Summer days are long, yet somehow they always end with the same question: what to make for dinner? No one really wants to cook on the hottest days. Here is where a zero waste summer pantry stock-up list comes in handy.
As a homesteading, homeschooling parent with a home-based business and two young children, I know all about the struggle to put healthy, nourishing meals on the table every single day. On top of that, I aim for zero waste in my shopping and food preparation routine (and to be clear, I’m not perfect, but I keep trying). I’ve definitely got some tips to share.
I would love to help you get outside as much as possible this summer, spend more time with your family and friends, and adopt some zero waste habits into your routine. I’m hoping these tips can help you keep things simple and delicious throughout the full summer months. Here are my zero waste summer pantry stock up ideas.
Summer is a great time to stock a zero waste pantry
Have you been meaning to incorporate more zero waste habits into your life? Maybe you’ve tried to in the past, but felt discouraged and let them slide? Well, with Plastic Free July coming up, it’s the perfect time to hop on the zero waste train.
We spend more time at the beach, in the forest and gardens, and in natural spaces in general in the warmer months. The wildlife, bees, butterflies, and birds we encounter are all beautiful reminders of the fragility of our ecosystem. I don’t know about you, but appreciating these things only motivates me more to protect them, and reducing our consumption and waste plays a part.
Who wants to spend their summer days at the grocery store? If you have a well stocked pantry, you can shop less often and substitute trips to the farmer’s market, roadside farm stand, or your own kitchen garden to add fresh veggies, fruit, eggs, cheese, meat, and bread. There is so much more fresh package-free food available to us this time of year, which makes Summer the easiest time to support local and go zero waste.
Don’t forget your zero waste travel kit – it makes packing a picnic a breeze. I share my travel kit essentials in this post: Simple Tips for a Zero Waste Summer.
Zero Waste Pantry Staples
These are the package-free pantry staples I keep on hand all summer – and a few ideas for using them.
Grains, Beans & Legumes
Our family eats a lot of salads through the Summer. We’ll make a pot of pasta or cook a batch of chickpeas to use in quick, simple salads. To make a meal, we’ll combine them with veggies, fresh herbs, flavourful zesty things like olives or sundried tomatoes, feta or parmesan, and maybe some grilled sausage. This is the perfect potluck dish as well. For nutritional variety, try lentils, beans, chickpeas, couscous, or quinoa.
Looking for salad inspiration? Try Jen’s Chickpea and Black Bean Summer Salad or Roasted Beet Salad with Feta.
We love our Instant Pot! It allows us to cook large batches of beans or rice and then freeze them in portions. Buy the dried beans, grains, and legumes in bulk using your own jars or cloth bags to cut down on packaging and save a ton of money.
Don’t forget to add corn masa flour and pinto beans to your list for delicious fresh corn tortillas stuffed with refried beans, veg, cheese, and fresh cilantro. You can also make wheat tortillas for easy lunch wraps or burritos (they freeze well, too).
Zesty flavour enhancers
There are certain little extras I like to have in my fridge or pantry in the summer – they’re the flavour enhancers that can elevate a dish from basic to extraordinary.
At the beginning of summer, I buy a big glass jar of olives or fill my own container at the grocery store olive bar. I like kalamata olives with pits, and I use an olive/cherry pitter when the recipe calls for pitted. I add them to everything from pasta salad to grilled pizza to tapenade on crostada.
Other flavourful ingredients I like are marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, parmesan, and lemon juice. You can buy most of these in glass and get a wedge of parmesan cut to put in your own container at many deli counters.
Herbs & spices
You can buy spices in bulk and fill your own jars, or at the farmer’s market or grocery store in glass jars. I replenish my spice jars with favourites like chili powder, cumin, mustard powder, coriander, turmeric, chili flakes, peppercorns, and flavoured salts. These are great for meat rubs and marinades, egg salad, chicken salad, corn on the cob, popcorn, condiments – pretty much any recipe that could use a kick!
Fresh herbs are one of my favourite things about summer! I grow a wide variety of culinary herbs to use fresh and dry for the winter months. They are easy to grow and many are perennial, so I highly recommend you pick up some transplants and get them in the ground. Otherwise, you can buy them package free from the farmer’s market. Be sure to store them in a jar with water or hang them to dry to prevent waste.
Oil & vinegar
Another great way to mix up your salad routine is to have a variety of ingredients on hand to whip up homemade dressings. Almost every dressing begins with two basic ingredients: oil and vinegar!
Pick up some olive oil and maybe sesame or avocado oil, balsamic and apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar, and then go from there. You might add lemon juice, mustard, honey, mayonnaise, avocado, herbs, yogurt – you can go into a salad dressing rabbit hole on Pinterest if you’re interested.
When all else fails, you really can’t go wrong with a good quality balsamic & olive oil.
Baking staples
When that fresh summer fruit comes in from the garden or the local u-pick opens, you’ll want to be prepared to fold that seasonal goodness into your favourite muffin recipe or special dessert.
Be sure to stock your baking cupboard with full jars of all the essential bulk dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa, cornmeal – you get the picture. Summer is also a great time to get fresh farm eggs, which usually come in cardboard cartons (save them up and donate them to a farmer or use them as fire starters).
Preserve the season and avoid packaging
There’s SO much fresh delicious food available in the summer – it can be hard to keep up! Friend, that’s what freezers are for.
When strawberry season comes, why not pick a flat of berries and freeze them? (Here’s Jen’s guide to strawberry picking on the South Shore). If you don’t have time to make jam or want to avoid canning in the heat, use frozen fruit to make jam next season. You can use frozen berries in baking, smoothies, or preserves all year long and avoid packaging. To keep them from freezing in clumps, freeze them on a cookie sheet, then transfer to jars.
I think croutons are absolutely the best in salads, but I don’t like to turn the oven on after a long hot day. I like to bake bread or buy farmer’s market loaves (you can use day old bread for this too) and make a batch of croutons. Simply cube them, toss them in oil, salt and pepper, herbs if you like, and bake. Then you can freeze them to have on hand in the freezer for last minute salad toppings.
I like to put as many local veggies in my freezer or pantry shelves as possible when they’re available. After summer ends, it becomes much harder to find affordable and plastic-free produce. Cauliflower is a perfect example. Buy an extra one each market trip and cut up or rice it, then blanch and freeze. This goes for all your favourite veg.
Simple package-free Summer snacks
Here’s a little bonus. Snacks are absolutely essential for long summer days with kids. It is possible to keep things simple, plastic-free, and still exciting for your kids. My favourite snacks are the ones that offer many variations. Here are our summer go-to snacks:
- Homemade popcorn with different toppings: try butter, coconut oil, salt, spices, parmesan, maple syrup, nutritional yeast, etc.
- Smoothies: fresh fruit, yogurt or kombucha, and a handful of spinach
- Homemade popsicles: simply freeze leftover smoothie in popsicle moulds
- Hummus and veggies: make a double batch when you cook chickpeas
- Watermelon: When it doubt, a watermelon can turn any summer afternoon into an event.
What’s your favourite go-to summer meal or snack? Can you think of ways to make it plastic free?
Margaret Hoegg is a Simple Local Life Contributor. She is also a writer, entrepreneur, and sustainability advocate on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Margaret writes about local food, gardening, sustainability, and wellness at Living Locavore and can be found on Instagram @living.locavore.
