How To Stock a Vegan Pantry (Full Ingredient List!)

These easy and simple guide will teach you How to Stock a Vegan Pantry to make vegan pantry recipes and staples for delicious vegan and gluten-free recipes that are all oil-free. This beginner guide will include everything you need from grains to nuts to baking essential ingredients. Most of these ingredients I keep in my pantry year round or are easy to find. 

HOW TO STOCK A VEGAN PANTRY

It’s always good to keep a pantry stocked full of basic vegan pantry items. Especially if you are new on your plant-based journey. I have had readers ask me for years for an in depth post like this of what I keep in my pantry to help guide them and I’m finally gotten around to doing it! I do share something very similar in my cookbook as well. This keeps you prepared for uncertain times and also quick meals that are not complicated. Not only are these recipes very easy, relying on simple ingredients, they are just 8 ingredients or less (not counting salt/pepper/water or optional ingredients)! How is that for simple? Many recipes out there call for 15-20 or more ingredients which can make it more intimidating for quick dinners or call for ingredients that are anything but “pantry ingredients”.

INGREDIENTS I ALWAYS KEEP IN MY PANTRY

• Oats:: Both old-fashioned rolled oats and quick cooking oats.
• Rice: I always have brown rice, white rice and wild rice.
• Pasta: I have several different types of pasta depending on recipes that I make. I love rigatoni, fusilli, spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, elbow macaroni, bowtie and penne.
• Beans: I keep both canned and dry beans. Black beans, pinto beans, white navy beans, chickpeas and red beans on a regular basis.
• Lentils: I keep both canned and always have bags of dried lentils. I love both red and green lentils for different recipes.
• Broth: I always have low-sodium vegetable broth.
• Tomato sauce: I keep several jars at all times.
• Tomato paste: I keep several tubes of it as I love using this ingredient for soups and sauces.
• Low-Sodium soy sauce
• Coconut aminos, also called “Coco Aminos”: Soy-free “soy sauce” which is sweeter and less salty. I like the Coconut Secret and the Big Tree Farms brands. These can be found at Sprouts, Whole Foods and Amazon.
• Hot sauce: I love the Frank’s brand the best.
• Almond butter: Homemade or the store-bought brands I like are the Good & Gather by Target, Trader Joe’s or the 365 Whole Foods.
• Tahini
• Cashew butter: I only make my own since stores tend to only carry roasted cashew butter with added oils or sugars.
• Sunbutter
• Medium salsa: I love several different brands, but really like Trader Joe’s, Newman’s Own, Even Pace picante medium salsa is good and is sold at virtually every store. I even like to make my own.
• Nuts and seeds of all kinds: whole almonds, slivered almonds, raw cashews, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pecans, walnuts, hemp seeds, flaxseeds, toasted sesame seeds
• Red curry paste, green curry paste: I love the Thai kitchen brand
• Vinegars: white distilled vinegar, apple cider vinegar, dark balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar
• Vegan worcestershire sauce: I find a vegan brand at Sprouts or Whole Foods
• Canned lite (low-fat) coconut milk and full-fat coconut milk: I only buy the Thai kitchen brand.
• Sweet potatoes, russet potatoes and gold potatoes: Although, I actually keep these stored in my fridge, as they last much longer.
• Onions: I actually like to chop up several onions and label them by gram weight, usually 1 cup (160g) and keep them in my freezer. This makes for easy quick dinner time.
• Garlic: I also mince garlic and keep it in my freezer.
• Lemons and limes: I keep these in the fridge to make them last longer.
• Capers
• Black olives

NUTS AND SEEDS

I have several nuts on a consistent basis. Whole almonds, slivered almonds, raw cashews, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, walnuts, hemp seeds, flaxseeds, toasted sesame seeds. Since I use them often, I keep most in the pantry, but the ones that I don’t go through too quickly, I will store in the fridge to keep them fresh longer.

The ones I keep in the fridge are pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, hemp seeds and sesame seeds.

SPICES

I keep a ton of spices on hand, so you do not need to keep all of these but just a good basic collection is great. Pick your favorites!

• Fine sea salt and black pepper
• Chili powder
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Coriander
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Cardamom
• Ground allspice
• Regular paprika
• Smoked paprika
• Cumin
• Oregano
• Basil
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Sage
• Marjoram
• Ground cloves
• Turmeric
• Yellow curry powder
• Red pepper flakes
• Ancho chile powder
• Chipotle chile powder

BAKING INGREDIENTS

While some of these ingredients I also use in savory dishes, they are mainly for my vegan baking recipes. Keeping these stocked year round will make for easy and quick desserts.

The flours in the large jars and red lid containers are the ones I use weekly and go through rather quickly. I like to buy several bags and fill up my jars to save space and not have to buy them as often. I’ve stored them in jars for years. All the bags and containers in the wooden containers on the bottom shelf are the extra flours I have that last a bit longer and ones I don’t typically use as often.

• Pure maple syrup
• Regular unsulphured molasses
• Vanilla extract
• Natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• Coconut sugar
• Brown rice flour
• White rice flour
• Oat flour
• Blanched almond flour: I like King Arthur, Honey, Wellbee’s, Nature’s Eats and the HEB brand is decent in Texas.
• Spelt whole grain flour
• Whole wheat pastry flour
• Regular all-purpose white flour
• Tapioca starch
• Cornstarch
• Potato starch
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate bars 69-70%: I like the Enjoy life brand, but also Sprouts and Trader Joes’s carry vegan brands, just always make sure to read the ingredients to make sure milk is not an added ingredient. Most dark chocolates do not have added milk.
• Unsweetened applesauce

FREEZABLE SAUCES

These are my homemade sauces that I use for recipes. They all freeze well. Just thaw them overnight in the fridge and stir/whisk well to a desirable consistency. The blending is only really necessary for sauces that use cashews.

• Pizza Sauce
• Teriyaki Sauce
• Mexican Tahini Sauce (reader fave!)
• BBQ Sauces: Texas Bbq sauce, 5 Minute Bbq sauce, Smoky Apple Bbq sauce, Bold Bbq sauce
• Red salsa
• Green salsa
• Lemon Ginger sauce

Now that you have everything you will need for you vegan pantry, check out my post on Easy Vegan Pantry Recipes to get started cooking right away!

I hope this guide on How to Stock a Vegan Pantry is helpful and makes meal prep easier. If you would like to see what some of my favorite kitchen tools and appliances I use, see my shop!