Yorkshire pudding batter.
To make a cheese sauce.
Or for any pastry or cakes.