When life is busy and you need some inspiration, the back of the store cupboard or fridge can offer some surprisingly fun innovations. Those half-used hot sauces, bags of sugar and condiments shouldn't go to waste because they can truly elevate a dish. Follow our guide to discover wonderful ways to shake up your favourite recipes with these surprising store-cupboard heroes.
This family favourite gets a shake up with a few healthy tablespoons of harissa paste. Harissa is made from roasted peppers with herbs and spices, such as coriander seeds and cumin, and is originally from the Maghreb region. This paste gives tomato sauce a depth and works perfectly with Mediterranean herbs such as oregano and basil, so it wouldn't go amiss in other pasta dishes or even on a pizza.
Get the recipe for harissa spaghetti here
Sweet and salty pad Thai is a classic noodle stir-fry dish. It's usually made with prawns or chicken and veggies, with beaten egg and beansprouts. The traditional sauce is based on tamarind concentrate, fish sauce and palm sugar, but 1.5 tbsp of ketchup will give it extra tang and sweetness.
Get the recipe for pad Thai here
Pulled pork is always a crowd pleaser. It's easy to make and needs long, slow cooking to make it melt-in-your-mouth tender. Add a large amount of tomato ketchup to really lift your cooking sauce – the result will be deliciously sweet, sour, sticky and spicy, and it will help tenderise the meat even more too.
It's already a favourite for topping salads and soups, as leftover bread makes excellent croutons, but there are more ways to use up your loaf. This recipe uses slightly stale sourdough almost like a Parmesan – but don't feel you need to substitute it for the cheese. The official term is pangrattato, meaning breadcrumbs, and it gives any pasta dish a wonderful crunchy texture.
Shop bought salsa is an excellent addition to any tomato-based sauce. It just needs to be added in at the end and to be simmered gently. It's a quick way to bring a bit of sharpness and sweetness to the sauce. This recipe is the ultimate store cupboard raid: leftover packs of tortilla chips and jars of salsa from parties get thrown together with eggs and your favourite toppings for a quick midweek supper.
This clever twist on a schnitzel sees ground hazelnuts added to breadcrumbs with Parmesan, fresh herbs and lemon. The nuts add flavour of course, but they also help to keep the crust moist, without the need to use melted butter. You could replace the hazelnuts with almonds, pecans or walnuts, or alternatively use the same crust for a turkey or veal schnitzel.
If you've ever made hummus, you may have a jar of tahini lingering in the fridge – and it needn't go to waste. It's a top ingredient for a creamy dressing and works wonders in this recipe with roasted sprouts and leeks. Here, the tahini is mixed with lemon juice and honey, and the delicious result would make a great addition to any other roasted vegetables or salad.
Get the recipe for crispy sprout bowls with honey tahini dressing here
Devilled eggs are a retro canapé that thoroughly deserve a comeback. In the classic recipe, hard-boiled egg yolks are mixed with mayonnaise and piped back into the egg white cavity. But here, the tahini is mixed with Greek yogurt and lemon juice instead of the mayonnaise for a tasty Middle Eastern twist.
These homemade baked beans only take five minutes to make (with an hour for cooking) and they're so much more flavourful than any you'd get from a can. The magic ingredient here is black treacle – it gives a smoky taste to the beans, which are sweet and sharp from the added vinegar.
The classic Irish loaf is the easiest bread to make. It involves no kneading and no yeast, and is most often baked with half white and half wholemeal flour. Black treacle adds a hint of smoky sweetness, which contrasts with the nuttiness of the wholemeal flour. It keeps the loaf nice and moist too.
The idea of cooking gammon in Coca-Cola comes from the USA's Deep South. The concept may sound a little out-there at first, but the Coca-Cola adds a hint of barbecue flavour to the ham and tastes fantastic. You simply cover the gammon in Coca-Cola (it needs to be classic Coke, not a reduced sugar or no-sugar version) and simmer it until it's cooked through (around one hour per 1kg/2.2lbs).
The addition of Korean kimchi takes a classic mac 'n' cheese dish to new heights. The crunch of spicy, fermented vegetables combines perfectly with the earthy, savoury taste of the cheese. You can find jars of kimchi in most supermarkets.
Get the recipe for kimchi mac 'n' cheese here
Fish sauce is usually added to stir-fries and Thai curries, but it also makes a great marinade for fish. Combined with classic Thai ingredients – think lime, chilli and garlic – it adds a savoury saltiness, a little like soy sauce. This recipe uses large tiger prawns, which are great cooked on the grill.
Many recipes will suggest glazing carrots with honey, but marmalade really ups the taste sensation. Orange and carrot are such a good flavour combination and the marmalade ensures the glaze is lovely and sticky. It's mixed with soy sauce here, so it's not too sweet.
Four tablespoons of thick-cut marmalade – mixed with garlic, orange juice and zest, and some fresh mint – makes a quick, easy and very tasty glaze for chicken. You're also left with a gloriously sweet and sticky sauce. Serve your chicken with rice or a bright garden salad.
Get the recipe for roast chicken thighs with a marmalade glaze here
For a perfectly light tempura batter, many cooks and chefs use sparkling water. But if you step it up a notch and use pale ale – or any other light beer for that matter – your batter will be all the more airy. It will also have a slightly savoury note from the hops.
Give your roasted potato wedges a delicious boost with miso paste (a traditional Japanese seasoning made from fermented soybeans) which will make them crisp, sticky and savoury. In this recipe, the miso is mixed with tamarind chutney (you could also use tamarind paste) for an extra sweet and sour flavour. Serve your wedges with a garlic mayo and a crisp, garden salad.
Miso paste makes a fabulous marinade for a steak as it adds a deep savoury flavour. For two steaks, mix 2tbsp miso with 2tbsp soy sauce, 2tsp rice vinegar and 1tsp sunflower oil. Rub it all over the steaks, then pop them into a freezer bag with any remaining marinade, seal and leave overnight in the fridge. Allow them to come to room temperature before grilling. You won't need to add any salt but a grinding of black pepper would be good once cooked.
Here, miso paste is used along with salt. By coating the onions with miso it brings an umami (savoury) base to the dish, right from the beginning of the cooking process. The juice from the roasted onions is what the salmon gets cooked in, and the savoury flavour brings out the sweetness of the salmon as it bakes.
Potatoes, squash, onions and beetroot are roasted in honey and lemon. The honey is used to add sweetness, especially to the squash and beetroot, which can be a little earthy in taste, and the vegetables are served with a garlic crème fraîche. This dish makes a fine accompaniment to a roast, or you could turn it into a more substantial dinner by crumbling over some feta cheese.
An easy one-pan dish which really makes the salmon sing. The honey is mixed with soy and sesame oil, to give a combination of sweet, sour and nutty flavours. The honey also makes the greens sticky and adding a touch of chilli at the end helps to balance all the flavours. Try serving with rice or noodles.
Get the recipe for sticky soy and honey roasted salmon with greens here
A Chinese-style recipe – duck breasts are marinated in honey, soy, rice wine and spices. The honey contrasts with the saltiness of the soy and the acidity of the vinegar and helps the skin to caramelise and crisp up. Plus this dish is so simple, taking just 10 minutes of preparation time and 20 minutes to cook, that it's a perfect weeknight winner.
A genius idea for chicken goujons, this recipe uses cereal (Rice Krispies or similar) and mayonnaise, instead of flour, egg and breadcrumbs to add extra crunch. The rice cereal is crushed and mixed with spices before the strips of chicken breast are dipped in a garlicky mayonnaise, rolled in the cereal mixture and then baked in the oven. Just serve with ketchup for an indulgent snack.
The exact recipe might be a secret, but we do know Worcestershire sauce is made with vinegar and anchovies. It's a handy ingredient to have in the store cupboard because it adds an umami, or savoury character, to food, much like soy sauce or Parmesan cheese. It pairs well with meat and when added to a beef stew will enrich the flavour of the gravy. Don't worry, you won't get a hint of fishy flavour.
This isn't an ingredient traditionally used in Italian cooking, but trust us, a couple of tablespoons added to your bolognese sauce or meat ragù will take it up a notch, adding depth to the sauce. And we promise that while you'd never know it was there, once you've tried it there's no going back.
Soy sauce is such a great ingredient for marinades and these wings are salty and sweet. Simply mix 4tbsp tomato ketchup with 3tbsp brown sugar, 4tbsp sweet chilli sauce and 4tbsp soy sauce. Toss the chicken wings in the sauce (this is sufficient for 1kg/2lb 2oz wings) and marinate in the fridge overnight before roasting in a lined tray in the oven. This is a recipe kids will love too.
Crunchy peanut butter is such a great ingredient for adding texture to a recipe. Here it's added to a salad dressing for texture and flavour. Even no-added-sugar peanut butter has a hint of sweetness and when mixed with soy sauce, Sichuan pepper and sesame oil, with a hint of chilli, it brings the flavours together and thickens the dressing.
These oat bars are a twist on a flapjack, simple to make and perfect to have a stash of in the freezer. The peanut butter is used as a butter or fat replacement. It's just a small amount, but it helps to bind the mixture and adds a lovely, nutty flavour.
This recipe is a vegan twist on a tuna pasta dish, in which jackfruit is mixed with soy sauce, lemon and flakes of nori (dried seaweed). The combination makes it taste almost like tuna – savoury, yet fresh at the same time. You can find canned jackfruit in many bigger supermarkets, including Walmart in the USA and Sainsbury's in the UK, and it's a vitamin-packed tasty alternative to meat.
A little mayonnaise added to a chocolate soufflé helps it to be rich and gooey. You don't remotely taste the mayonnaise because it doesn't thicken as an egg would, yet it still creates an unctuous interior. Although soufflés have a reputation for being tricky, our recipe is easier to make than you might think and served with a creamy chocolate sauce.
You'd never think a secret ingredient in a chocolate bar could be chickpeas. But in this vegan recipe, a whole tin of chickpeas are blitzed in a food processor with dates, peanut butter and other ingredients. The chickpea and dates act to replace flour and butter while still retaining a fudgy texture. There's no baking required and they freeze well.
Get the recipe for chocolate and peanut butter fridge bars here
Chocolate and chilli is a surprising but successful combination. Together with vanilla, it doesn't taste hot and spicy, but just gives a subtle hint of chilli which brings out the chocolate flavours. Try our fabulous recipe for a hot chocolate cake with a melting, gooey middle.
Spices including ginger, cardamom and cloves (as well as herbs such as mint) work so well with chocolate. And you only need a light hint of the spice to enhance the nutty flavours of the chocolate itself. Try adding a pinch of salt to your favourite chocolate cake recipe, a pinch of dried chilli flakes to the ultimate four-ingredient chocolate mousse recipe or go all-out with a Middle Eastern-inspired mousse flavoured with cardamom.
In this gluten-free recipe containing just five ingredients, olive oil replaces butter. It's rich and fudgy with a lovely hint of coffee. It's also ready in 25 minutes, so one of the easiest and fastest cakes you'll ever bake.
Get the recipe for dark chocolate and espresso mousse cake here