Must Haves in a Vegetarian/ Vegan Kitchen
Not being someone who can be bothered going on long multi-stop shopping trips on a regular basis, or shopping every evening, there are a number of items I like to keep stocked up on at all times. This also allows me to experiment a little, and to make several different kinds of dishes depending on my mood. Here's my shortlist:
- Vegetable Oil (eg. sunflower oil) for asian cooking
- Olive Oil ( extra virgin but not too posh) for cooking
- Olive Oil (extra virgin and really nice quality) for salad dressings
- Sesame oil
- Large bottle of light soy sauce
- Bottle of vegetarian oyster/mushroom sauce - for simple stir fries
- Bottled lemon juice and bottled lime juice (of course the fresh stuff tastes better, but for a lot of cooked dishes the difference is not significant and this is much more convenient)
- Fresh Ginger and garlic
- Brown/white and red onions
- Dry white wine
- Balsamic vinegar (at least the liquid version. Creamed version is very nice to have as well)
- Powdered organic vegetable stock (liquid is even better, but you'll have to restock more often)
- Several cans of diced tomatoes
- A pack each of red and green lentils
- A can of chickpeas
- A pack of basmati/ pandan rice
- A pack of risotto rice
- A couple of favourite types of pasta
- Italian herbs
- dried oregano, rosemary and thyme
- Dry chilli flakes
- Cayene pepper
- Ground coriander, cumin, cardammon
- Coriander and Cumin seeds
- Tumeric and garam masala
- Bay leaves
- Pine nuts
- Pepper and salt in grinders
- Sambal