These products keep for 2 weeks when refrigerated

You bought all the ingredients for a delicious meal tonight, only for that hot date to suddenly ask you out to dinner. Or all your friends are sick, just when you were planning to cook a three-course meal for them. Throwing food away is obviously not an option, so you’d better stock up on things that keep for a long time.

If you always have a few of these products in the fridge, you can always make a delicious meal without worrying that everything will go to waste if you end up eating out. Everything on this list keeps for at least two weeks.

Citrus

I always buy lemons in nets of ten because they seem to keep forever, and there’s nothing worse than a house without lemons. Almost any dish can use a few drops of juice or some grated zest. They’ll definitely last two weeks, but I’ve also eaten lemons I bought a month earlier. The same goes for limes and oranges.

Carrots

Sauces and stocks would be nowhere without the humble carrot. No inspiration for tonight? A quick carrot soup could save the day. They’ll easily keep for a few weeks in the fridge, and you can also make a delicious carrot salad or roast them in the oven with some garlic and thyme.

Cabbage

Eat it as coleslaw, stir it into your nasi goreng, blanch it and dip it in soy sauce, make cabbage rolls filled with ground meat—or add even more cabbage. I eat cabbage by the truckload, but sometimes feel like I’m the only one. Pick up a head today; I don’t care whether it’s pointed, red, Chinese or green cabbage. You have another two weeks to figure out what you’re going to make with it.

Ginger

You can never have enough ginger at home. At least I can’t, because I cook Asian food almost all the time. Add a little garlic and ginger to your pak choi or spinach and you instantly have a delicious side dish. Or simply cut it into pieces and settle onto the sofa with a large mug of ginger tea.

Tofu

Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to get the entire world to eat tofu all by myself. Still often in vain, but to spread the word I always keep several varieties in my fridge. That way I can whip up an amazing tofu meal at any moment to convince everyone. You can read my longer plea for tofu here.

Butter

A fridge isn’t complete without butter. How else are you supposed to bake cookies, cake or a steak? What else are you going to spread on your sandwich underneath a few delicious slices of cheese? How else will you make sage butter to eat with your ravioli? If you have the answer, I’d love to hear it, but until then I make sure I always have at least two packs of butter in my fridge.

Bacon

For your weekend egg or mixed into your roasted Brussels sprouts. Bacon turns every meal into a greasy celebration. Unopened bacon keeps for a few weeks in the fridge; once you’ve opened it, you should eat it within a few days.

Eggs

A life without eggs is a life without meringues, cake and custard. Pretty damn awful, then. A fried egg can instantly turn a bowl of rice into a meal, and not a weekend goes by without me eating a soft-yolked boiled egg on a slice of toast. You need nothing more than a little coarse sea salt for ultimate happiness.

Yogurt

Yogurt sauce makes everything better. Well, almost everything. Mix Greek yogurt with garlic, salt and fresh herbs and you have the ideal sauce for pita with falafel, fried chicken, roasted eggplant or a herb omelet. Stir in a spoonful of mustard and eat it with salmon cakes. Or let it drain overnight until you have quark, add some warm fruit with sugar and you have a dessert everyone loves.

Hard cheese

Imagine making pasta and realizing you have no Parmesan in the house. Luckily, all hard cheeses will keep for a few weeks in the fridge. This also includes pecorino, Manchego and Gruyère. Delicious over salads, or use them to build an ultra-cheesy grilled cheese sandwich.

Beets

Fresh beets also easily keep for a few weeks without their leaves. Eat them in a salad, roast them in the oven, make ‘carpaccio’ with them or turn them into a hearty beet soup.

Celery

Let me get straight to the point. I hate celery. That’s why, after making a sauce or ragù (the only things in which I tolerate this vegetable), I’m always left with a huge bunch. Luckily, it always keeps until I make my next sauce. Love food, hate celery waste.

Apples

If you keep apples in the fridge, they stay deliciously fresh and crisp. That way you always have an apple on hand for when you’re thirsty, as well as the filling for a massive apple pie.