20 Restaurant-Worthy Twists on Boring Pantry Staples
Fancy Eats for Hard Times
If you're getting tired of the same old dishes you've been making from your pared-down pandemic pantry, good news: it's easy to switch things up without going out and buying a bunch of new ingredients. Instead of muffins, you could be making chocolate croissants. Instead of scrambled eggs, you could be making a frittata. Here are a few recipes to get you started.
Related: 30 Cheap and Easy Recipes From Canned Foods
Frittata
Move over, scrambled eggs. In Italy, frittatas serve as lunch or dinner when served at room temperature with a side salad. They also make a wonderful breakfast and are endlessly customizable.
Recipe: Epicurious
Scotch Egg
To make breakfast feel like brunch at a fancy London restaurant, make these Scotch eggs using eggs, cornflakes, breakfast sausage, and more. This is all your favorite breakfast foods expertly packaged into one tasty morsel that's also photo-worthy.
Recipe: Bon Appétit
Pain Au Chocolat
With flour, butter, and baking chocolate, you could make ho-hum muffins or brownie. Or, you could pull out the stops and make pain au chocolat. We recommend the latter, if you have a little more time and patience to make a delectable treat.
Recipe: Sally's Baking Addiction
Homemade Ravioli
Serving store-bought ravioli for dinner is delicious. Serving homemade four-cheese ravioli for dinner is delicious and impressive. No one will know the major ingredients are flour, eggs, and cheese.
Recipe: AllRecipes
Chicken Kiev
Chicken Kiev sounds like something you'd eat if you were a character on "Mad Men" but it's really just a delicious, elegant take on chicken breast. Plus, this recipe makes it incredibly simple to prepare using things you already have in your pantry.
Recipe: Natasha's Kitchen
Related: 25 Betty Crocker-Era Recipes That We Secretly Love
Boeuf Bourguignon
Julia Child changed American food culture with her boeuf bourguignon. If you've never made it, you may not know that it's basically just a French beef stew. The recipe is incredibly forgiving, and website Café Delite offers several ways to prepare it, including an instant pot version. Get out your beef, bacon, and red wine!
Recipe: Café Delites
Crispy Rice and Herb Salad with Scallops
Zhuzh up your weekday rice game by making this crispy rice and herb salad with scallops. The crunchy texture of the rice completely elevates what's otherwise a simple dish.
Recipe: LA Times
Poulet à la Crème
Poulet à la Crème is French for "chicken in cream sauce." This recipe from acclaimed chef Jacques Pepin is simple enough to make for weeknight dinner, but also perfect for date night and special occasions.
Recipe: KQED
Steak Diane
For a taste of retro gourmet, make Steak Diane, a pounded steak with a savory cream sauce. Serve with a martini and make sure to have Frank Sinatra playing.
Recipe: Simply Recipes
Spanakopita
Spanakopita is a savory Greek pie with spinach and salty feta cheese. With all that spinach, you could even argue that spanakopita is healthy.
Recipe: Delish
Aioli
When you realize how easy it is to make mayonnaise, you'll wonder why you ever bought it. This garlic mayonnaise (also known as aioli) is wonderful with potatoes, roasted broccoli, or on burgers. All you need is eggs, oil, garlic, and a couple of other pantry staples.
Recipe: Simply Whisked
Related: 24 Condiments From Around the World to Add Zing to Any Meal
Bechamel Sauce
Gourmet dishes are often pretty similar to our favorite weeknight go-tos, just with a few nice touches. Bechamel, one of the classic French sauces, can easily be dressed up into a pasta sauce or made into a lovely mac and cheese. Butter, flour, and milk have never been so tasty together.
Recipe: Epicurious
Soufflé
A soufflé merely takes flour, eggs, milk, and a few other pantry staples. It's gotten a reputation for being hard to make, but it's more that it's hard to perfect — and you really don't need to get it right the first time. A less-than-perfect soufflé is still delicious.
Recipe: Egg Farmers of Canada
Homemade Gravlax
It turns out that making your own cured salmon at home is rather simple with salt, sugar, and some spices. Thanks to this straightforward recipe (with photos), you'll be making your own in no time.
Recipe: The Spruce Eats
Tahdig
Tahdig is a traditional Persian New Year's dish and means "the bottom of the pot." It's crunchy, crispy, irresistible rice. You can get fancy with toppings, but this basic recipe only requires three ingredients — rice, oil, and salt. Your weeknight rice just got a major upgrade.
Recipe: Splendid Table
Berry Galette
A galette sounds much fancier than a pie. The chef secret is that it's also much easier and the crust is a pretty simple mix of flour and butter. This berry galette recipe works with any berries you have, a plus when you can't easily run out to the grocery store.
Recipe: Bon Appétit
Related: 25 Simple Depression-Era Desserts That Actually Are Indulgent
Victoria Sponge Cake
If you've been binging The Great British Baking Show, you may have started craving Victoria sponge, the traditional British layer cake. Make it yourself and feel free to substitute in your favorite flavor of jam.
Recipe: New York Times
Panna Cotta
Whether you're more of a fruit dessert person or a chocolate dessert person, panna cotta is the answer. Top it with berries, caramel, chocolate, all three, or whatever else you want. Grab that milk, sugar, and gelatin!
Recipe: Pretty Simple Sweet
Baklava
You could have ice cream for dessert for the third time this week. Or, you could make baklava, which is just flaky phyllo dough with sweet spiced nuts inside. Serve with Turkish Coffee for an extra treat.
Recipe: Fifteen Spatulas
Easy Baked Alaska
Why settle for ice cream when you could have baked Alaska instead? You probably already have most of the ingredients around, especially if you have a few kinds of ice cream in your fridge.
Recipe: Spend with Pennies
