What to Make with All That Quarantine Pasta You Bought (or Whatever Else Is In Your Pantry)
Our favorite Insta accounts with quick, easy recipes to cook at home right now.
26 March, 2020
Food
10 November, 2021
You stocked up on enough shelf-stable goods to last you a lifetime, but in the midst of your panic shopping, you failed to think about what you could actually make with these items. You're not alone. Very few of us considered what recipes we might use to make something edible with our enormous stash of pantry goods...until it came time to use our provisions. What does one do with an epic amount of lentils, canned tomatoes, and pasta? If you’ve been opening your pantry and staring hopelessly, praying that some sort of magic happens and recipe ideas start blooming, we’re here to help. Here, our favorite food-filled accounts to follow right now for quick, easy, and most important, delicious recipes to make right now.
Food writer and chef Colu Henry started the brilliant Instagram hashtag #otherpeoplesmeals, where people can show off their kitchen creations and hopefully inspire others in the kitchen right now. She’s been sharing and reposting lots of those creations on her own account, as well as her own hearty recipes, like Roasted Tomato and White Bean Stew or Pasta e Ceci.
Chef and food writer Samin Nosrat, of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat fame, has created a new pop-up podcast called Home Cooking in response to the current age of self-distancing and quarantine. The podcast, made in collaboration with Hrishikesh Hirway, is slated to go live in the next few days. In the meantime, you can submit your home cooking questions for the podcast by sending a voice memo to alittlehomecooking@gmail.com.
If by any chance you don’t already follow Ina Garten, now is the time to start. Everyone’s favorite cooking queen posted on her Insta: “Over the next days and weeks, I’ll post lots of ideas for delicious things to make from your pantry and fridge—along with substitutions if you only have granulated sugar and not brown sugar, or onions and not shallots! Please stay safe and we will take care of each other through this crisis. Tell me what’s in your pantry and I’ll think of recipes for you to make!” Her first pantry post was a tasty-looking Broccoli and Bow-Tie Pasta dish, and we are here for it. More, please!
It might seem easier to stuff your face with carb-heavy meals right now, but Nicole Berrie of Bonberi makes us feel differently. From healthy recipes, like lemony dill wild rice with garbanzo beans and Persian cucumber, to tips on how to soak legumes, her Insta is full of delicious inspo.
Deb Perelman’s website, Smitten Kitchen, and her accompanying Instagram account are a perennial favorite for flavorful, super-tasty but also not-too-complicated dishes. She has 66 bean recipes on her site, and she’s helped us out by curating some of her favorites in her Instagram highlights with a tab called “Pantry Meals.” We’re going to go ahead and bookmark just about all of them.
Alison Cayne’s all-day café and cooking school in NYC, Haven’s Kitchen, is temporarily closed, but she’s posting some great, super-simple recipes right on their Instagram account. (The kind you can whip up in between Zoom conference calls and playtime with the kids.) From turkey chili to carrot-ginger-turmeric soup, there’s lots to pick from.
If you’ve got the baking bug, Jessie Sheehan (author of The Vintage Baker and co-author of Icebox Cakes) has you covered with her sweet treats. She just posted her one-bowl chocolate-chip cookie recipe to her Instagram, and it looks epic. We’re bookmarking that one and filing it under “bake ASAP.”
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Want more stories like this?
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How to Let Go of Food Anxiety Once and for All
What to Eat—and Drink—in the Bath