I cannot cook to save my life. Ok, let me rephrase that. I can, but I don’t enjoy it. Takes too much time and the food is gone in minutes. What’s the point!
What coronavirus did was magical. For someone who hates spending time in the kitchen, I managed to whip up a quite a few tasty treats under lock down, using ingredients I had lying around. There was a decadent chocolate cake, peanut butter cookies, salted tahina fudge, pizza, chicken meatballs in a cream sauce (using NO cream), and choco-nutty banana bread. Ok. We all made banana bread. And all of it was gluten free, refined sugar free AND dairy free. YESSS!
I realised I made all these dishes using five staple ingredients I always have in the kitchen. They are my grocery essentials, must-have ingredients. I use them for a variety of things. Like the gifts that keep on giving 😊
When we were all housebound many months ago, it was a huge learning experience for me on the world of grocery shopping. We had to apply for a permit to leave the house. So with that one opportunity to get out – which supermarket do you go to? Who has the best deals? Carrefour is good for staples but Spinneys has better produce. But Lets Organic has a wider range of options for all my organic favourites… it was all a mystery. One I did not enjoy!
Enter the world of online shopping. If there’s anything good that came out of 2020, it’s that I’ve been converted to online shopping. To be fair, suppliers like Kibsons have offered online grocery shopping for years but I’m the sort who needs to pick and feel my tomatoes before I buy them. Haha. Yep, I’m THAT person. Or I used to be. Coronavirus changed this about me – and I’m all the better for it!
Sure, it’s a bit more expensive than going to different stores and looking for deals. Though in reality, I’m happy to pay a bit of a premium for the convenience of getting things delivered straight to the house. Aren’t you?
Back to what’s on my list of grocery essentials:
Avocado
Hass avocados are my favourite. I’ve tried other brands but they’re usually a hit or a miss. Hass from the US or even Tanzania these days are perfect and flawless when ripe. Guacamole is a weekly hit at home along with lush chocolate cake like this.
Almond milk
The tastiest nut beverage if you don’t mind the nutty flavour. Apart from cake and cappuccinos (sometimes featuring a shot of Bailey’s!), I used it as a replacement for cream in a chicken meatball curry – and it was delicious. Just as good as real cream.
Cacao powder
Didn’t realise how essential this item would be until we were forced to stay indoors. I have a sweet tooth so we made lots of desserts, everything refined sugar free like this salted tahina fudge. Cacao is also a super-food and so, so good for you. Hot chocolate FTW!
Sweet potato
This is my favourite vegetable. Wait, is sweet potato considered a vegetable? Its super easy to make. Chop them, in the oven for 30 mins and they come out fluffy, sweet and delicious – perfect in salads or with a side of protein. They’re also super versatile, I’ve made brownies with them and gosh – YUM! Another revelation? Sliced thin sweet potato using a mandolin, some olive oil and sprinkle some pink sea salt – in the microwave for a couple of minutes and you’ve got crispy chips!
Quinoa
Another staple in my kitchen. I’ve always got a batch of quinoa ready in the fridge. It’s a good substitute for rice so we eat it all the time with dal, curries, and even use it as a salad base.
Where do you grocery shop in the UAE?
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DISCLAIMER: I did a recent shop from Shop Kitopi who kindly gave us some store credit. Shop Kitopi is a new full-service online grocery store that delivers to the house in less than 90 minutes. It covers all of Dubai and the best bit is you can shop by lifestyle preference e.g. keto, paleo, gluten free, vegan etc.
Use the code SheSaid25 to get AED25 off your first order, on a minimum spend of AED100.