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Getting Started with Pantry Ingredients

A guide to seeing your pantry differently — and turning what you have into meals you'll actually enjoy.

You open the cupboard and see canned beans, tomato sauce, a box of pasta, and some rice. The fridge has a pack of ground beef and a few onions. It doesn't feel like much. But here's the thing — you're looking at the ingredients for at least four or five solid meals.

The trick isn't having more ingredients. It's knowing how to think about the ones you already have.

This guide breaks down the most common pantry ingredients by category, explains what each one can do in the kitchen, and gives you a framework for combining them into meals without needing a recipe for every single thing you make.

The building blocks

Most meals come down to three things: a protein, a starch, and something to tie them together. That's it. If you have one from each category, you have a meal.

Proteins are what keep you full. These include ground beef, chicken (fresh, frozen, or canned), canned tuna, eggs, beans, and peanut butter. You probably have at least two or three of these right now.

Starches are your base — the bulk of the plate. Rice, pasta, potatoes, and flour all fall here. These stretch a meal further and give you energy.

The tie-together is what makes it taste like a complete dish rather than separate ingredients on a plate. Tomato sauce, cream of mushroom soup, butter, and vegetable oil are the most common ones. Even just cooking onions in oil creates a flavor base that brings everything else together.

What you can do with what you probably have

Canned beans

Beans are one of the most versatile ingredients you can have. They work as the main protein in a meal or as a hearty addition to almost anything. They go into chili, tacos, rice dishes, soups, and salads. Every type of bean is interchangeable in most recipes — use whatever you have.

Canned tomato sauce

This is your most useful "tie-together" ingredient. It's the base for pasta sauce, chili, rice dishes, and soups. Mixed with a little water, it becomes a cooking liquid for rice. Mixed with beans and spices, it becomes a full meal. One can goes a long way.

Cream of mushroom soup

Don't think of this as just soup. Think of it as instant gravy. Mixed with water, it becomes a creamy sauce for chicken and rice, a base for casseroles, or a rich addition to any skillet meal.

Pasta

The fastest starch to cook and one of the most forgiving. Any shape works with any sauce. Toss it with tomato sauce and browned ground beef for a classic dinner. Mix it with butter and canned vegetables for something lighter. Or try it with peanut butter thinned with a little water and oil — it sounds unusual, but it works.

Rice

Rice takes a little more attention than pasta, but it pairs with almost everything. Cook it with canned tomato sauce and beans for a one-pot meal. Fry leftover rice with eggs and vegetables for a quick lunch. Serve it under chili, next to chicken, or on its own with butter.

Potatoes

Potatoes are filling and flexible. Dice them small and fry them in a skillet for a crispy base to build a meal on — add eggs for breakfast, add beans for dinner. Boil and mash them to mix with canned tuna or chicken for patties. Bake them whole and top with whatever you have.

Eggs

Eggs cook fast and add protein to almost anything. Scramble them into fried rice, fry one on top of beans and rice, or make a skillet scramble with potatoes and onions. They're also essential for pancakes and for holding things like tuna cakes together.

Ground beef and chicken

These are your main proteins for heartier meals. Brown ground beef and add it to pasta sauce, chili, or rice. Cube chicken and cook it in cream of mushroom soup with rice. Both stretch further when combined with beans or served over a starch.

Canned tuna and canned chicken

These are ready to eat straight from the can, which makes them some of the easiest proteins to work with. Mix canned tuna with mashed potatoes and an egg for tuna cakes. Shred canned chicken into quesadillas, soups, or rice dishes.

Peanut butter

Most people think of peanut butter as a sandwich ingredient, but it's much more versatile. Thin it with a little oil and warm water and it becomes a savory sauce for noodles. Stir it into hot cereal for a filling breakfast. It's a solid source of protein that doesn't need to be refrigerated or cooked.

Onions

Onions show up in almost every recipe for a reason. Cooking diced onions in oil for a few minutes creates a flavor base that makes everything else taste better. They're inexpensive, last a long time, and go with virtually any savory dish.

Butter and vegetable oil

These are your cooking fats. Oil is for frying and sautéing — it handles heat well. Butter adds richness and flavor — stir it into rice, melt it over corn, or use it to crisp the outside of a quesadilla. Between the two, you can cook almost anything.

Cereal

This one surprises people. Plain cereals like Cheerios, Chex, and bran flakes aren't just for breakfast with milk. Crush them up and use them as a coating for chicken or fish, as a topping for baked fruit, or cook them in milk on the stove for a warm porridge. It's an ingredient hiding in plain sight.

The formula

Once you know your building blocks, you can build a meal without a recipe. Here's the simplest framework:

Pick a protein + pick a starch + pick a tie-together + add heat.

Some examples: ground beef + pasta + tomato sauce = pasta with meat sauce. Chicken + rice + cream of mushroom soup = chicken and rice with gravy. Beans + potatoes + onion and oil = black bean potato tacos. Eggs + rice + vegetables + oil = fried rice. Peanut butter + pasta + oil and water = peanut butter noodles.

None of these are complicated. They're just combinations of things you already have, put together with a little heat and a few minutes of time.

A note on spices

You'll notice that most of these combinations work without any spices. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin are the most useful ones to have, and a single jar of each lasts for months. But if you don't have them, your food will still taste good — onions, butter, and tomato sauce carry a lot of flavor on their own.

If you're going to start with just one, garlic powder goes with everything.

Start simple

You don't need to be a confident cook to make good food. Start with the easiest combination that sounds good to you, follow a recipe the first time, and go from there. Every meal you make builds a little more confidence for the next one.

Browse our recipes to find meals built around these ingredients, or use the ingredient search to see what you can make with what you have right now.