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

Has to be either baked beans or chopped tomato cans. Like literally if I'm not able to make 'proper' food then those 2 are life savers.

Lentils!

They just seem to make everything so warm and comforting and filling. They can make a dish stretch into next week. I've just checked the date on mine and they can probably be with me long after my kids leave but I will have gone through the bag long before then and even the word itself just rolls off the tounge I love them. Stews, bolgonaise, curries, meatballs, the list is endless.

I'm now eyeing up a ham haugh for some lovely lentil soup tomorrow

Baked beans, go with most meals and great on toast

Always have a tube of tomato puree in my cupboard-enrich homemade pasta sauces, smear on pizza bases or mix with mayo as a dip for wedges or crudités.

Actually cereal is another one. Can have it for breakfast, supper or anytime you can't be arsed cooking really. This includes the instant porridge in packets.

Miso soup paste sachets are wonderful things.

As a marinade for chicken and fish

As a base for noodle stir fry (especially good if you add chilli and lime)

As a simple warming low calorie soup in a cup.

Dried apricots for me.

-essential in a tagine, I like one made with chicken thighs

• for baking, especially in ginger cake
• just for snacking on, the children love them!

Eggs for me! I keep it in a cupboard! ;) other than boiled...

Scrambled eggs / also use for egg fried rice
Omelette/ frittata
Pancakes

The other is chicken and beef stock cubes
Soups
Bolognaise
Chilli
Shepherds pie
Risotto

Baked beans. DD is a very fussy eater, but I can get some protein and veg into her with beans!

Beans on toast
Beans with omelette
Corned beef hash (beans in with the corned beef)

I always have baked beans, rice, and odd tins of soup in the cupboard, also tinned tuna.
then there's stuff like kidney beans which I buy in bulk whenever I remember...and also if I can manage to find it in the supermarket...it's hard shopping with the baby, I am on a very limited time of grace so not got chance to hunt stuff in obscure aisles.
agree pesto - easy on pasta, I do them a plate of chopped bits to put what they want like ham/tomatoes
hate not having what I need, like cornflour when we're having a roast.

There's quite a few things that never allow the family to run short of (tinned tomatoes, passata, dried pasta) but my hero product is probably pesto.

Wonderful stuff!

1. Great just chucked onto pasta, with a bit of cheese, or even some baby roast tomatoes.

1. Fabulous with fish: pan fry salmon, tuna or other fresh fish fillet in the pan for approx 4 mins on each side in a small amount of butter, then add a couple of spoons of pesto for the last minute or two. Serve fish and spoon over sauce from pan. Great with baby potatoes and broccoli.

1. Amazing mixed with mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon juice for salad dressings. You can mix this with anything: cold chicken, green salad, avocado, cold pasta....and it just works. Fantastic for picnics, too, and a great way to use up leftovers.

1. (Yes, I know you only wanted 3....) Just add a spoon into the middle of any tomato/minestrone soup just before serving - it really peps it up.

Stock pots!! Great for gravy, stews, cottage pies, soups, also cook pork in 2 stock pots slow cooked in oven with chopped onion... Mmmm

Got to be pasta in our house. Quick and easy for kids meals when there's nothing else planned and loads of different recipes available. My favourites are:

• Quick meal with pesto & broccoli stirred in and any left over cooked meat, usually chicken.
• baked in a creamy cheesy sauce with cauliflower and peas/sweetcorn.
• with chorizo, chilli, onion, chicken, and sun dried tomatoes

Passata, balsamic vinegar and pasta of some description. If I have passata and balsamic, I can make many, many different dishes with them added to all kinds of things.

Stock. Ever since I did the stock pot test on MN I've kept stock pots in - they're great for quick and easy soup bases, adding flavour to spag Bol, shoving in with a joint in the slow cooker, in a risotto...the list goes on.

I've recently started frying off chicken breasts with chicken stock and then cooking them in a foil bag with the rest of the stock pot and some oil. Tender and tasty, and quicker than doing a full roast chicken.

Soy sauce - on noodles (DS likes just soy sauce and oil on his!), with honey and ginger to jazz up salmon or chicken, and of course in stir fries for seasoning.

Worcestershire sauce is brilliant! Makes gravy more flavoursome (if thats a word!) Great in stews and bolognese. Also makes seafood sauce when you mix it with ketchup and salad cream.
I also love mint sauce added to gravy and stews. Mmm yum!

Sweet chilli sauce (the hot one). Fab in a stir fry, awesome on homemade kebabs, and also is a really good dipping sauce in its own right.

Mines has been stolen by Mumsnet. Pesto, red pesto to be exact. I like it on sandwiches, in pasta with chorizo, chicken or bacon and our all time favourite is mixed through stir fried turkey mince and veg to stuff into tortillas to make enchiladas. It is so versatile and perks up a bland pasta sauce. Even spag bol is made magical with just a teaspoon full.

Its MY red pesto...all mine

For me it is the humble can of baked beans as they go with everything and are fab for any quick, running short of time (or ingredients!) meals and as a bonus they also count as one of the 5 a day.
If we want a quick snack we have beans & cheese on toast
For a healthy lunch - beans & cheese on potatoes with salad
They also go well with a pizza, sausages, fish finger, cottage pie or nugget meal.
We also like using tortilla wraps and using baked beans instead of refried beans as baked beans are a lot cheaper! So we add beans, cheese and sour cream & serve with salad.
Baked beans are my children's choice apart from one poor child who hates beans so much that she cries any time I mention them :-( so I have to make sure it's very clear that she can have the cheese only or peas instead to avoid tears!
For me personally & I'm sure this is just a bit strange and only me - I've taken to eating cans of Ambrosia rice pudding (cold) when I am not catering for children and I'm too short of time to cook and I need something quick before rushing out the door. I find that it is easy to eat, filling, sweet but not too unhealthy and I convince myself that the milk means it should be good for me...not really convincing but it works for me and I don't get hungry for quite some time afterwards!

oooh im with everyone else Tinned Tomatoes are essential in the stock cupboard!! as well as Knorr Chicken stock as both can be used in most things!! i also always keep red lentils as always good in curries & soups
Tuna a staple too :)

Dark cooking chocolate, higher choc solids the better atm I have 95% apparently. I put a square or two into so many things; bolognese, stews and casseroles, even some curries! And then all the million desserts you can add it to or drizzle it over. And then there's the odd square - hardly ever, only a very few times honest guv - which can go straight into your mouth

Tomatoe purée adds more flavour.
Beef stock cubes,
Bouillon stock for the veggies
And definitely tinned tomatoes.