Spring Cleaning is a fine opportunity to shed some light into the shadowy depths of your pantry cabinet, reorganizing, refreshing, and even rediscovering what you’ve accumulated over the years.
If your pantry is anything like mine, it’s a culinary time capsule, filled with an eclectic mix of stale spices, obscure blends of herbs that you used once when you were feeling frisky, and maybe a bottle or two of oil past its prime. Some of these items are still usable, well beyond any Best by dates, while others have lost their magic. It’s not a bad idea to periodically take stock of what can stay and what needs to go.
But Spring Cleaning can be more than just an exercise in out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new. It’s also a great time to set yourself up for a season of easy, delicious, and dynamic seafood meals. For me, setting myself up with a well-equipped pantry — stocked with essential spices, herbs, condiments, and other shelf-stable ingredients — means both exciting flavors and organized ease around cooking seafood.
We’ve compiled a short list of easily accessible items that we think can work as pantry staples, many of which can be mixed and matched into a variety of delicious, healthy meals — even when your cupboards and fridge are looking a little bare. By no means is our list exhaustive. It simply features ingredients that seem to come up over and over again in easy recipes that we love.
Everyone’s pantry will look a little different, of course, reflecting the variety of flavor profiles and cuisines that typically grace your kitchen table. So think of our pantry list as a suggested road map for where you want your taste buds to go this year. If there’s an ingredient that you feel is missing, or one that just doesn’t work for you, swap it out with another that you know will get plenty of use.
As for those obscure spice blends that are gathering dust on the shelves, why not try moving them up to the front and center of your pantry? You might find yourself getting inspired by your past purchases. Maybe you bought a bag of slivered almonds in the winter to make a batch of cookies, but haven’t touched them since. Look up some nut crusted seafood recipes. Have a bottle of fish sauce that seems as if it’s been sitting dormant in the pantry for years? Make nuoc cham your go-to everything dressing this summer.
What you thought were one hit wonders may very well become your new pantry staples.
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: From legumes to spices to condiments, a colorful spread of our favorite pantry staples for seafood lovers — a solid, culinary launching off point as you dive into a fresh season of easy, healthy, and delicious cooking.
