I started this site for my passion of food. Creating, eating, and discovering food! Here i share my recipes so you can see how easy it is to be plant based and hopefully inspire some of you to incorporate plant based meals into your everyday lives!

15 Vegan Pantry Staples YOU need as a new vegan:

Going food shopping as a newbie vegan can be very stressful! What to buy? How much to buy? and maybe you’ve done it before and your fresh fruits and veggies have gone bad before you could eat it all and now all your money is wasted. Or, like most people you buy a bunch of random food that don’t really help you create a meal so you kinda give up by the end of the week.
Having these problems myself for the first few months, i wanted to take some of the guess work out of it and offer some suggestions of whats worked for me. When I get people interested in the vegan diet one of the first questions I’m asked is “well now what do I eat? what do I buy?! Isn’t it expensive?!” I can assure you the plant based lifestyle is less expensive! These tips should be handy for… i believe anyone, and can serve as kind of a base to get started with what you’re going to need.

However you have to know yourself and your eating habits before you go shopping so you can be realistic about your list and it’s quantities.
Before my list I want to give a few pointers about fruits and vegetables: When buying fruits and vegetables it’s always better to buy small amount of fresh fruits and veggies that you’re planning to eat right way. If it’s more cost effective to buy a lot because of a sale or other promotion, buy a mix of ripe and unripe fruit so that it lasts you and you’re able to eat it all before it rots. Also don’t forget about frozen! Frozen fruits and veggies are great to keep in the freezer and there’s no pressure to eat them all right away because they’re frozen! This makes smoothies, oatmeal or dinner dishes that require cooked veggies convenient. Or you can let them thaw out and eat them fresh in a fruit salad or by themselves. Other things have longer keep in the fridge like onions, garlic, or tomatoes. So based on what you like to eat you have to decide what should be fresh and what should be frozen.

Ok so, on to the pantry staples! These are my MUST HAVES and they are also must haves for many others! They make life way easier! One thing that sucks is when you’re stumped about what to eat and try to follow a recipe online or in a book and you don’t have any of the ingredients or their substitutes. No one wants to run outside to the store late at night for almond butter or olive oil. If you’re like most people you don’t have the time or patience, so here you are…debating… if you’re brave enough to try the recipe anyway with the missing ingredients.

Then of course, more than likely the food sucks! Now you’re throwing away perfectly good food which is a waste of money and ordering take out which is wasting more precious money. Not to mention the time wasted creating the dish. Not fun! Also if you’re new to the lifestyle that can be frustrating and a turn off to the diet.
So first things first:
1. OATS. Oats are amazing. You can make oatmeal obviously, but you can make a bunch of other cool things like oatmeal cookies, oat flower for gluten free baking, granola bars, cold overnight oats for the morning (which are personally my favorite for the summer time). Sometimes you can even add them to smoothies to stay fuller longer. Also these magical babies really help with battling cholesterol! Oats are cheap and healthy so definitely a win-win.

2. RICE AND BEANS/LEGUMES. You definitely want dry bags of rice and dry bags of different beans/legumes. You can also buy canned beans but dry beans will be more cost effective if you’re trying to save a penny. Another staple for me and many other vegans. Pick whichever you like but chickpeas are a must! You need chickpeas for falafel, hummus, mock tuna salad and many other dishes they’re in almost everything.

3. NUT BUTTERS. Id say have at least two. Peanut and almond. Cashew or hazelnut. What ever you want. Also jellies or jams. Not a must but Peanut butter and jelly is seriously an underrated sandwich.

4. BANANAS. Bananas are for smoothies, for egg replacer in recipes, for vegan “nice cream”. They help fuel you for workouts, and recover post workouts. They are a superfood in my opinion so I hope you don’t hate them, because you need them.

5. NUTRITIONAL YEAST. If you like cheese-like creamy sauces you need this. Also its a natural source of B-12! (if you buy it fortified) Besides, are you really vegan if you don’t own “Nooch” ?

6. VEGAN CONDIMENTS. Ok so this is broad and based on you…Teriyaki sauce, liquid smoke, coconut aminos, sriracha sauce, ketchup, mustard, mayo, bar-b-q sauce, hot sauce, maple syrup, agave nectar.. the list goes on.

7. MARINARA SAUCE. I dip my grilled cheeses in this, also pasta anytime is the key to happiness in life so having this on hand is quite handy.

8. PASTA. They’re a bunch of different pastas and a bunch of different sauces, but if you’re lazy you can throw it together with some marinara and ta-da! amazing pasta!

9. LEAFY GREENS. Pick the ones you like, but also try to eat new ones here and there because they have minerals you need and it’s always best for your gut microbiome to keep your greens on rotation. Throw ’em in your smoothies if you hate them, you won’t taste a thing!
Except for kale.
You will taste the kale.
You gotta eat your greens though, they’re for more than just salads!

10. SEEDS. I personally keep chia and pumpkin. You can keep these and more, there’s hemp, flax etc.

11. TOFU. If you can eat soy then you need tofu in your fridge. Tofu scrambles, sandwiches, stir-fry, they do it all. Tofu is great.

12. PLANT MILK. Theres millions, literally. So pick what you like. There’s hemp, soy, coconut, cashew, almond, hazelnut, oat, walnut, rice…so just buy it okay.

13. APPLESAUCE. Besides being delicious this is also an awesome quick egg replacer.

14. FRESH/FROZEN FRUITS. As i’ve said above, they are a must have.

15. LEMONS. Lemons are amazing to add to water for extra vitamin C and hydration, plus they are surprisingly in a lot of baking recipes.

Thats it for my staples! Things you’ll always need for cooking at home, which if you’re a vegan you probably do a lot of. Having these things always on hand really help out when you’re trying to eat at home. Or if you find a recipe online they will most likely call for the use of these ingredients.
I hope this helps and i wish you all happy cooking!