The Perfect Pantry®

Recipe for vegan root vegetable soup

If you've been hanging around The Perfect Pantry for a while, you've heard me rail against recipes that require you to make twelve other things -- sauces, spice blends, stock -- in order to have the components for one recipe. So it wouldn't be fair to ask you to make an entire beef stew so you'll have leftover already-diced rutabaga, parsnips and carrots that won't quite fit into the stew pot, but which will fit quite nicely into your soup pot. (And it would be especially unfair if you don't eat meat!) This root vegetable soup, vegan and and gluten-free, carries its own sweetness; add some fruit and warm spices like cumin, coriander and garam masala, and whip everything together with your immersion blender. If you love cilantro, garnish individual servings with a few chopped leaves.

Recipe for Thai red curry tofu and broccoli with basmati rice

My husband Ted, more than three-and-a-half decades into our life together, still doesn't understand the very specific food cravings I get from time to time. I don't want chocolate; I want a Hershey's milk chocolate bar. Or shrimp salad, or Wheat Thins, or ice cold cantaloupe. (Am I the only one who craves?) At least a couple of times a month, I absolutely must have a quick-and-easy Thai curry. I can't explain it, and I never know when the craving will strike, so I make sure my pantry is always up to the task. With a tub of red curry paste in the refrigerator and cans of coconut milk in the cupboard, I toss in whatever protein and vegetables I have on hand, for color and texture. I make rice in the rice cooker, up to a few hours in advance, so this Thai red curry tofu and broccoli with basmati rice comes together in less than 30 minutes.

Recipe for farro with mushrooms, broccoli, almonds and feta

After years of feeding our vegetarian kids and grandkids every possible permutation of pasta-sauce-cheese, I've been mining the pantry for new ideas. A recently discovered package of farro, purchased ages ago at one of Providence's Italian markets, inspired a main course dish that pairs this nutty, chewy grain with earthy mushrooms, crisp broccoli, crunchy almonds and salty feta. It's an explosion of taste and texture that satisfies, as an entrée for vegetarians, or a side dish with roast turkey. You can buy instant farro at Trader Joe's; it cooks in ten minutes, but the texture isn't as chewy as the regular farro that takes only a few minutes longer. In the time it takes to cook the farro, prepare all the rest of the ingredients, so the whole dish comes together in less than half an hour.

Black olives (Recipe: vegan vinegar veggies)

First published in July 2006, this updated pantry ingredient post features new photos, links, and tweaks to the recipe. I've been making these veggies for more than twenty years, and I've never tired of the fresh flavor and crunch of lightly-cooked vegetables in a pan vinaigrette. All of the ingredients are available year-round, so you can bring color to the table even in mid-winter.

Kalamata, picholine, frantoio, arbequina, souri ... I've never met an olive I didn't want to take home, but good old black olives in a can are the only ones that merit a permanent place in my pantry.