4 pantry dinners and what you still need to buy
Last updated October 5, 2026
A pantry dinner earns the name when it asks you to buy very little. Four Nourishible recipes are compared here on that basis: sausage and chickpea stew, shakshuka, sardine spaghetti, and braised tofu with rice. There are no prices, because what each costs depends on your shop and on what is already in your cupboard, especially the spices and sauces.
Which pantry dinner matches your cupboard?
Choose the dish whose full ingredient list overlaps most with your cupboard and fridge. A tin of sardines might suggest pasta, but that recipe also asks for wine, capers and butter. Check those before putting it ahead of a stew for which you already have nearly everything.
| Recipe | Cupboard backbone | Check before choosing | Useful overlap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sausage and chickpea stew | Tinned chickpeas, tinned tomatoes, cumin | Pork sausages, red onion, garlic, fresh chilli, spinach; olive oil and salt | Tomato tins, onion, garlic and cumin with shakshuka |
| Easy shakshuka | Tinned tomatoes, paprika, chilli powder, cumin | Eggs, onion, red pepper, garlic, coriander or parsley; olive oil, salt and pepper; optional bread | Tomato tins and seasonings with the stew |
| Lemon sardine spaghetti | Pasta, tinned sardines in olive oil, breadcrumbs | Capers, white wine, shallot, garlic, lemon, spinach, butter, parsley; extra olive oil, salt and pepper; optional chilli flakes | Spinach and garlic with the stew; parsley with shakshuka |
| Korean braised tofu with rice | Soy sauce, gochugaru, mirin, sesame oil, sugar; rice to serve | Tofu, garlic, green onion; frying oil and salt | Garlic with all three other dishes |
Open the chosen recipe for its quantities before deciding how many packs you need.
Sausage and chickpea stew
Spicy sausage and chickpea stew is the quickest of the four: one frying pan from onion to spinach, with 20 minutes listed on the page (it also calls that time and its four servings estimates). It suits a cupboard that already holds chickpeas and tomatoes, and anyone who wants meat in the pan. The fresh purchases are the sausages, the spinach, a red onion and a chilli; the chickpeas come from the cupboard. For more ways to use the same tin, see what to cook with chickpeas.
Shakshuka
If the cupboard has a large tin of tomatoes and a row of spices, easy shakshuka turns them into eggs in a sauce. Beyond the tomatoes you need six eggs, a red pepper, fresh herbs and three spices: paprika, chilli powder and cumin. The tin is a big one, a 28 oz can (about two 400 g tins), against the stew's single 400 g. Crusty bread is optional.
Sardine spaghetti
Choose this one only if you already have its extras, especially capers and white wine. Creamy lemon sardine spaghetti needs two pans, one for the pasta and one for the sauce, and it serves two, not four. The sauce is built on sardines, capers, lemon and wine, finished with butter and breadcrumbs. Despite the title, it contains no cream. Buying several new jars and bottles for one sauce changes the shopping sum.
Braised tofu and rice
Korean braised tofu is written as a side dish and states no serving count or total time. Its note says to serve it with rice, so rice goes on the list. It works if you already stock gochugaru, mirin, soy sauce and sesame oil; if those would all be new purchases, compare another recipe first. The tofu is pan-fried until golden, then simmered in that sauce until it reduces.
Cooking two of them in one week
The stew and the shakshuka share the most. Both are listed at four servings (the stew's page calls its servings an estimate), so they suit a household of four for one night each. This is what the two recipes ask for together:
| Ingredient | Stew | Shakshuka | Total needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 red onion | 1 large onion | 2 (1 red, 1 large) |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | 4 cloves | 6 cloves |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | 3 tbsp | 4 tbsp |
| Ground cumin | 1 tsp | 2 tsp | 3 tsp |
| Tinned tomatoes | 400 g tin | 28 oz can (about two 400 g tins) | a 400 g tin and a 28 oz can |
The stew also needs chickpeas, sausages, a chilli and spinach. The shakshuka needs eggs, a red pepper, paprika, chilli powder and herbs.
These are the amounts the recipes use, not the packs you buy. Subtract what is already in the cupboard, then price the missing whole packs at your own shop. Stew plus sardine pasta overlaps on spinach and garlic instead, but asks for a different set of cupboard extras.