When it comes to buying healthy ingredients, you don't just have to limit yourself to fresh salads. Stocking your pantry with cheap, long-lasting staples is a smart choice if you’re wanting to be healthy.
Many of the best healthy foods can be found in the tinned aisle, making it easy to throw together a healthy meal - even if you don’t have any fresh produce on hand.
According to the Living Healthy report 2022, 41% of us are cooking at home more, which is brilliant. Ensuring your pantry is well stocked is not only a great way to save money (preventing you from getting last-minute takeaway), but it’s also convenient and easy to do.
Here are 5 of the best, affordable (and healthy) pantry staples to keep on hand.
1. Tinned legumes
Legumes like chickpeas, lentils and beans are completely underrated - and under-eaten in Australia. Not only are they cheap and healthy (counting toward your daily servings of vegetables), but they’re also incredibly convenient because they don’t need to be cooked - so they can be added straight into dishes.
My Mexican Mac’n’Cheese recipe is a great example of how beans can be added to your family's favourites for added health points.
WATCH: Healthy ideas with pantry staples from Dietitian Lyndi Cohen
Expert dietitian & nutritionist, Lyndi Cohen talks us through a simple recipe using a variety of pantry staples.
2. Tinned tomatoes
While fresh produce is fabulous, tinned tomatoes are just as healthy as the fresh stuff, and so much more convenient and affordable. In my pantry, I always have 3-4 tins of tomatoes, ready to be added to a casserole, turned into veggie-rich pasta or sauteed into baked eggs for a quick, healthy and affordable meal.
3. Eggs
Many people store eggs in the fridge and this staple is a brilliant way to add protein and vitamins into your diet. Eggs aren’t only delicious, they’re also very satisfying, helping to fill out healthy meals and keep you feeling satisfied.
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While you can fry, scramble or boil eggs on the stovetop - it might be handy to know that you can air-fry eggs. Air-frying eggs at 180c for ~7 minutes will result in the perfect jammy egg!
4. Pantry heroes
You can’t build tasty, cheap and healthy meals with flavour unless you also have a bunch of ‘pantry heroes’ to rely on. Options like curry paste, coconut milk, garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil, tomato paste, olives and anchovies are brilliant ways to inject flavour into your healthy meals.
Ensuring your meals are loaded with tasty ingredients is essential if you’re trying to convince yourself that home cooking is a better option compared with takeaway. While pantry heroes might be a little more expensive, you don’t need a lot to add a flavour burst.
5. Brown rice
While ready-to-eat microwavable packs of wholegrains like brown rice and quinoa are incredibly convenient and great to keep in a healthy pantry, raw brown rice is a seriously affordable wholegrain to keep on hand.
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Lyndi Cohen is one of Australia’s most well-known dietitians and nutritionists. She is the creator of the Back to Basics App, a lifestyle approach to help you be healthy without dieting and the founder of the Keep It Real program to help stop binge eating.
Reviewed by the healthylife Advisory Board April 2022
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