7 Grocery List Items to Make Cooking a Breeze

The next time you find yourself in your local market; don’t forget to pick these grocery list items up! Some ingredients are a necessity to have in your pantry while others are just treats to fulfill our taste buds. Thanks to the staff at CGS, we’ve put together a list of 7 grocery items that can make cooking a breeze. Whoever told you cooking is difficult hasn’t cooked with these ingredients! Check out the article below and find out which items you should stock up on to help with cooking.

Grocery list items to make cooking a breeze

Garlic

Not only is garlic good for your heart, it adds flavor to almost anything (not desserts, obviously). You can buy garlic in whole cloves and cut them yourself, or you can buy a jar of minced garlic and use as needed. Garlic is a great way to flavor your dishes without loading on the salt. Use it when sautéing your veggies, cooking spaghetti sauce, or baking chicken.

Butter

Who doesn’t love butter? Butter is perfect for giving your food the flavor it needs! When cooking with butter, it prevents you from burning your food which can always be stressful when cooking a new dish. It also serves as a replacement for oil. Butter is a key element in cooking as well as baking. Butter is by far the preferred fat to use for nearly every preparation in the culinary arts.

Spinach

Spinach is awesome for so many reasons! This plant based food item is tender, leafy green that contains quite a lot of water. It requires very little to make, and can be great as a side dish or as the main entrée. Simply cook it in your favorite skillet and let the spinach cook itself.

In the beginning the volume of spinach will be overwhelming at first sight but don’t let that freak you out. As the spinach cooks, it begins to decrease in size, which lets you decided if you’d like to cook more or less. Spinach is very affordable and can be added to a variety of recipes.

Broth

Broth is great for cooking with, and cheap to purchase at your local grocery store. There are different flavors of broth which include chicken, beef, and vegetable to name a few. Broth also comes in different forms. There are liquid broths and then there are hard cubed broths called bouillons. If you’re making soup, this grocery item is the key to giving your soup the flavor it needs. Simply drop the bouillon in your pot of boiling water and the bouillon dissolves.  You can also use broth as the base for stews and to add flavor to meat.

Onions

Onions are one of those perfect vegetables that can be added to almost any dish for extra flavor and texture. Onions are found in countless recipes, including: enchiladas, spaghetti, omelets, stir-fry, and more. You can also use fresh onions to make the popular French onion soup. Onions are an ingredient that should always be available in your kitchen.

Milk

The next time you’re craving some soup, try adding milk as a base to give your soup some smoothness. Using milk as an ingredient makes soups creamier, sauces smoother, casseroles more moist, and desserts more delicious!

After all who doesn’t enjoy having a creamier, moister, flavor to your all-time favorite dish? Simply swap out water as your base for milk to give your dish the flavor it’s been looking for. There is no harm in making the swap because milk also gives you’re the body positive nutrients, and it comes in low-fat and soy options.

Olive and Other Oils

When you’re looking through your pantry and can’t seem to find exactly what you’re looking for to cook with, there is nothing wrong with resorting to olive oil. Not only is olive oil great for drizzling and dressing completed dishes and salads, it’s a great ingredient to get your sauté or bake some moisture.

There are several different varieties of olive oils, all of which may taste different and make slight changes to what you’re cooking. Olive oil types include Extra Virgin, Virgin, Pure, and Light. Keep in mind if you’re cooking with high heat to opt for an oil with a high smoke point. Oils such as canola, walnut, corn, soybean, peanut, and sesame oil are all very good when cooking meals that require high heat.

Related: 6 Spices that Come with Health Boosts

Using foods to help you cook are great and time saving. What types of items have you used that have made cooking easier for you? Do you think those items have also made your food tastes better? Share some of your favorite and go-to cooking ingredients in the comments section below!

-Taelor

The CGS Team