20 Pantry Staples Every Nepali Kitchen Should Have

With these 20 pantry staples in your Nepali kitchen, you can make dal bhat, a quick khaja or a meal for unexpected guests without running to the shop.

Older Nepali kitchens often had no fridge at all, yet they rarely seemed short of anything. The secret was a well-stocked store cupboard: everything in it kept for months, and from it you could put a full meal on the table at an hour's notice. Here is a modern version of that cupboard.

Grains and flours

1. Rice, the everyday kind, plus a small bag of basmati for guests.
2. Atta for roti and puri.
3. Chiura, for a no-cook snack with yoghurt or achar.
4. Besan, for pakoda, kadhi and binding.
5. Sooji, for halwa and upma.

Dal and pulses

1. Masoor dal, quick to cook and good every day.
2. Moong or rahar dal, for variety.
3. Chana and rajma, for weekends and festivals. Soak overnight.

All of these are in Dals & Pulses and Rice, Atta & Flour.

Oils and fats

1. Mustard oil, for achar, tarkari and that sharp flavour nothing else gives.
2. A neutral cooking oil, sunflower or soybean, for frying.
3. Ghee, for dal, festival cooking and sel roti.

Spices

1. Turmeric
2. Jeera, whole and ground
3. Dhaniya powder
4. Chilli powder and a few dried red chillies
5. Timur, the Nepali pepper that makes achar taste like home
6. Garam masala

Find them in powdered spices and whole spices.

The rest

1. Salt and sugar, and a little jaggery (sakhar) for winter.
2. Tea leaves, because nobody visits a Nepali home without being offered chiya.
3. Instant noodles, the emergency meal of every Nepali student and many adults too.

Nice to have

Once the basics are covered, these make everyday cooking easier: tomato ketchup and soya sauce for chowmein, a jar of achar, dry fruits for festivals, honey, peanut butter and a pack of biscuits for guests.

How to keep a pantry organised

• Use clear, airtight jars. You can see what is running low at a glance, and insects stay out.
• First in, first out. When you buy a new pack, put it behind the old one.
• Label anything you decant with the expiry date from the original pack.
• Restock before you run out. When a jar is a quarter full, add it to your next order.

Stocking a pantry from scratch is a big shop, and a heavy one. That is exactly the kind of order online delivery is good for: put it all in one cart, choose a delivery window and let someone else carry the 25 kg sack up the stairs.