Prioritize Your Pantry – How To Clean, Organize and Fill Your Kitchen Pantry

By: Barb Biagioli

When you’re trying to plan ahead, minimize shopping trips, make supplies last, and do as much as you can with as little as possible, there’s one project that should be at the top of your spring cleaning list, overhauling your pantry. It’s time to clear out those cabinets, dig through the snack drawer, and restructure your shelves to build a well-stocked and well-organized pantry.

One of the best things you can do for your health is to create a pantry that supports healthy meals – one that is organized and clean, and filled with plant-based foods. With a bit of extra time in the house, give your pantry a makeover and give yourself an advantage in the kitchen.

 Here are our tips and tricks for a pantry that will improve your eating habits, meal plan, and your health.

 6 Steps for Plant-Based Pantry Overhaul

 1.    Toss

 First things first. Out with the old and in with the new. Start by taking everything out of your pantry. Yes, everything. There will probably be a few items collecting dust, growing mold, or way past their expiration. Check every item for an expiration date, and if it has expired, toss it out. If the date is nearing expiration, make sure that it is placed in the front of your pantry to ensure that it is used first.

 2.    Un-Process

 It’s time to get back to the basics. Focus your pantry on dried good staples like beans and grains, nuts and pastas – foods that you can make a real meal out of. Here is where you give your pantry (and your health) the makeover it deserves. Pay attention to food labels and check your items for ingredients. For each item, use this quick (by no means comprehensive) checklist:

• Does it include an ingredient you can’t pronounce? Throw it out.

• Does it have more than 5 ingredients? Throw it out.

• Does it have added sugars? Throw it out.

Ideally, the majority of foods in your pantry should only contain a few ingredients, so do your best to minimize your stock of packaged and boxed foods that contain empty calories that lack nutritional value. Products that contain high levels of sodium, added sugars, chemicals and toxins, artificial ingredients, and natural flavors (which, are not natural at all), can wreck havoc on your health. So go ahead and purge those from your pantry.

 3.    Store

How you store your pantry products can make a big difference in your success. Mason Jars, Le Parfait and Weck are a great way to store your dry goods. These transparent containers allow you to see exactly what, and how much, you have. These storage options are ideal for organizing your nuts, seeds, grains, beans, legumes, pasta, flours, oats – and any other food that you would purchase loose or in bulk. These jars will keep your pantry items fresh and are also aesthetically pleasing – they look great and are appealing to the organizationally inclined eye. 

4.    Organize

 Depending on the set up of your pantry – you may have shelves or compartments, drawers or bins – it is often easiest to arrange your pantry items by product. For example, in my pantry, I organize my shelves as follows:

Top Shelf

These are items I use regularly. I keep them right on the top at eye level so that they are accessible.

Ex. nut + seeds, nut butters, oils (coconut and olive), apple cider vinegar, tahini

Second Shelf

These are items I also use often for dinner and meal planning. Ex. black beans, lentils, oats, chickpeas, navy beans, quinoa, brown rice

Third Shelf

Teas + Sweeteners Ex. ginger tea, red leaf tea, loose leaf teas, maple syrup and honey

Fourth Shelf

This shelf hosts baking items, which are used less. Ex. spelt and oat flours, coconut sugar, dark chocolate, buckwheat flour

Bottom Shelf

These items are primarily canned goods and pasta related. Ex. boxed pasta, canned tomatoes, coconut milk, vegetable stock

 This is not necessarily an exhaustive list, but these are the pantry staples that should be refilled when they run out. Your pantry may look different than this, but the idea is to organize your pantry so that it is reflective of your frequency of use and accessibility.

 5.    Restock

 Now that the pantry shelves have been cleaned out, lets restock those shelves! Remember, you want to stock items that are as fresh as possible and/or with minimal ingredients. Some basic essentials to keep on hand include: a variety of whole grains, different kinds of beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, pasta, seeds, nuts and nut butters, oils, vinegar. Preferably, it is best to choose dry beans – soak them and cook on your own. While that is not always possible, it may be convenient to have a backup of canned beans. Just make sure that any canned goods are organic and BPA free.

 6.    Track

 Wahoo! Your pantry is now organized and stocked with healthy essentials that are great for snacks or putting together a healthy robust meal.  Now, to ensure that you keep things stocked, make sure you track your inventory – keep a notepad or piece of paper in your kitchen somewhere and record when certain items are getting low throughout the week. You can bring this piece of paper with you to your next grocery run so you will know what to fill up on.  This will ensure that everything is always up to stock and you won’t have to run out to the store at the last minute.

10 Plant-Based Pantry Staples

 We’ve covered the basics on how to stock your pantry. Keeping a well stocked plant-based pantry leads to healthier snacking and more turnkey meal planning. It saves you time, effort and it is budget friendly. Avoid the junk food by keeping these organic plant-based staples on hand – ensuring easy, delicious and nutrient dense meals just minutes away.

 1.    Beans

 Load up on all varieties of beans – these are a great source of plant-based protein – perfect for salads, chilis, soups, buddha bowls, tacos, and stuffed peppers.

 2.    Pasta

 An easy weeknight meal on a whim, pasta is definitely essential for your pantry. With a variety of different kinds to choose from – brown rice, chickpea, lentil – you can whip up a healthy meal by adding a can of diced tomatoes, onion, and garlic with fresh or frozen veggies. Or try this vegan pantry pasta! 

3.    Tomatoes

 You can cook up a quick sauce for dinner using whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes. Versatile in nature, tomatoes can be used to make veggie Bolognese, simple marinara, soups or chilis.

 4.    Olive Oil + Coconut Oil

 No pantry is complete without coconut oil or olive oil. Use the coconut oil for roasting up veggies and the olive oil for making simple salad dressings at home.

 5.    Grains

 From quinoa, wild rice, farro, to buckwheat, a big batch of grains is easy to cook up for the week and incorporate into nourish bowls, curry and stir-fries, salads, or sides.

 6.    Seeds

 Chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds – three seeds I keep on hand at all times. Perfect on oatmeal, in overnight oats, in pudding, and smoothies. Other seeds may include pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame to name a few.

 7.    Nuts

Walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, pecans – I use these to make homemade nut milks, and cheeses (like cashew queso), and for added crunch on salads and Buddha bowls.

 8.    Nut Butter

 The perfect sweet and savory pantry snack! Perfect paired with an apple or a banana, and can be added to oatmeal, overnight oats, waffles, pancakes, and muffins among other breakfast foods.

 9.    Vegetable Broth

While preferably made at home from kitchen scraps, keeping a few cartons of organic vegetable stock or broth in your pantry can be really helpful for steaming veggies, cooking stir-fries, and throwing together last-minute soups.

 10. Popcorn

 We’re not merciless, we know you need some snacks, an can be hard to figure out a healthy plant-based snack that isn’t a whole fruit or veggie! And while those are always the perfect snack, popcorn is also a great option if you are looking for something crunchy to fill the need of the salty, sweet or savory snack craving. Best air-popped with coconut oil and sea salt, popcorn is a tasty, belly-filling fiber-based snack.

You are officially pantry project-ready. To ensure that you keep your pantry clean and organized – use the time following each grocery haul – to get yourself organized by putting away all pantry items in their proper place. Keep your pantry inventory list and refill with foods as needed. Keeping tabs on your pantry will make for easier weeknight meals, reduce waste, and improve your health.

 Here’s to health and happy pantry cleaning! 

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