Having a well-stocked kitchen is essential to sustain healthy eating habits. Whether you like to shop once a week or a little each day, make sure to keep lots of good staples on hand that make it easy to throw together a nutritious and delicious meal, no matter how busy, exhausted or uninspired you may feel! Ensuring you have a well balanced diet is essential and does require a little extra mindfulness and preparation to make sure you are getting all of your required nutrients.

Don’t feel like you have to purchase everything on this list all at once! This is just a helpful guide. Try selecting a few new ingredients each week or month to try as you start out.

Fruits and Vegetables

Try to eat fruits and vegetables with the seasons to ensure you are enjoying the freshest and most local produce. There is something lovely about eating seasonally and although it means perhaps missing out on mangos in the winter or going without avocados for a couple of months a year, it does allow you to be more creative and try new things. Keep a good variety of leafy greens on hand,  as well fresh herbs and citrus. Enjoy vegetables from all the different vegetables families to ensure you are getting a good variety of nutrients. Vegetables I tend to use the most include zucchini, kale, carrots, cucumbers, snow peas, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot, corn, parsnip, and beans. Dried sea vegetables can also be kept in the cupboard and used to top salads or in recipes, these include arame, kombu, wakame and nori. With fruits, enjoy a mix of sweet fruits such as banana, mangos, papaya and stone fruits, as well as less- sweet varieties such as apples, berries and avocados. Dried fruits are also great to have on hand. The most adaptable and useful dried fruits to have on hand include dates, raisins, sultanas, figs, goji berries and apricots.

Nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds can be used as a snack on their own or are often used as a base for more elaborate recipes such as crackers, cakes and cereals. Nuts are best stored in glass jars for up to three months while those high in oil such as pinenuts or macadamia nuts are better stored in glass jars in the refrigerator. Nuts are best soaked for four to eight hours before eating to release enzyme inhibitors in the skins and make them more readily digested and absorbed by the body. Soaked and dehydrated nuts can be stored for several months in airtight containers. Nuts and seeds can be expensive so choose ones that are easily adaptable and that you enjoy and then begin to diversify and rotate. Almonds are perhaps the most diverse nut and are easy to store, they are enjoyable on their own, make a quick and easy almond milk, are a great base for crackers, cakes or pates and are easy to throw into salads or add to on-the-go trial mixes. Other great nuts include macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, pistachios and cashews. Sunflower seeds are also used abundantly in raw food recipes and are relatively inexpensive. Pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds and sesame seeds are also used commonly in plant based cuisine. Make sure all nuts and seeds bought are untoasted and unsalted.

Condiments

Having a variety of natural condiments on hands means you can make easy dressings and marinades, and add flavor to your recipes. To add a salty flavour to foods and to add a vast array of living enzymes and minerals, opt for miso, tamari or nama shoyu. Select organic and extra virgin cold pressed olive oil, flax oil, hempseed oil and coconut oil. Store flax and hemp seed oils in the fridge and other oils in dark glass bottles in a cool dark space away from direct sunlight. Apple cider or coconut vinegar are the most nutritious vinegars and the most versatile in recipes. Nut butters such as tahini and almond butter are also wonderful to have in the kitchen. Nutritional yeast is an excellent addition to a vegan diet as not only does it add a great ‘cheesy flavour’ to foods, it is high in B vitamins and protein. For sweeteners, you can choose from a wide variety of different sources, I like to use coconut nectar or maple syrup.

Herbs and Spices:

Herbs and spices are essential for creating flavor and variety, as well as providing freshness and nutrients with the changing seasons. Fresh herbs and spices should be bought weekly while dried herbs and spices can last up to six months in glass jars stored in a cool dry place. Fresh spices include ginger, garlic, onion and chilies. Fresh herbs include basil, parsley, coriander, mint and dill. Dried spices include mixed herbs, cumin, coriander, curry, rosemary, thyme, garam masala, turmeric, paprika, and sweeter spices like nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla.

Grains

Try purchasing your grains in small amounts from a bulk food store to ensure freshness as well as maximum flavour and nutrients. Having grains on hand makes for quick, easy and nutritious meals from soups to salads to many other great dishes. Keep grains in glass jars in the cupboard and label everything for easy use. Handy grains to have on hand include-  couscous, millet, rolled oats, brown rice, jasmine rice, wild rice, sushi rice and brown rice pasta. Noodles such as brown rice noodles and soba noodles make for a quick and easy addition to meals. Kelp noodles are a wonderful gluten and grain free option made from seaweed that you can find in health food stores. Quinoa is officially a seed and part of a group of pseudocereals, making it neither a cereal nor a grain. Quinoa is a wonderful addition to your kitchen and is quick to cook, versatile and very high in protein. Buckwheat is also a gluten free pseudo cereal, and is heavily used due to its versatility.

Legumes/Pulses

Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, fresh peas, lupins, and peanuts. Pulses are part of the legume family, but the term “pulse” refers only to the dried seed. Dried peas, edible beans, lentils and chickpeas are the most common varieties of pulses. Legumes and pulses can either be cooked or often sprouted and add healthy bulk to your meals, as well as protein and iron. You can either buy your pulses dried or canned, either way it is best to opt for organic and store them in a cool dark place. Pulses handy to have in the kitchen for cooking and sprouting include chickpeas, red lentils, green lentils, black beans, kidney beans, split peas, and cannellini beans. If you are cooking your beans, make sure to soak them overnight and rinse well for easier cooking and digestion. Pulses such as chickpeas and cannellini beans also make for a great base for dips and pates.

Flours

While flour once referred to good old plain white flour, there are a diverse variety of flours now available that vary in their uses and benefits. Health food stores and bulk foods tend to stock everything from regular wheat flour to a range of gluten free flours, or even banana or coconut flour!  Buckwheat flour on hand, it is easy to substitute in recipes, bakes very well and has a lovely nutty flavour. Coconut flour works beautifully in raw desserts, just be sure to follow exact recipes when using coconut flour as it absorbs far more liquid than other flours! Spelt flour and brown rice flour which are both low gluten or gluten free and are also versatile and easily accessible. Almond meal is also great in baking and bread recipes. Be sure to store your almond meals or any nut meals in the fridge to avoid them from going rancid.

Soy/Fermented Products

Tofu and tempeh are both good sources of protein. Be sure to always choose organic, non GMO products when it comes to soy. Tempeh is far superior to tofu when it comes to nutrition. Tempeh is actually a culinary mold culture, grown on soybeans. The mold pre-digests the beans and binds them together into a solid cake, and in the process, the nutrients in the soy beans are transformed; the proteins become more digestible and minerals more bioavailable. Rest assured, it is healthy and delicious! Miso is a fermented soybean paste originating from Asia. Miso comes in many varieties, ranging in colour and depth of flavour. Typically, the lighter varieties are made with a blend of soybeans and white rice, while darker pastes are from barely and brown rice. It is nutritionally a good source of minerals and some B vitamins. Fermented foods such as kimchi and sauerkraut are terrific additions to any meal, adding healthy probiotics and friendly bacteria to your diet. These can be found more and more readily in health stores.

Keeping a well stocked kitchen is a great way to ensure you always have healthy ingredients on hand to make quick tasty meals. Stocking up with local and organic produce from week to week then makes it easy to have an abundance of ready-to-cook meals on hand.