The $20/$20 Challenge: Radhi’s India Inspired Vegetarian Pantry

Another $20/$20 Challenge submission that I love. So much spice envy! I love seeing so many different food types that I don’t typically stock in my own pantry. Gives me so many fun new ingredient ideas. Here’s her story:

Hi Mavis,

I am Radha and I live in Seattle, WA with my husband and 2 kids. Both of my kids were born here in Seattle but I and my husband are originally from India. I have been reading your blog for last one year and find the myriad topics you cover very interesting. Your pantry challenge reminds me of an interesting story I learned about how my mother, organized her spice rack. During one of my trips back home, I wanted to prepare something and kept asking my mother about where some of the spices were. My mother gave in and told me that spices were all organized in alphabet order (all these years and I had no idea) and she meant Hindi (our mother tongue) alphabet order. Since my mother was a university professor, we all laughed and made fun of her. But I did not have any issues finding spices in her kitchen after that.

Coming to my pantry, I don’t organize my pantry in alphabet order. Being an engineer, I try to organize my pantry to minimize my movement during cooking. Spices, grains, oils I use the most are right next to the stove. Here you see a picture of my most used spices in a pull out drawer. For storing spices, I reuse empty salsa, jam, coffee glass jars. I avoid plastic containers for storing spices. I also line the bottom with newspapers which I like to change every 6 months – looking at the date on newspaper I know how long it has been since I last changed them.

Below are pictures of main pantry space and some detailed pictures of the individual drawers. At eye level I stock ingredients I use the most. Higher spaces contain replenishment stock for spices, grains or legumes.I keep one eye level drawer to stock ingredients that have been in pantry for some time and should be used quickly.I also use some smaller cabinet space for storing different grains/sugar {3 steel containers store brown rice, basmati rice and wheat flour – 3 main pillars of my cooking} and pasta/noodles etc.I grew up in a vegetarian family and at home, I cook only vegetarian food for my family. Here are some picture of my fridge and freezers. Mainly leftovers in the fridge today. I love to make my own sauces, pickles, jams, chutneys which I store at the top level. I would love to start canning sometime in future. My freezer usually contains frozen vegetables, berries frozen from the last summer season, home made ice cream, nuts.I try to cook everything from scratch and maintain a blog in the memory of my mother. I love to try out vegetarian recipes from different cuisines. In a week, we probably cook and eat food from 3-4 different cuisines. I do some preparatory work/cooking in the morning before leaving for work so it is easier to get the dinner ready in the evening. We cook everyday and any leftovers are used to pack our lunch next day. While I would love to garden and grow my own food, between the full time job, kids, my love for outdoors, I have not been able to garden.

Main stores I shop at are Trader Joes, Costco, Indian or other ethnic store in the International district, Seattle. I maintain a list of things I am running out of on my phone to help with making a single trip to only one of these stores each week. I rotate between these stores from week to week. During summer months, I shop for produce at the local farmers market. I buy grains, legumes and beans in bulk as much as possible. I use cabinet space in my laundry area to store the extra stock. I don’t have as much stock now because I am in the middle of spring cleaning for my pantry.

For last 3 years, we have also been taking a trip to Yakima end of the summer to stock up on summer produce. I love to visit farms, talk to farmers and pick produce. It is lot of fun for my kids too. I end up preserving it by freezing or cooking sauces etc. Produce from last year’s summer trip lasted me almost 4 months.

Thanks for considering my entry.

Radha

Are you getting your pantries camera ready? You can participate in the $20/$20 Challenge by simply sending in pictures of your pantry. Find out more about the $20/$20 Challenge: Show Your Pantry – Fill a Pantry!