A cupboard that can actually feed you

It is half past six, the fridge holds a tired courgette and half a lemon, and the idea of driving to the supermarket is unbearable. This is where a well-stocked cupboard earns its keep. Tinned beans, dried pasta, a bag of rice, a few spices and a couple of tins of tomatoes will make a genuinely satisfying dinner in the time it takes to boil water. No shopping trip, no waste, no takeaway.

The trick is not to build an enormous pantry. It is to keep a small, reliable set of things you actually like eating, and to learn three or four loose formulas that bend around whatever is in the fridge. Here is how I do it midweek.

The staples worth keeping in

These deserve a permanent spot on the shelf. Buy them when they are on offer rather than when you desperately need them.

• Beans and pulses: chickpeas, butter beans, cannellini, haricot, plus a couple of tins of green lentils.
• Tomatoes: chopped tomatoes, passata, and a tube of tomato purée that keeps for weeks in the fridge.
• Pasta and grains: dried pasta (penne or rigatoni hold sauce well), long-grain or basmati rice, and a bag of couscous.
• Aromatics: onions, garlic and a piece of ginger, all of which keep far longer than people expect.
• Spices: cumin, smoked paprika, chilli flakes, ground coriander, curry powder or garam masala, dried oregano.
• Flavour boosters: olive oil, a jar of anchovies or a tin of tuna, vegetable stock cubes, soy sauce, lemon juice and a hard cheese for grating.
• The freezer drawer: frozen peas, spinach and sliced peppers do the work of fresh vegetables without the guilt.

Tinned beans: the quickest protein you own

Drained and rinsed, a tin of beans is dinner in under twenty minutes. They thicken sauces, take on spice beautifully, and cost far less than a chicken breast.

Warm a good glug of olive oil in a deep pan, soften a chopped onion for five minutes, then add two crushed garlic cloves, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes and a drained tin of butter beans. Simmer for ten minutes, mashing a few beans against the side of the pan so the sauce thickens. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and plenty of black pepper, and serve with rice, toast or a microwave-baked potato.

Swap the butter beans for chickpeas and add a handful of frozen spinach for a curry-ish supper that works over rice with a spoonful of yoghurt. The same base with cannellini beans and a splash of stock becomes a quick soup once you blitz it with a stick blender.

Pasta that doesn't need a jar of sauce

Dried pasta is the fastest route from cupboard to table. The water is already boiling while you decide what goes with it, and almost anything savoury will work.

Garlic, chilli and breadcrumb pasta: while the pasta cooks, gently fry three sliced garlic cloves and a pinch of chilli flakes in olive oil. Add a handful of stale bread whizzed into crumbs, or a couple of slices torn small, and fry until golden and crisp. Drain the pasta, keeping a mugful of the cooking water, then toss everything together with a squeeze of lemon and grated cheese, loosening with the pasta water until it coats properly.

Store-cupboard puttanesca: anchovies, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a handful of olives and a pinch of dried oregano, simmered for ten minutes. It tastes far more expensive than it is.

• Frozen peas stirred in for the last two minutes add colour and bulk.
• A tin of tuna flaked through at the end turns it into a fuller meal.
• Toasted nuts or a spoonful of pesto from the fridge door are easy upgrades.

Spices, rice and a bag of frozen peas

Rice and spices will carry whatever vegetables you have, which makes this the meal to cook on a Thursday when the fridge needs clearing. Cook a mug of rice, then fry a chopped onion and any tired vegetables cut small — courgette, pepper, carrot, cabbage, mushrooms — in oil until they are properly browned rather than merely soft. Add garlic, ginger and a teaspoon each of cumin and ground coriander, and cook for another minute until fragrant.

Stir the rice through with a handful of frozen peas, a splash of soy sauce and a beaten egg if you have one, cooking until everything is piping hot. Finish with lemon, spring onions or coriander. It is a forgiving formula: nearly any combination works, and it is a good home for that lonely pepper languishing in the drawer.

Squeeze the last from the shelf

A store-cupboard habit is really a waste-reduction habit. A few small routines make the difference between a shelf you trust and one that quietly expires at the back.

• Keep a running list on the fridge of what you have used up, and restock on the weekly shop rather than as an emergency.
• Date new tins with a marker and move older ones to the front of the shelf.
• Freeze leftover herbs in oil in an ice cube tray, and save bread crusts for breadcrumbs.
• Drop vegetable trimmings, wilting herbs and cheese rinds into a stock bag in the freezer.
• Batch-cook a bean stew or a tomato sauce at the weekend and portion it for two weeknights.

None of this is complicated and none of it demands a special trip. It simply means that when six o'clock arrives and the day has been long, dinner is already waiting on the shelf.