The Ten Ingredients You’ll Always Find On My Lazy Susan

The Lazy Susan is my sidekick in the kitchen. I consider her my little Sous Chef who hands me the things I need when I need them stat. I’m truly convinced that without my far-from-lazy Sue, no cooking would happen in the kitchen. If all my vinegars, oils, and salts resided deep within my kitchen cabinets, I’d never reach for them and my oven would collect cobwebs. I would be relegated to eating toasts with a smattering of random condiments and vegetables.

Thankfully, I do have a Lazy Susan by my side and she’s stocked with my most frequently used cooking products. To avoid overcrowding your countertop, I recommend keeping only what you really use on a regular daily/weekly/monthly basis and keeping the rest in an easily accessible pantry shelf.

In no particular order of importance, here are the top ten items you’ll always find on my Lazy Susan:  

1. Olive Oil. I keep regular olive oil in a fun squeeze bottle and use it for general sautéing/cooking. No need to waste your good stuff here.

2. Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I keep a large bottle of California Olive Oil on deck for finishing salads with hearty glugs. I also use this guy lots in baking (e.g. in my favorite olive oil cake).

3. Kosher Salt. Before I became more nimble in the kitchen, I shockingly used table salt, kosher salt, and even Maldon salt interchangeably. Fast forward to today, where I now understand that kosher salt is for cooking and baking (sea salt works too, it’s just a bit pricier), Maldon salt is for finishing (i.e. salads and cookies), and table salt is for the trash. My brand of choice is Diamond Crystal, as that’s what all the chefs seem to love the most. Morton also works too but it’s saltier than its Diamond counterpart (one teaspoon of Morton’s is the equivalent of two teaspoons of Diamond Crystal).  

4. Coconut Oil. I slather coconut oil on sweet potatoes and butternut squash, and also fold it into my favorite tortilla recipe. P.S. If you like your coconut oil extra coconutty in flavor, make sure to buy unrefined over refined.

5. Balsamic Vinegar. I keep a nice big bottle of Balsamic Vinegar on hand, and mostly use it uncreatively on salads. If I’m too lazy to make my go-to vinaigrette, balsamic comes to the rescue along with a nice glug of extra-virgin olive oil.

6. White Wine Vinegar. I use this as the base in salad dressings, and also as a nifty substitute for white wine in recipes that call for it (since I’m not much of a white wine drinker). White wine hack: if a recipe calls for 1/2 cup of white wine, sub it out with 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup water.

7. Red Pepper Flakes. Big shocker. I sprinkle on top of fried eggs, pizza, pasta, roasted vegetables, and soups and stews. As a member of the GERD club (aka acid reflux/high five if you used to pop Tums like candy), red pepper flakes are really as far as I’ll go in the spice department. Not that I don’t like spicy food. I wish I could spoon Chile Crisp over everything like all the cool kids do.

8. Soy Sauce. I’m not terribly fancy or original with my brand of Kikkoman soy sauce, but it gets the job done. I use Kikkoman to sauté mushrooms and toss into the occasional veggie stir fry for a fun, reliable flavor boost.

9. Cinnamon. I keep cinnamon on deck at all times for baking purposes, but mostly for making industrial-sized amounts of granola. The granola recipe I’ve landed on for life is taken from Carla Lailli Music’s cookbook which was taken from Nekisia Davis of Early Bird Granola.  

10. Cumin. Cumin always seems to find its way into so very many dinner recipes I prepare. I sprinkle it on roasted carrots and use it to season stews. Spoiler alert! I’m going to use two teaspoons of it in tonight’s Indian Butter Chickpeas recipe, which I’ve made too many times to count this winter.