Embarking on a keto diet requires plenty of preparation and often a total pantry overhaul. Stock up on these essential pantry items so that you can enjoy the keto diet to the fullest.
I’ve been the keto diet for a long time now and it’s a lifelong commitment for me. For over 10 years now, I’ve been eating low carb and gluten-free. And for about 5 of those years, I’ve been fully keto.
In the past decade, I’ve learned a thing or two about a successful keto lifestyle, and I want to pass these tips on to you.
This list of keto pantry staples is quite comprehensive. It includes all the basics, plus an advanced supply list for those of you who love to bake. And you can tailor it to suit your tastes, needs, and additional dietary restrictions.
Ready to conquer the keto lifestyle?
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Preparation is the key to keto diet success
I simply cannot stress this point enough: be prepared.
We live in a gluten and sugar-filled world, and it’s hard to resist temptation when it’s in your face all the time. You are far more likely to slip and get off track if you don’t have a good array of tasty low carb foods around to keep you satisfied.
So making sure to have your pantry well-stocked with keto-friendly snacks is absolutely crucial. And having the ingredients on hand for easy keto dinners and keto breakfasts makes it easier to stay on track.
If you love baking, as I do, it’s important stock up on baking ingredients too. But how do you know what ingredients will work best? What are the basics you should spend your money on?
I’ve done enough experimenting with a huge array of low carb and gluten-free ingredients and I want you to benefit from my experience. My keto baking pantry list has everything you need.
Keep it simple
As with any big lifestyle change, it’s best to start with the basics.
There are so many “keto” products and pre-packaged foods on the market nowadays. It’s a hot keyword and every brand and company is trying to capitalize on the trend. But many of them really aren’t that keto friendly at all.
While it may be tempting to load up on these items, I don’t recommend it. You are much better off sticking with real, whole foods as the building blocks of your healthy diet.
Healthy Fats and Oils
You certainly don’t need all of these in your pantry at once, but having a few options on hand goes a long way for keto cooking and baking.
- Butter: I always have at least two pounds of butter in my fridge. I love it for savory recipes like my keto mushroom soup, and for baking treats like keto sugar cookies.
- Coconut Oil
- Ghee is also good option for dairy-free keto recipes. I adore the brown butter ghee from Tin Star Foods.
- Avocado Oil
- Olive Oil
- Mayonnaise (preferably made with avocado oil, not canola oil or soybean oil)
Rich Proteins
Protein helps fill us up and keep us satisfied. I stock up on ground beef or chicken thighs whenever I see a sale. If you purchase pre-made burgers or sausage, remember to check the label for hidden sources of carbs.
- Eggs: Good for easy meals and for baking! Try my Sheet Pan Frittata for an easy breakfast or dinner.
- Beef: Steak is great, but ground beef is much less expensive. See my favorite keto ground beef recipes.
- Lamb
- Pork
- Poultry: Easy Chicken Broccoli Casserole is a fan favorite!
- Fish
- Bone broth: Sip it plain or make some warm and comforting keto soup.
Fruits and Veggies
Not all fruits and veggies are keto-friendly, so make sure you have a good array of the lower carb options to choose from. These are the ones I keep in my fridge most often:
- Fresh berries
- Avocado
- Lemon and lime
- Tomatoes
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Cucumbers
- Green Beans
- Mushrooms
- Radish
- Zucchini
- Asparagus
- Bell Peppers
- Leafy greens
Nuts & Seeds
Most nuts and seeds have a high fat content and plenty of fiber, making them a great keto snack. And nut and seed butters are useful for cooking and baking.
- Almonds
- Hazelnuts
- Macadamia Nuts
- Nut and seed butters
- Peanuts (not a true nut)
- Pecans
- Walnuts
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Coconut
Dairy (and dairy-free alternatives)
- Heavy cream
- Cream cheese
- Hard and soft cheeses
- Sour cream or Greek yogurt (full fat)
- Coconut milk/cream
- Dairy-free cream cheese
- Unsweetened nut and seed milks
Keto baking essentials
In case you didn’t already know, baking is my happy place. I keep my pantry stocked at all times with keto-friendly flours and sweeteners so that I can whip up keto cookies or keto chocolate chip muffins any old time.
But while I have a huge array of flours, sweeteners, chocolate, nuts, and other baking ingredients at my disposal, the truth is you don’t need all of that to be a successful keto baker.
This list includes the absolute essentials to get you started. Even if you never buy anything more than what’s listed here, you will find yourself able to create wonderful keto desserts and baked goods.
Any good baking cupboard should always have baking powder, vanilla and other extracts, and salt. Plus plenty of butter, eggs, and cream (or dairy free alternatives) in the fridge!
Keto Flours
Keto flours take some getting used to, as they don’t behave even remotely like wheat flour.
- Almond flour – by far the most common keto flour and incredibly useful and delicious. Please read my tutorial on Baking with Almond Flour for detailed information.
- Coconut flour – also a very common keto flour but you really need to know what you’re getting into. Once you get used to it, it makes some of the best keto cupcakes! Please read Baking with Coconut Flour for more information.
- Sunflower seed flour is a great nut-free alternative to almond flour. And it’s easy to make your own. How to make sunflower seed flour.
Keto Sweeteners
The number of low carb sweeteners and sweetener blends has exploded in recent years. It’s wonderful because we have so many choices now. But all those choices can also be very confusing and overwhelming.
And they don’t all behave the same way! They all have their pros and cons.
Please read The Ultimate Guide to Keto Sweeteners for an in-depth look at how these sweeteners work and how they affect your results.
In my cupboard, I always keep:
- Swerve Sweetener – granular, powdered, and the new Swerve Brown, which is truly the best brown sugar replacement out there.
- Allulose and/or BochaSweet – these are great sweeteners for keto ice cream, keto caramel sauce, and other treats that can re-crystallize with erythritol.
Keto-friendly Chocolate
Once upon a time, there was no good sugar-free chocolate and I had to use chopped up 90% Lindt bars. Now there is a vast array of keto chocolate to choose from. I recommend you keep on hand:
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Unsweetened chocolate – this is 100% cacao chocolate, with no sweetener whatsoever. It’s important to choose quality chocolate like Ghirardelli or Guittard. The cheaper Baker’s chocolate tends to seize more easily and will ruin some of your recipes.
- Sugar-free chocolate chips – ChocZero or Lily’s are the two best brands.
Protein Powder
You will notice that many of my keto cakes and muffins call for protein powder. There is a method to my madness, I promise.
I am not trying to add more protein to my diet, I get plenty of that as it is. But gluten is actually protein that helps conventional baked goods rise properly and hold their shape. In the absence of gluten, another dry protein can make your keto baked goods lighter, fluffier, and more like the ones you used to love.
- Unflavored grassfed whey protein
- Unflavored egg white protein (dairy free option)
Kaylynne Rice says
Carolyn, I just wanted to drop a note telling you how much I love your recipes. I used to search the internet for diabetic/keto recipes but your site has become my go to place for finding recipes. They are all delicious! I know when I try one of your recipes, I won’t have to worry about my glucose going way up.
I’m going to try the keto bread today as well as the oatmeal cookies.
Thank you for all your hard work!
Carolyn says
Thanks so much!
Marilyn says
We are not on an exclusive 100% Keto diet. I am wondering if we would gain weight mixing keto and regular cooking as the fat content is higher in Keto.
Carolyn says
No idea… everyone is different. 🙂
Susan Braud says
So glad I read this! You give me hope! Thank you for sharing!!
Carolyn says
Glad it helps!
Sally says
I looked at your recommendation for whey protein powder and saw that it contains sunflower lecithin. Would whey protein powder with soy lecithin be okay for those of us who are a combination of keto and low-carb? We use regular soy sauce when we have Asian dishes.
Thanks for all the great recipes. I can’t wait to try baking with the whey protein powder!
Carolyn says
I can’t see why not!
Beverly Gonzalez says
I am allergic to almonds, pecans, sunflower anything and pistachios. I see you offer a few alternatives which is good. I am prediabetic and so is my husband so we are excited to learn how to make keto snacks and desserts. Looking forward to learning quickly so we can enjoy
Carolyn says
As long as you aren’t allergic to coconut, I have plenty of recipes you can use with coconut flour!
Vicki says
Do you have a cook book I can purchase?
Carolyn says
I have quite a few! You can see them all here: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/keto-cookbooks/
Laurie A Phillips says
What kind of vanilla do you buy. I have found it hard to find one without alcohol and added things. They seem to have a bad taste and smell. I see your bottle that you use but can’t see the brand. Thank you very much
Laurie A Phillips says
I think I found it Frontier co-op organic vanilla extract? Is this correct?
Rhonda says
Hello, I have a quick question…. I am wondering if “grass-fed gelatin” is interchangeable with collagen peptides. I cannot seem to find anything definitive about this on the internet. Specifically, I made your layered coconut cake with whipped cream frosting last week, and used regular Knox gelatin to stabilize the frosting, which seemed overall to work, but I did end up with some gelatin balls I manually had to pick out of the frosting, lol. In hindsight I’m wondering if I could’ve used collagen peptides instead, which I do have on hand (I’ve been keto for almost three years now so have most keto pantry essentials on hand). I could obviously order the grass-fed gelatin off Amazon, but don’t want to bother if the collagen peptides will work… Btw, I own several of your cookbooks, and my favourite is the Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking, literally everything I have tried from that cookbook (and all the others) has been excellent! I took all your cookbooks to Staples and had their spines cut and ring-bound so they will lie open flat when in use. That coconut layer cake, FYI, was a huge hit at my dinner party last weekend, and everyone there (save me) was a non-ketoer… 😉.
Carolyn says
Hi Rhonda, good question. It’s not interchangeable, because gelatin gels and gives more structure, whereas collagen doesn’t create a gel. Collagen might help give the frosting a bit of structure but it won’t stabilize it quite as well so the frosting might start to deflated on you eventually. But it could be an okay sub if you are aware of that. But if you were to try making keto jello with collagen, it would never gel properly.
Knox should work but it gels more strongly and quickly than the grassfed kind so that’s probably why you got those balls. It probably clumped the moment it hit the cold cream. Sorry about that, it’s hard to account for every substitution!
Dennie says
I’m so happy I found you through Facebook. I’ve ordered all but one of your cookbooks, and I will get that one soon. Thank you for everything you do to her people eating healthy.
Carolyn says
Thank you!
Cynthia says
This is great info and easy to read and follow. Thank You!!!
Nana says
Great article. Thanks for sharing with us!
Love your recipe. 😊
Nancy Drummond says
I am trying to find the corn bread flavouring that you recommend in some of your recipes. I am in Canada and even Amazon.ca doesn’t have it. Any suggestions? From the land where corn bread is almost unheard of!
Carolyn says
https://www.fusionflavours.ca/collections/one-on-one-flavor-concentrates
Kate says
Appreciate your work so much, Carolyn! Thank-you!
Soooo, being a born and bred Canadian, have you developed a keto Nanaimo Bar yet?
Carolyn says
Girl… I created a Nanaimo Bar years ago! I was the first to do so! https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/best-low-carb-nanaimo-bar-recipe/
Renee says
What brand and type of cocoa butter do you recommend?
Carolyn says
This is my favorite: https://amzn.to/3vHhaY9
Carol Hubbard says
In your recipe for Chocolate chip muffins you use egg white powder. Can you good quality farm fresh egg whites instead??
Carolyn says
You would throw off the wet/dry ratio significantly, so no… it’s not a great option. Protein powder works specifically because it’s a dry protein, which is exactly what gluten is.
Fran Evans says
Can I use collagen powder in place of egg white powder?
Carolyn says
For most recipes, no. It makes them gummy and hard to cook through.
Sharon says
I cannot find swerve sweerter here where I live in Canada. What other chose do I have to replace swerve?
Carolyn says
Actually, you should be able to find Swerve in Canada… I am Canadian, my sister lives there, and she gets Swerve at many grocery chains. I believe it’s even in Loblaws.
Kate says
You can also buy on Amazon.ca