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Cooked Meals From the Pantry: Recipes Using Long-Life Ingredients

A 100-day pantry is much more useful when the ingredients are foods that are already used for everyday cooking.

Rice, beans, lentils, oats and tinned vegetables may not sound particularly exciting on their own, but a small collection of dried herbs and spices can turn the same basic ingredients into very different meals.

The following recipes use only ingredients suitable for keeping in a rotating long-life pantry. They do not require fresh meat, eggs, cheese or vegetables.

Quantities are approximate and can easily be changed according to taste and the ingredients available.

1. Spiced Tomato and Red Lentil Dhal

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 150 g dried red lentils
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp cooking oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • chilli powder or flakes to taste
  • salt and black pepper
  • water as required
  • 120 g rice

Method

Rinse the lentils and place them in a saucepan with the tomatoes, spices and enough water to cook the lentils.

Simmer until the lentils are soft and the sauce has thickened, adding more water if necessary.

Cook the rice separately and serve together.

Why it works for the pantry

Red lentils cook much more quickly than most dried beans, reducing the amount of energy needed. Lentils and rice provide carbohydrates, protein and fibre, while the tomatoes and spices turn very inexpensive ingredients into a substantial meal.

2. Smoky Bean Chilli

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 tin kidney, haricot or mixed beans
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • ½ tin sweetcorn, carrots or peas
  • 1 tbsp cooking oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • chilli powder to taste
  • salt and black pepper
  • 120 g rice

Method

Drain the beans and vegetables.

Heat the oil and spices briefly before adding the tomatoes, beans and vegetables.

Simmer for around 10–15 minutes while the rice cooks.

Serve the chilli over the rice.

Low-energy version

Because all the tinned ingredients are already cooked, the chilli only needs to be heated through. During an energy shortage it could even be eaten without heating, although the texture and flavour will be better warm.

3. Moroccan-Style Apricot and Chickpea Stew

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 tin chickpeas
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • 60 g dried apricots, chopped
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • black pepper
  • chilli to taste
  • 120 g couscous

Method

Combine the drained chickpeas, tomatoes, apricots, oil and spices.

Simmer for approximately 10–15 minutes until the apricots soften and the flavours combine.

Prepare the couscous with boiling water and serve the stew over it.

Why keep couscous?

Couscous is particularly useful in an emergency pantry because it requires very little cooking energy. It can normally be prepared simply by adding boiling water and leaving it covered while it absorbs the water.

4. Sardine and Tomato Pasta

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 160–200 g dried pasta
  • 1 tin sardines
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • ½ tsp dried basil
  • chilli flakes to taste
  • black pepper

Method

Cook the pasta.

Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in another pan with the herbs, garlic and chilli and simmer until slightly reduced.

Add the sardines towards the end, breaking them into large pieces.

Drain the pasta and mix it through the sauce.

Why it is nutritionally useful

The pasta and tomatoes provide the basis of the meal while the sardines provide protein and long-chain omega-3 fats. Sardines containing edible bones can also provide a useful source of calcium.

5. Mediterranean Bean and Tomato Pasta

For a fish-free variation of the previous meal, replace the sardines with a tin of cannellini, haricot or butter beans.

Add:

  • oregano
  • basil
  • garlic powder
  • black pepper
  • chilli flakes

The result uses almost exactly the same pantry ingredients but produces a different meal.

6. Curried Lentils and Peas

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 150 g red lentils
  • 1 tin peas
  • ½–1 tin tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1–2 tsp curry powder
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • salt to taste
  • 120 g rice

Method

Cook the lentils with the tomatoes, spices and sufficient water.

Drain the peas and add them during the final few minutes.

Serve with rice.

Different curry powders and spice combinations can make this taste quite different without changing the basic ingredients.

7. Spiced Tomato, Bean and Buckwheat Bowl

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 120 g buckwheat
  • 1 tin beans
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • tinned carrots or peas
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • garlic powder
  • chilli
  • black pepper

Method

Cook the buckwheat according to its packet instructions.

Heat the tomatoes, beans and vegetables together with the spices.

Serve over the buckwheat.

Buckwheat provides an alternative to eating rice or pasta every day and increases the variety of grains and seeds in the pantry.

Breakfasts and Snacks

The pantry does not need to be designed solely around evening meals.

8. Apricot, Sultana and Seed Porridge

Serves 1

Ingredients

  • 80–120 g oats
  • 20 g dried apricots
  • 20 g sultanas
  • 15 g sunflower seeds
  • 15 g pumpkin seeds
  • water or reconstituted milk powder
  • cinnamon

Method

Chop the apricots and cook them with the oats, sultanas and water.

Stir in the seeds and cinnamon before serving.

This provides a substantial breakfast using entirely shelf-stable ingredients.

9. No-Cook Overnight Oats

Where clean water is available but cooking energy is limited, oats can also be soaked rather than cooked.

Combine oats, dried fruit, seeds and milk powder if being used with the appropriate amount of safe drinking water.

Leave covered until softened.

Food should not be left for extended periods at unsafe temperatures once water has been added, so this is a preparation method rather than a way of storing the finished food.

10. Pantry Flapjacks

Flapjacks are particularly well suited to the pantry because oats, dried fruit and seeds can provide a large amount of energy and nutrition in a small volume.

Ingredients

  • 300 g oats
  • 50 g sunflower seeds
  • 50 g pumpkin seeds
  • 75 g sultanas
  • 75 g chopped dried apricots
  • 75–100 ml cooking oil
  • honey or sugar as required
  • cinnamon

Method

Combine the dry ingredients.

Warm the oil and honey or sugar with a small amount of water to create a binding syrup.

Mix thoroughly with the dry ingredients.

Press firmly into a baking tray and bake until set and lightly browned.

Allow to cool before cutting into portions.

The recipe can be adjusted over time to find a combination that provides the preferred balance of taste, texture and nutrition.

Meals Requiring Almost No Cooking

A useful 100-day pantry should contain some meals that remain practical during a power or gas interruption.

11. Sardine, Bean and Sweetcorn Bowl

Serves 1–2

Combine:

  • 1 tin beans
  • 1 tin sardines
  • ½ tin sweetcorn or peas
  • a small amount of oil
  • dried herbs
  • black pepper
  • chilli flakes

Everything is already cooked and can therefore be eaten without heating.

It will not replace a freshly cooked meal for enjoyment, but it provides protein, carbohydrate, fats and vegetables without requiring cooking energy.

12. Moroccan No-Cook Chickpeas

Combine:

  • 1 tin chickpeas
  • chopped dried apricots
  • sultanas
  • sunflower or pumpkin seeds
  • a small amount of oil
  • cumin
  • coriander
  • cinnamon
  • black pepper

Allowing the mixture to stand briefly gives the dried fruit time to absorb some moisture from the other ingredients.

This provides a completely different flavour from the chilli and curry recipes despite using many of the same stored foods.

One Pantry, Many Cuisines

One of the most useful lessons from cooking with pantry staples is that spices can provide variety without requiring large amounts of additional storage space.

The same combination of tomatoes, beans and grains can be taken in very different directions.

Indian-style

Keep:

  • cumin
  • coriander
  • turmeric
  • garam masala
  • curry powder
  • chilli
  • ginger
  • garlic powder

Mexican-style

Keep:

  • cumin
  • chilli
  • smoked paprika
  • garlic powder
  • oregano

Mediterranean-style

Keep:

  • oregano
  • basil
  • garlic powder
  • black pepper
  • chilli flakes

Moroccan-style

Keep:

  • cumin
  • coriander
  • cinnamon
  • turmeric
  • ginger
  • chilli

A collection of dried herbs and spices takes up very little room compared with the main food reserve.

Suggested Long-Life Seasoning Shelf

A practical seasoning section could contain:

  • salt
  • black pepper
  • garlic powder
  • onion powder
  • chilli powder
  • chilli flakes
  • paprika
  • smoked paprika
  • cumin
  • coriander
  • turmeric
  • curry powder
  • garam masala
  • ground ginger
  • cinnamon
  • oregano
  • basil
  • mixed herbs
  • stock cubes or stock powder
  • vinegar
  • sugar
  • honey

These products should still be rotated according to their storage instructions and best-before dates. Dried spices can remain usable for a long time when stored correctly, although their flavour and aroma gradually weaken rather than remaining at full quality indefinitely.

Practice Before You Need the Pantry

The best time to discover that nobody likes a particular type of bean or that a recipe needs twice as much spice is not during a food shortage or prolonged power cut.

The pantry should therefore become part of normal cooking.

Try one pantry meal each week.

Experiment with different spices.

Adjust recipes.

Replace foods that are consistently unpopular with alternatives that provide similar nutrition.

Over time, a household can build its own collection of perhaps 20–30 favourite pantry recipes from a relatively small selection of stored ingredients.

This creates a food reserve that is not simply capable of providing calories.

It is 100 days of familiar ingredients that the household already knows how to turn into enjoyable meals.