5 Dinners You Can Make From Store-Cupboard Staples

Pantry cooking only works if the pantry is stocked before you need it. You do not need much, and it all keeps for months, so a single shop sets you up for weeks of backup dinners. Build around these and you can make everything below plus dozens of variations.

• Tinned legumes and tomatoes: chickpeas, kidney beans, cannellini beans, lentils, and chopped tomatoes. The core of nearly every pantry dinner.
• Dried carbohydrates: pasta, rice, and noodles. The cheapest way to fill a plate.
• Dried lentils: cheaper than tinned and cook in 15 to 20 minutes, no soaking.
• Tinned fish: tuna, mackerel, or sardines for a fast protein and omega-3 hit.
• Flavour and fat: stock cubes, curry powder, dried herbs, garlic, soy sauce, peanut butter, tinned coconut milk, and oil.
• A bag of frozen veg in the freezer to round out any meal with vegetables.

All five feed two to four, cost little, and take 30 minutes or less. Prices are rough own-brand estimates.

1. Chickpea and tomato stew. Soften an onion and garlic, add a spoon of cumin and paprika, a tin of chickpeas, a tin of tomatoes, and a splash of stock. Simmer 15 minutes, season, and serve with rice or bread. Stir in frozen spinach at the end if you have it.
2. Lentil and coconut curry. Fry curry powder briefly, add a cup of dried red lentils, a tin of coconut milk, and two cups of water or stock. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes until thick and serve over rice. Around 18 grams of protein and plenty of fibre for about a pound.
3. Tuna and sweetcorn pasta. Cook pasta, then toss through a tin of drained tuna, a tin of sweetcorn, and either a tin of tomatoes warmed with garlic or a spoon of mayo. Fast, filling, and about 24 grams of protein a serving.
4. White bean and tomato pasta. Warm a tin of cannellini beans and a tin of tomatoes with garlic and dried herbs while the pasta cooks, then combine. A cheap take on pasta e fagioli, high in fibre and quietly filling.
5. Peanut noodles with frozen veg. Whisk a spoon of peanut butter with soy sauce and a little hot water into a quick sauce, cook noodles, and toss with a handful of frozen veg cooked in the same pan. Add cubed firm tofu or a tin of edamame for extra protein.

The difference between a bleak tin of beans and a dinner you look forward to is almost entirely flavour and texture, and both are cheap to add. A few habits turn the same staples into something you would actually choose.

• Bloom your spices. Cook curry powder, cumin, or paprika in a little oil for 30 seconds before adding liquid. It wakes them up and costs nothing.
• Build a base. Onion and garlic softened first give almost any pantry dinner a proper savoury backbone.
• Add acid and salt at the end. A squeeze of lemon, a splash of vinegar, or a dash of soy sauce lifts a flat dish instantly.
• Add a fat for richness. A spoon of peanut butter, a splash of coconut milk, or a drizzle of oil makes a thin dish satisfying.
• Finish with texture. Toasted seeds, a handful of frozen peas, or crisped breadcrumbs stop everything being soft and samey.

Pantry dinners have a reputation as a compromise, but nutritionally these punch well above their price. Every meal here is built on legumes or whole grains, the foods with the strongest evidence behind them. A major series of reviews found that higher whole-grain and fibre intake tracked with lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers, and reviews of legume intake point the same way for heart disease and diabetes risk.

Choose the wholegrain pasta or brown rice when the price is close, keep a tin of legumes in most dinners, and stir a handful of frozen veg through whatever you cook. Frozen vegetables hold their nutrients as well as fresh, so a bare-fridge meal is not a nutritional step down. Done this way, store-cupboard cooking is not the meal you settle for. It is a cheap, high-fibre, high-protein way to eat that happens to also be the most convenient.

The one thing to keep an eye on is salt. Stock cubes, soy sauce, and some tinned goods are salty, and pantry cooking leans on all three. Use low-salt stock where you can, drain and rinse tinned beans to cut their sodium, and taste before you add more. That small habit keeps an otherwise excellent way of eating from tipping over on the one nutrient the shelf tends to oversupply.