Give your pantry an overdue overhaul – and revamp your recipes at the same time (2024)

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There’s nothing like a few days in a holiday house, knocking up lunch from a handful of bare essentials, to make you realise quite how overstocked your own kitchen is. Unwieldy, too.

That’s what dawned on me when I returned home from a break to drawers bulging open and shelves spilling their contents onto the floor. As a food writer who spends their day ­writing and testing recipes, my cupboards are more overloaded than most. But my chaotic ­collection of bottles, jars and packets (and a stash of baking ingredients that’s goodness knows how old) might resonate with you.

How long could you survive on your cupboard contents alone? In my case, months, providing a menu of lentils and Vegemite is acceptable. But that’s if I can get beyond the battalion of ­half-empty cider vinegars and unidentified seasonings.

Access is an issue: my narrow pull-out pantry is great for glancing at what’s in stock but has low edges, so taller packets easily fall out. The ­cupboards, meanwhile, are deep: ingredients at the back are easily overlooked.

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It’s time, then, for an overhaul of their contents and my recipe repertoire. With food prices still at a high, making better use of staple ingredients (and reducing unnecessary duplications on the weekly shop) is crucial. And dinner can be made even more delicious because of it.

Silvana’s step-by-step guide to a store cupboard overhaul

1. Take stock

Remove every item from your cupboards and spread them out on the counter. Tackle this shelf-by-shelf rather than by emptying your entire supply all at once (too overwhelming by far).

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2. Check the dates

“Use by” means a product is unsafe to eat after this date, while “best before”, which applies to most store cupboard items, indicates it will no longer be at its optimum — for example, spices may discolour and flavours may diminish.

If items are unopened and only a little past their best-before date, use your judgment over whether to keep or bin (a packet of sponge fingers at the back of my cupboard were a few weeks out of date but weren’t at all stale, so perfectly good in a trifle; brandy snaps, however, had lost their crunch not long after expiring). Remember – dates are for guidance only; occasionally, some foods don’t even make it before declining in quality. I find unopened walnuts can often taste rancid a good month before their best-before date; the same goes for bags of popped corn, which can take on a polystyrene-like texture with weeks still to go.

With food prices still at a high, making better use of staple ingredients (and reducing unnecessary duplications on the weekly shop) is crucial.

3. Keep, combine or discard

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Opened duplicates of identical products such as ketchup or ­white-wine vinegar can be ­funnelled together, providing the dates are similar.

Make a list of what’s approaching its date and plan to use it up as quickly as possible. But be brutal if you must: I’m talking about those ingredients bought on a whim, or only a small amount used, that are taking up precious space. Be like decluttering expert Marie Kondo: “Think of any cherished recipes you can recreate,” she advises. “If your vision sparks joy, hold on to the items and prepare to store them. If not, let them go with gratitude.” For these and other in-date goods you want to clear out, get in touch with a local food bank or use a food-sharing platform.

4. Maximise life by storing properly

Check packaging for tears and make sure openings are sealed (I reuse the elastic bands that come with spring onions and bunches of herbs). ­Consider decanting broken packs into storage canisters or recycled glass jars.

Again, combine the same items with similar dates; I was surprised by how many bags of flour and rice I had, many with less than a quarter left in the crumpled pack. Decanting them into larger, space-efficient containers helped eliminate mess, too.

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5. Clean the storage space

Vacuum your drawers and shelves, then spray and wipe clean. Leave to dry completely before restocking. Consider small saucers or large jam-jar lids to place beneath dribbly jars such as honey or chilli oil.

6. Find the right place

Categorise items into groups – until you can clearly see exactly how much space you’ll need for each category, you might find yourself rearranging what goes where more than once. Store things used frequently close to hand; I keep my favourite oils, sauces and seasonings near the cooking area. Arrange duplicates in the order they need to be used up, oldest at the front – or nominate an “overflow cupboard” to move them to, freeing up room in spaces that are more frequently used. Just make sure the “overflow” ­cupboard doesn’t become a dumping ground rather than an organised stock-rotation system …

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7. Get labelling

It sounds a bit Martha Stewart, but identification methods help when doing a quick scan before a shop or recipe preparation. Label jars and boxes clearly to avoid having to pull things out, and stick a list of contents inside each cupboard door; mark up those that need replacing soon and refer to them before ­shopping to avoid overbuying.

8. Stock rotation

When unpacking the shopping, initiate some stock rotation: put new products to the back of the cupboard (or in your overflow space) rather than shoving them at the front or into an unrelated cupboard, blocking access.

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Store-room recipe repertoire

A well-stocked kitchen cupboard should be able to see you through any emergency, whether it’s unexpected guests who end up staying for dinner or a bout of flu that leaves you home-bound for a week.

To use things up, start with ­ingred­ients nearing their best-before dates or anything you’ve unearthed in great quantities.

Here are my favourite solutions from the shelves:

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Spaghetti puttanesca

This can be relied on to save the day when the fridge is empty. Cook 1 finely chopped onion with some garlic and crushed chilli flakes in a little oil until golden. Add a 50g tin of anchovies and cook for 2 minutes until the anchovies break up. Stir in a 400g tin of good chopped tomatoes, a handful of pitted black olives and 2 tbsp capers. Simmer for 20 minutes, then check the seasoning. If you have any chopped parsley in the freezer, add a sprinkle. Serve with spaghetti.

Tuna mayo over rice

Mix a drained tin of tuna with ­mayonnaise and a dash of soy sauce; you might like to add a squeeze of wasabi and/or a shake of sesame seeds if you have them. Serve on white rice with cooked edamame beans or peas from the freezer and a sprinkle of togarashi seasoning or chilli flakes.

Red lentil and coconut soup

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A simple and delicious dish that makes a low-effort and nutritious work-from-home lunch. Place 200g red lentils in a large saucepan with a 400ml tin of coconut milk and 750ml vegetable stock (a bit less if you want it thicker). Add some grated ginger and garlic (or use a store-cupboard paste) and ½ tsp ground turmeric. Simmer for 25 minutes or so until the lentils are very tender. Check the seasoning; add a squeeze of lemon if you have any to bring a little zing. Frozen spinach makes a great addition.

Olive oil, polenta and ground almond cake

Ground almonds, which don’t last long once opened, are brilliant in a flour-free cake like this. Stir together 175g ground almonds, 130g polenta, 1 tsp baking powder and a large pinch of salt. In a stand mixer or separate bowl, whisk 3 eggs and 200g caster sugar until thick and voluminous. Slowly whisk in 150ml everyday olive oil followed by 1 tsp vanilla or almond extract. Fold in the polenta mix then spoon into a 23cm oiled caked tin and bake at 160C fan-forced (170C conventional) fan for 1 hour until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Dust with a little icing sugar or serve with strawberries and cream.

The Telegraph, London

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