Dinner in 15 minutes [news]
There are some evenings when time and energy to spend in the kitchen are in short supply - that’s why supermarkets have freezers and chillers packed with ready meals and there’s a queue at the local takeaway. But somewhere between the frozen pizza and the home-cooked pork belly with parsnip remoulade, there’s a middle ground – fast food made from cupboard staples that deliver healthy dinners in minutes.
With the right ingredients – plus can opener - cupboard cuisine can be surprisingly good.
There are two keys to making cupboard cuisine work. The first is a stash of versatile ingredients with a long shelf life. In the pantry that means plenty of cans - canned tuna, canned tomatoes, canned legumes like black beans, borlotti beans, cannellini beans, chick peas and lentils, tomato paste, faster cooking pastas (like spaghettini and angel hair), wholegrain or kamut cous cous (gutsier and more filling than regular cous cous), stick soba noodles, and nuts – pine nuts, pistachios, pecans and cashews are good for adding protein to mains), plus olive oil and vinegars.
