I picked up the idea for this from Ali Slagle’s Substack, 40 Ingredients Forever.
Using fewer ingredients, rather than buying some oddity that you might use once and then forget in the back of the cupboard/fridge, is economical common sense. In my mind it will also avoid a lot of the faff around cooking and recipes; I can’t be doing with 27 obscure ingredients, 39 steps, and two dishwasher loads, of buggering around just to make dinner. (Except possibly very, very occasionally.)
You see, if you have your 40 go to ingredients always available, you have at your fingertips both the means to make a good meal, or cook almost anything, and make it interestingly tasty.
My list differs substantially from that of Sohla El-Waylly, which is the list Ali Slagle originally posted. And your list will not be the same either, although there are likely to be some commonalities.
In creating my list I’ve assumed that in the cupboard there are already six very basic basics:
- Salt (although I rarely use any)
- Black pepper
- Plain flour
- Milk
- Sugar
- Baking powder
So here’s my list. (Frozen, where appropriate, is fine.)
40 Essential Ingredients
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Having said all that, this starts getting difficult when you have to take dietary restrictions into account. That’s where we are now with a medical need to reduce phosphate and potassium levels, sugar and salt – which cuts out a huge range of foods from avocados to crab by way of nuts and seeds. Because of the potassium alone almost all vegetables have to be boiled (yeuch!) and many fruits are off limits. This of course hits the 40 ingredients – but here are some possible substitutions.
Removed Ingredient | Replace with |
Baking Powder | Yeast |
Creamed coconut | |
Worcs sauce | |
Dark chocolate | |
Dry sherry | Gin |
Cashew nuts | |
Kalamata olives | |
Tinned plum tomatoes | |
Tinned cannellini beans | Tinned chickpeas |
Button mushrooms | Shiitake mushrooms |
Blackcurrants | Cherries or blueberries |
Bacon | |
Chorizo | |
Parmesan cheese | |
Cheddar | Mozzarella |
Salmon | |
Fresh thyme | |
Asparagus (in season) |
It’s going to get interesting.