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

Eggs! We have chickens so we always have eggs and I think they are a miracle food. Sweet or savoury dishes, they have magic powers! At least one person in this house has a boiled egg for breakfast every day. There are always pancakes or omelettes as alternatives if pushing the boat out. All sorts of weird and wonderful flavours of quiche come out of our kitchen. We had toad in the hole on Sunday and I am always more than happy to bake if eggs need using up. They are the true superfood whether as a standalone food, part of a recipe or simply glazing a pie to make it look shiny. And they never live in the fridge!!

ermm...chopped tomatoes have been covered already but these are used as an after school snack ontoast and as one of my emergency dinners as on toast.

they go in my tuna concoction which is a slightly more time, enough to boil rice, dinner (chopped toms, frozen peas, tuna)

they also go in many sauces: chilli, bolognaise, vegetable and garlic lentils.

specific to tesco: wholewheat penne. not available at my other local supermarkets.

tescos own yellow split peas which go into bean soup. (they cook quicker/no soak)

Anchovies- brilliant to add flavour to a quick pasta sauce, essential for special fried rice and if course super tasty on a pizza or to stud a lamb leg

Pasta. We love cheesy pasta bakes for a "proper" meal, stir-in sauce and some veg for a quick/emergency meal, and cold pasta salad goes in lunch boxes.

I particularly like Cirio copped tomatoes as they include some tomato purée and salt so are thick and need less seasoning.

We use them in bolognese, tuna and pepper based pasta sauce and DD's favourite - pork meatballs in tomato sauce. I buy ready to cook meatballs, fry an onion, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some frozen, chopped garlic and the meatballs. Then simmer until the meatballs are cooked. I like this with rice, but DD prefers pasta.

Passata again!

Lightning pasta sauce with some basil or tinned tuna (another staple.)

Instant dip - chillies, balsamic, herbs or worcester sauce optional.

Adds body to soups & casseroles.

Makes a nice Bloody Mary, with Worcester sauce.

And is a few of your five a day!

Microwave rice pouches; added to homemade and defrosted chilli/curry/meatballs etc as quick dinner for the children (or me), thrown in a pan with leftover roast chicken and some sweetcorn and eggs for egg fried rice-type dish, and cooked with chickpeas/kidney beans & spices for my own version of rice and peas.

Mine has to be the stock pots (herb, chicken or beef). They don't contain any nasties and quickly add flavour, depth and thickness.

1. Beef pot used in vegetable and lentil soup (confuses dh evertime), adds beefy flavour without the cost.

2.,Chicken pot into fried brown rice.

3.herb pot mixed with oil and rubbed all over home made wedges.

Haricot beans. We're vegetarian, so I chuck them in my rice & spinach dish, bolognese sauce and any soup. It really helps to bulk out the veggies. All the dc love them.

I have 2 staples that I can think of
Chicken oxo cubes - they make stock for lots of dishes from risottos, casseroles and gravy, sprinkle one over potatoes before roasting to make delicious roast potatoes, crumble one up with a little flour and a few other herbs/spices of choice in a bag then pop raw chicken strips in and shake, shallow fry and instant KFC at home.

The other is split red lentils, I use them in casseroles, cottage pies, and even add them to sweet potatoes when boiling them for mash.

Risotto rice is the only thing that I can think of that's not been mentioned already.

Making risotto obviously (if you have a non-stick saucepan you don't actually have to watch over it as lovingly as everyone says)

Adding an extra starchy/creamyness to soups.

I made a lovely coconut milk rice pudding the other day.

We're predictable - pasta and pesto is our emergency go-to meal when the cupboard is bare or time is against us!

For an unusual one, we always keep a couple of packets of paneer in the fridge. Lasts for ages (a couple of months usually) and can be used in a variety of dishes to give a protein/calcium element.

Continuing the tomato theme mine is tomato purée.

1. I use a spoonful mixed in with some plain yoghurt as a quick marinade for grilled chicken for my children's tea

1. Sparingly used as a base on a sheet of puff pastry as a base for vegetables and cheese to make a quick savoury bake

1. Used in various casseroles,bolognese or other pasta sauces and stews to add extra flavour

The good old potato!

I agree with pretty much everyone above. But I do think potatoes are fantastic:

1. pad out soup
2. mash & mix with veg (usually squash) and herbs for 'crush'
3. dauphinoise (heaven on earth) or with veg stock instead of cream (boulangere)
4. 'Posh' jacket pots (scoop out insides, mix with anything (butter, cheese, herbs, tuna...) put under grill for a few minutes
5. spanish omelette - love it
6. Chips!
7. cottage pie, fish pie, shepherd's pie..

And more

Passata. I don't really like chunks of tomatoes so prefer that. I use it in everything. Tomato sauce, stews, chilli, the list is endless.

Tesco chopped tomatoes

Goes in pasta sauce
Vegetarian chilli
Shepherds pie

Another one here saying tinned tomatoes, I go through loads and tesco value ones are perfectly fine to thanks.

Hinz tomato soup is a great standby on beavers and cub night.

condensed milk is my third store cupboard staple, I use far to much of it. I use it in coleslaw, porridge, as a coating for oven baked chicken pieces that look and taste like fried chicken but healthier, hot chocolates, flapjack, millionaires shortbread.

Mine is sage and onion stuffing mix.

I use it to thicken a stew, mixed in with with pork mince for tasty meatballs and also sprinkled in the batter mix when making Yorkshire puddings.

or just in a stodgy lump as a snack

I'm going to be really unclassy here and go for baked beans. If you have beans, you can have a meal! Beans on toast, jacket potato with beans and then I add them to chilli, to stew, to sausage casserole...all sorts!

Chickpeas for quick lunches, especially when unexpected guests turn up. I use them to knock up a quick batch of falafel or houmous, also great for meat free Monday stews etc. falafel and houmous also great for BLW or toddler snacks

Pesto.
Obvious, but an essential for us:

On a toasted panini in the sandwich maker with cheese

On a jacket potato with salad

On pasta!

Emergency packed lunch - cold pasta and pesto with sweetcorn and cheese

Spinach here. We always have bags of it in the fridge. We have it in frittata, we have it on its own with baked potatoes, I use it to stuff canneloni tubes (along with cheese) and we also have it to accompany poached eggs at weekends.

Having said that, I don't know that spinach is a "store-cupboard item" in the same way as other ingredients. Therefore, can I also nominate tinned tomatoes (great for pasta, bolognese, soups, on their own with a cooked breakfast....)

Mine's a little exotic but it's saffron. I bought the original tin in the Dubai spice souk & it lives in my crockery cupboard giving it a wonderful fragrance every time the door is opened. A tiny pinch really livens up plain basmati rice to serve with almost anything. It's delicious in a traditional paella, risotto or a lamb tagine. Finally, it makes the ordinary farmhouse fruit loaf that I make every weekend into something really exciting.

Another vote for potatoes here. DS2 recently became vegetarian, and potatoes are cheap enough to allow for culinary experiments without wandering into (to him) unfamiliar territory. And if you don't want to faff around with yet another potato/cheese/vegetable combination, you just get a couple of potatoes out of the cupboard and bung 'em in the oven.

I have to have tinned tomatoes, red lentils and an onion in my store cupboard. If I have these three I can make a selection of meals, that are healthy and balanced.