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

Store cupboard hero...has to be those ready to bake chiabata roll things, virtually anything can be toasted onto them or put in them, they make soup delicious slathered with butter. I love the fresh bread taste but they come from the cupboard - genius!

Tuna

We use it for tuna + sweetcorn
Tuna + eggs
Tuna + tomato

Literally, it's saved meal plans so many times.

Mine is Tesco tinned mushroom soup. I always have few cans in larder.Use it mixed with fried onion, cooked ham and pasta......kids love it. Also mix with chicken curry to make it creamier and less spicy for kids. Often add it to chicken, onion, and carrots in slow cooker for a delicious warming casserole. And of course it is delicious as it is with a toasted ham/cheese sandwich for quick lunch!

It's got to be pasta - all of ds's friends like it, as well as ds, making it pretty unique.
Pasta carbonara is a big favourite because it's so quick, pasta in cheese sauce, pasta in tomato sauce. That's three meals already in less than 10 minutes each.

We like curry here. I pretty much always have a good stack of fresh veg in, ready to use, but on the odd days that I'm running low, my store cupboard staple is ready-to-use (as opposed to need soaking) chickpeas. And frozen spinach in the freezer. Can always bulk out a curry with these two items, and they are enough just the two of them.

tomatoes are the devils fruit to me and ds so bucking the trend.

for me tinned mackerel wins - huge salad with mustard, olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing and put tin of mackerel on top, omelette with leftover greens like sprouting broccoli and drop chunks of tinned mackerel in, or jacket potato with that yummy tinned mackerel in curry sauce.

for ds pasta, pasta and more pasta and he ideally likes it plain with other stuff beside it but not contaminating it.

Mines Sweetcorn. I either put it in everything or have it as a side with everything, and my little boy loves it so added bonus! I put them in cottage pies or add them on to my sunday dinners, or when making a pasta I'll use it for tuna and sweetcorn pasta! Always fills up the plate :)

Use loads of the things mentioned above but my absolute favourite must be marigold bouillon powder. I make loads of soups and this is always a must add ingredient. It's also lovely for boosting the flavour in stew, bolognese etc. makes a yummy low cal hot drink too.

Cartons of chopped tomatoes go in most dishes like, lasagne, chilli con carne,and great for pasta dishes with chicken,peppers, onions etc
Also another food cupboard hero is tins of garden peas I add them to most things also. The kids are always told to "eat their peas"if I've let them have something like chicken dippers and waffles for tea. Much to their despair!

Chopped tomatoes are so versatile and cupboard essential encona hot sauce.

Chopped tomatoes for everything, veg lasagne, pizza ratatouille, soup, curries, just on toast. A meal can always be made with sone tomatoes.

Course you can't eat chopped tomatoes on their own so they're not my store cupboard hero because they will always need something effort and several extra ingredients to make them edible. Unlike pasta, eggs or baked beans for example.

I've bought a load of sardines today after reading this thread

Olives - they are great on their own (or with a pre dinner g and t!) In a wee bowl for a canapé if you have guests, or can add substance to a plain pesto or tomato pasta, taste great in a salad or can be whizzed up with some garlic or chilli to make a tasty tapenade to go on nice bread or even on a chicken or salmon fillet to make it something a bit 'fancy'!

Another one for tinned chopped tomatoes / passata, I always have them in the cupboard and use them all the time.

My three ways are Pasta sauce, base for chilli or a tomato sauce for pizza.

My children are really fussy so I can make sure there is only what they will eat (or very finely chop the dreaded onions if I am using), so meals go without too many complaints.

Red pesto, we use it with pasta as a quick lunch and we use it as a topping on chicken and homemade pizza.

We always have a few jars on standby.

Coconut milk and coconut cream. Great with Indian and Thai dishes, also I put it in um. Ali. A type of Egyptian bread pudding, make it with croissants and double cream, absolutely delicious.

For me it as to be pasta, there are so many simple meals you can create if you have this in the cupboard, I usually keep a bag of different varieties for things such as spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, spirals for tuna and sweetcorn, and bows for sausage and tomato pasta.

Smoked paprika for me, whenever a recipe calls for seasoned flour I always use a good teaspoon full of paprika, it sweetens and warms the most simple of dishes and is great with fish and chicken. Brilliant for sprinkling on potato wedges and swirling into unattractive soups like mushroom. A light powdering on a dollop of Mayo always looks pretty too. Would be lost without it.

Has to be eggs, apart from all the obvious ways of cooking them i.e. boiling, scrambling etc, they are so useful for baking, for using to bind mince for example when making burgers and are so nice in an egg mayonnaise in the Summer.

tomato tin
great for so many things
lasagne
fry some garlicand onions,peppers if you have them,reduce,stock,blend and a lovely soup.
cook onions down with some garlic,mix in some old bread chunks or crumbed
pour in tomatos,pour over fish and bake,perfect
mince add tomatos for just about a million dishes.ziti,lasagne,pies.
tin of tomatos,few bulbs of garlic smashed,sprinkle of paprika chili if wanted,bacon,close to wanted consitancyadd a little sour cream our over toast and crack an egg.yum

Mine would be rice. We eat loads of it with curry, stir-fry and sausage stew to name a few.

black olives are my store cupboard essential at the moment. All three kids LOVE them so they always snack on them. Also fab for adding to pizzas, blitzing into a kind of tapenade sauce for pasta, and adding to salads. yum!

Tinned tuna!
Tuna sandwiches, jacked potato and tuna, tuna pasta.

P.s. Tinned tomatoes were a close contender!

Sundried tomatoes in oil. Bloody love them.

They go in salads in pasta in quiches omelettes sandwiches...

Sometimes whizz them up to make a pasta sauce with Cream cheese.

Sometimes add to meatballs

Sometimes add to spag Bol.

We. Love. Sundried tomatoes.

Yum.

And chickpeas.

And Campbell's cream of chicken soup. - use as soup, or equally good poured over pasta as a sauce or used in a pasta bake, or as a quick base for a sauce for chicken.

3 heroes....or 4 if you count the ubiquitous onion
Chick peas...add them to everything, curries, salads etc.
Tomatoes...ditto. Most meals seem to have a tin of to oaths in them, plus an onion of course.
Tuna.....the children will always eat this, mushed with Mayo on bread, on it's own straight from the tin, in a curry, as patties etc.
And of course all three heroes make a fine dish together.