The Pakistani Pantry: A Shopping List for Beginners

If you’re setting up a kitchen to cook Pakistani food, whether you’ve just moved out, married into a new household or are living abroad, the number of ingredients can feel overwhelming. In practice, a fairly short list covers most everyday cooking. Here’s what to buy, in order of importance.

The essentials

These cover most daily salans, daals and sabzis.

Spices

• Salt
• Red chili powder
• Turmeric
• Coriander powder
• Cumin seeds
• Garam masala

Fresh staples (buy weekly)

• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Ginger and garlic (or homemade paste)
• Green chilies
• Fresh coriander
• Lemons

Dry staples

• Atta (whole-wheat flour) for roti
• Basmati rice
• Masoor daal (red lentils)
• Cooking oil, and ghee if you like it

With just these, you can cook masoor daal, chicken karahi, aloo gobi, roti and dozens of other dishes.

The second shop

Once the basics are in, add these to widen what you can cook:

• Whole spices: green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, black peppercorns
• More lentils: chana daal, moong daal, mash daal
• Beans: dried or tinned chickpeas, red kidney beans
• Yogurt, bought fresh or made at home
• Besan (gram flour) for pakoray and kadhi
• Kasuri methi and Kashmiri chili powder
• Chaat masala and ajwain

For desi Chinese and snacks

• Soy sauce, white vinegar, chili sauce, ketchup
• Cornflour
• Maida (plain white flour)

For sweets and drinks

• Sugar
• Suji (semolina)
• Vermicelli
• Full-fat milk powder (for gulab jamun and rasmalai)
• Almonds, pistachios and raisins
• Loose black tea, for chai
• Rooh Afza

Buying smart

Buy spices in small packets and replace them often; ground spices lose their aroma after a few months. Our spice guide explains how to store them.

Buy rice and atta in bigger bags if you cook often. They keep well in airtight containers and are cheaper in bulk.

Shop local for produce. In Pakistan, the weekly sabzi market or a trusted neighbourhood shop is usually cheaper and fresher than a supermarket.

Abroad, a South Asian grocery will have everything on this list, usually at better prices and in better quality than the international aisle of a supermarket.

Storage basics

• Keep spices in airtight jars away from the stove.
• Store rice, atta and lentils in sealed containers to keep out insects; a bay leaf in the jar is a traditional deterrent.
• Keep onions and potatoes in a cool, dark, airy place, but not together.
• Wrap fresh coriander in a damp paper towel in the fridge.

Your first week’s menu

To use up a starter pantry, try this: masoor daal and rice, chicken karahi with roti, aloo gobi, chana masala, and a weekend paratha breakfast. By the end of the week, you’ll know which ingredients you reach for most, and what to add next.