My Must-Have Pantry Staples
What I always have in my pantry
Here is my list of staple ingredients that make The Whole Daily "Whole Kitchen" rock & roll each week. Without these I wouldn't be able to dish up 100 of my favourite foods. With the addition of fresh fruit or veg and some milk of your choice, these ingredients have the ability of creating a huge amount of different recipes. Including all the sweet treats and yummy desserts you could need. To top that, they all include a power pack of nutrition for vitality and are all gluten-free, so no inflammation for your body.• Quinoa; I use quinoa for porridge, (you can find my recipe here) in the place of pasta or rice, in salads to add protein and bulk, or in fish or vegetable burgers. (fish burger recipe here) I also use quinoa flakes for breakfasts, and in sweet puddings. I use puffed quinoa to make healthy muesli bars or slices. I use quinoa flour in baking at times.Cacao; I use raw cacao for creating raw desserts, in fact the most popular recipe on The Whole Daily, uses cacao. Can you guess what it is? Find out here. I use cacao in hot chocolate, to make home-made chocolate, when baking, or making ice-cream. Click here to watch one of my favourite super-food hero's, Mr David Wolfe, walk through some more cool info on this mood altering 'happy' food.Here is my hot chocolate recipe.
- 2 tsp raw cacao powder
- 1 tsp rice malt syrup
- 1 1/2 cups almond milk
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- heat to near boiling in a small saucepan
Coconut & coconut oil; I got NUTS for coconut. I sing songs about the stuff, I do dances with the tin of it (or do I?). I catch my toddler sneaking spoonfuls of it with cheeky, guilty grins on her face. Desiccated, shredded, or flaked for desserts, sweets, curries, breakfast porridge, or granola. Cans of organic coconut cream and milk for quick curries or Thai soups, in chia puddings, or in baking in place of dairy. I also use coconut cream like yoghurt on top of my breakfasts. I use coconut oil in all my high heat cooking, for raw desserts and sweets, for baking and roasting. Tip; I also have a small jar of coconut oil in the bathroom for body and face moisturiser, and for a hair mask.Chia Seeds; I use chia seeds to make Jam, on top my breakfasts, for overnight puddings, in cakes, salads, & smoothies, in home-made kombucha, to bind meat patties or fish burgers, or to act as a binding ingredient in vegan cooking in the place of egg. Chia seeds have a neutral flavour, so you can add chia seeds to practically any sweet or savoury dish you make.Nuts & Seeds; My pantry has nearly every nut and seed under the sun. Walnuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts & pecans. sesame seeds and tahini (sesame seed paste), sunflower and chia seeds. I use seeds and nuts on top of my breakfast, in stirfry’s, when making raw desserts or snacks, to make spreads, or on their own. I blitz the almonds up to make almond flour for gluten-free baking, and the sunflower seeds for crusts of nut-free slices.Buckwheat; Buckwheat is not actually a type of wheat; it is a gluten-free seed. I use the flour for pancakes, and cakes or savoury loaves. I use the roasted buckwheat in granola by toasting with a little coconut oil and rice malt syrup. I use raw buckwheat groats for soaking and sprouting for raw salads and to top hot dishes for extra nutrient value.Eggs; “The incredible edible egg” You may not think too much about it, but eggs just happen to be a pretty phenomenal ‘whole-food’. I keep my eggs in the pantry at room temperature, not in the fridge because we eat them so quickly. We don’t eat a lot of meat, however we use eggs daily and they form the key protein in a lot of meals for my husband and daughter. Either in baking, or in an omelette for lunch, boiled with salads, or good old ‘soldier men’, the humble 'googie' is a goodie! NOTE: Please only buy and eat free-range eggs, and organic where possible.