A lot of people are limiting the amount of grocery shopping they are doing to once a week up to once every 10 days. Many are using the time in quarantine to master new culinary skills.
But, inevitably, people will find themselves in a situation where they are lacking a seemingly key ingredient to their dish, and there’s a chance the store doesn’t have it either.
Luckily, D.C.-based chef and TV host Bren Herrera has been in these situations before and knows some helpful workarounds.
Baking
“I have noticed in the grocery stores the baking aisle is completely desolate. Everything is gone,” Herrera said.
Here’s her advice for making switch outs. “If you want to make cupcakes and you don’t have buttermilk: Milk and vinegar is a really good substitute,” she said.
For every cup of buttermilk needed, 1 cup of regular milk and one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar can be mixed together to make a working substitute. Let it sit for about five minutes and it’s ready to go.
“If you don’t have eggs for your cake mix, applesauce is a great substitute,” Herrera said. “I think that people forget that because they are two completely different things.”
It takes about ¼ cup of applesauce to replace one egg.
Meals
“If you don’t have onions, but your recipe calls for onions, you can use garlic,” Herrera said. “I would use a less amount of garlic because garlic tends to be a little more pungent.”
Likewise, if a recipe calls for garlic and there isn’t any, an equal amount of onion can take its place.
“One thing that people always kind of forget is a really great substitute for mayonnaise is yogurt,” she said. “Plus yogurt, I feel, is more healthy anyways because it has probiotics and all these other attributes to it that you can benefit from.”
That same plain yogurt can also be a great substitute if you are running short on sour cream.
Out of breadcrumbs? Use crushed crackers or nuts.
If the kids are hankering for peanut butter and jelly and you’re out of peanut butter, take peanuts, or whatever nuts you have in the pantry, and toss them in the food processor with a little oil. Voilà!
When it comes to your spice rack, there are a lot of herbs that are close relatives to others and can be easily switched out in a pinch.
“If you don’t have basil, you can use mint. They’re in the same family. If you don’t have thyme, you can use rosemary and vice versa. Thyme would work for oregano as well,” she said. “If you don’t have cumin, maybe you could use smoked paprika.”
Her advice on this front is to buy a couple of your favorite herb plants and keep them in or near the kitchen. Then, you’ll always have fresh herbs for your recipes.
Apple juice or white grape juice can substitute for white wine in cooking, and you can use cranberry or red grape juice in the place of red wine.
Speaking of wine, if you’re ready for a drink before or after dinner, don’t get worried when you find you’re short on a few ingredients.
“You can substitute vermouth for a sherry. Or you can amplify your simple syrup if you don’t have a particular kind of vermouth,” she said. “If you have a recipe that calls for bitters, you can use a vanilla extract or an orange extract — they have a similar kind of potency and bitterness.”
Her final advice is instead of letting the recipe drive your cooking, let your pantry take the wheel. Look at the items you already have and come up with meals that make the most of what you’ve got.
Popular food substitutions
- Barbeque Sauce: ¾ cup ketchup, 2 tbsp mustard and 2 tbsp brown sugar
- Basil: Equal amount of mint bitters — Vanilla or orange extract
- Breadcrumbs: Crackers or nuts that have been crushed
- Buttermilk: 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar and 1 cup regular milk. Let stand 5 minutes before using
- Cornstarch for thickening: 2 tbsp flour for each 1 tbsp of cornstarch called for
- Egg for baking: ¼ cup applesauce
- Flour (Self Rising): 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 ½ tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. salt
- Clove of fresh garlic: Equal amounts of fresh onion or 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
- Cumin: Equal amount of smoked paprika
- Fresh herbs: 1 tsp. dried leaf herbs or ½ teaspoon ground herbs for each tbsp of fresh herbs called for
- Mayonnaise: Plain yogurt or sour cream
- Fresh onion: Fresh garlic (slightly less in amount as garlic is more pungent)
- Oregano: Equal amount of thyme
- Peanut butter: Add any nuts you have in the house and a little oil to the food processor and blend until you have nut butter.
- Rosemary: Equal amount of thyme
- Sherry: Equal amount of vermouth
- Sour cream: Plain yogurt
- Sugar, confectioners: 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1 tbsp cornstarch processed in a food processor until powdery. Equals 1 cup confectioners sugar.
- Thyme: Equal amount of rosemary or oregano
- Vermouth: Equal amount of sherry
- Wine, Red: Equal amount of grape juice or cranberry juice
- Wine, White: Equal amount of apple juice or white grape juice
