LIFESTYLE

Pantry hacks you need to extend the life of your food

12 August, 2023 . 0

Make ingredients last longer, reduce food waste and spend less time cooking with these clever pantry storage tips.

Let’s face it – many of us do not find joy in our kitchens.

Still, we step up to meet the challenges of constantly replenishing the pantry and getting meals on the table.

But these tips from cookbook author Lucy Tweed could help lessen the load and save you time and money.

Storing dry goods in jars keeps them fresh, plus it means basics like flour, sugar and rice all get topped up before they run out because you can see them.
Use round sticky dots or a black marker to label the top of your spice jars. I store mine in a big Tupperware container and this saves me from the intensely irritating lift-and-search method.
Cool, dark and dry, the pantry is the favoured place for onions, garlic and spuds. Remove any packaging and pop them in a cloth bag or basket.

Think about the journey produce has been on to get to your fridge. We all need a soak and a big drink after a long trip and vegies are no different.
Storing your herbs properly can mean the difference between three and eight days of freshness. Rinse and wrap them in paper towel, put them in a snap-lock bag or airtight container and toss them back in the fridge.
Trimming and washing lettuce before you pack it away is both a time-saver and an extender.

Noodles

When herbs do start to lose their vibrancy, pick the leaves and discard any that have decayed. Blend the rest with olive oil and store in a jar in the fridge, or freeze in ice-cube trays. What you have now is the perfect flavour hit for pastas and soups or to stir through mayo for a great sambo condiment.
Make enough salad dressing for a week, store it in a jar and splash it liberally when needed.
Don’t discard pickle juice and olive brine. Just top them up with veg offcuts or add them to a martini.
For ultra-crisp carrots, celery and radish, store them in a container in the fridge with a puddle of water.

When ordering takeaway, buy a second container of steamed rice for the freezer. That’s half a meal done on time-poor nights.
Save your stale bread. Trim off dry crusts, tear the bread into chunks and freeze it. When you need a crispy crouton, just toss with oil and salt and bake until golden.
Make double of anything that you can freeze: ragu, soup, gnocchi, dumplings.
Don’t be a freezer elitist. Having back-up frozen veg can change a last-minute dinner from boring and beige to a jazzy little festival of food.

If you’ve made more filling for wontons or dumplings than you can deal with, any excess makes a great midweek stir-fry – it’s already seasoned and full of great things.
A stale loaf of bread can be revived by wetting it thoroughly under cool running water, then placing it into a preheated oven at 200C for 15 minutes or until crispy, fresh and bouncy. It’s like magic.
You can also use up stale bread by breaking it into chunks then blending it in a food processor to form fine crumbs – perfect to use later in pangrattato, as a lasagne topping or for general breadcrumbing.
Blend leftover roast vegetables with tinned tomatoes for the ultimate pizza sauce or with stock and cream for a velvety soup.

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