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. You can also see this list on my Amazon storefront!
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: Dutch process cocoa gives a better chocolate flavor for most recipes.
- 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 Sweets 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)
Plant-based protein powders may work as well. But don’t try to replace with collagen protein as it bakes very differently and may make the recipe gummy and hard to cook through.
Mary Anna says
Do I remember, possibly from a post last year on facebook, something about being able to just cut them in half and not have to cook til they pop? Or am I hallucinating that? (happens sometimes… lol.) 🙂
Carolyn says
Yes, you do! It takes time to cut them in half but then you can just go straight to baking them.
Mary Anna says
Excellent! Thank you! (I think tomorrow will be my day to do these again – studying for a big exam Tuesday, so not going anywhere tomorrow!)
Cheryl P says
I’m so excited this worked, I just had to share! 🙂 I wanted to see if the trick I’d seen on food shows about easily cutting cherry tomatoes would work with cutting cranberries – and it worked phenomenally! 🙂 I took two of the plastic lids like you get from sour cream containers, filled one upside down lid with as many cranberries as I could get in a single layer, placed the other lid on top (right side up), so the cranberries are contained between the two lids. Then putting one hand down firmly ontop of the lids to hold them together, I cut through the opening between the 2 lids with a large knife. Afterwards, I dumped the cranberries out on a cutting board, just to inspect and make sure they were all cut semi-equally, then dumped in my mixing bowl. No kidding! from the time I got up from my computer, til I got a tray of these in the oven took probably 15 to 20 min, tops!
Carolyn says
Wow, that idea for cutting them is really great, I will have to try that!
Mama Owl says
Really!?!?!?!? Cranberries are that low carb?!?!?!?! I have been avoiding them like the plague thinking they were too high! My husband was just bemoaning the fact that there would be no cranberries for thanksgiving this year, so I set out to find something… anything… that would not push us over the top. This opens up a whole new door of possibilities! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Carolyn says
Cranberries are quite low carb, about 6 g per 1/2 cup (plus some of that is fiber). But dried cranberries are typically sweetened with tons of sugar, which is why they are very high carb. Making your own solves that problem!
Cathy says
Ahhh….you are a lifesaver! I’m just learning about low carb baking and I’ve been researching and researching and reading countless blogs. Yours is by far my favorite so far. This information is priceless. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it. Please feel free to ask any questions, I will try to answer them in a timely fashion.
Julie B. says
Where do you find the fresh cranberries?! I can’t even find them online. 🙁 Used apple juice sweetened on the Cranberry Orange scones, but would like a lower-carb version! 🙂 Can’t find unsweetened anywhere. 🙂
BTW, the scones were GREAT!
Carolyn says
I buy several extra bags in the fall and stick them in the freezer. If you can find frozen ones, you can use those. Thankfully, cranberries don’t change much in the freezing process so it’s like they are fresh. Unlike other berries!
Susan says
What a great idea! I took look for dried fruit, like cherries, and can never seem to find them without sugar or too expensive to purchase. I think I might try to ‘create’ some dried cherries.
Thank you so much!
Sasha says
Thank you for this post! I’ve been gathering some of the commonly-used ingredients from your recipes and this was a very helpful round-up. 🙂 I’m nervously awaiting my Swerve order and hoping it agrees with my husband’s very particular tastebuds.
Raquel says
May I ask why you decided you didn’t like Sucralose? I only have liquid Sucralose and I am wondering if I can make a 1 for 1 substitution. Hard to tell without having liquid stevia to compare it to…
Carolyn says
I don’t like the aftertaste and I don’t like how it’s made. I think sweeteners are a very personal choice. When I use stevia, about 1/4 tsp equals 1/4 cup sugar. So find out how much sucralose equals to 1/4 cup sugar and work from that.
Mindy says
Hi Carolyn, I find myself very lucky to have found your blog! I’ve been reading your recipes all day, along with continuing to educate myself on low sugar,low carb cooking and eating. I’m anxiously awaiting for an order of Swerve which leads me to my questions regarding sweeteners. Can Truvia baking blend be used in place of all sweeteners in your recipes? I can’t wait to try all your recipes,I never realized low carb baking could be so delectable! Also,I’ve heard so many comments on the cooling effect of xylitol and I think I finally figured out what everyone means,I haven’t baked with it but I do put it in my coffee and it does have a strange after taste which I think is the so called cooling effect?? I don’t use artificial sweeteners because of health and taste so I’m looking forward to swerve being a great substitute! Thank you for your time,research,input etc. I’m sure you’ve improved the lives of many and I’m looking forward to returning to baking once again with your inspiration!! Thank you 🙂
Carolyn says
Sorry, this comment somehow escaped me until just now. I think you can use Truvia in most places where I use granulated Swerve, but you need the powdered for some recipes and I don’t think Truvia sells a powdered version. Also in recipes where you need to caramelize the swerve, I don’t think Truvia works as well in that regard.
edna says
hello carolyn…….just read your list for the pantry and was amazed that in the past 3 months i have managed to get most of the items…….powdered sugar substitute is a real problem tho but not giving up……..also liquid stevia can not be found here in ontario canada so i have just put in a little extra granulated stevia in your receipes and it has worked ok as everything tasted great…….
question neutral oil???? is virgin olive oil a neutral oil……if not i will go out and purchased a bottle of grapeseed oil…….thanking you in advance for your reply
Carolyn says
Neutral oil means not very strong smelling or tasting. “Light” olive oil or grapeseed is fine, but EVOO would have too much olive flavour.
Carolyn says
I was thinking that I read somewhere that you cut up the cranberries instead of boiling them. Did I dream that?
Carolyn says
Nope, not a dream. I said it on Facebook, I think. It works just as well! Just chop them all in half. It’s time consuming.
Sabre says
I just put a pan of these (sweetener free) in the oven. Hope they turn out because I have a kickin’ sausage-pecan collard roll recipe to use them in for Thanksgiving.
Essdeen says
Would adding a little honey in the boiling process suffice, without adding a sugar alternative, afterwards? If so, how much? I don’t like adding any ‘alternative sugars’ except a little honey, occasionally, as our family eats Paleo, and have done so for nearly 2 years. Also, have I understood correctly that adding oil is to stop them drying out too much?
Carolyn says
Sure, you can try the honey. I would probably toss them with a few tbsp of honey before baking, actually. And yes, if you don’t put oil on them, they become like crunchy little chips.
Teresa says
Hi! thanks so much for this list, it’s very helpful. I was wondering though- can splenda be used as an equivalent for swerve and it really just depends on preference? or is there some difference between the two that’s important? it’s just that splenda is much more accessible. thank you!
Carolyn says
I think it’s going to depend a lot on the recipe. If the recipe requires a bulk sweetener for texture and consistency, then subbing Splenda isn’t going to work because Splenda has no bulk.
Catherine H. says
I made these to put in the cranberry ginger butter cookies. I wanted to note my minor mistake so that others would be able to avoid it: try to use cranberries that have not been frozen, and are preferably very fresh and firm. I used defrosted cranberries that got a little mushy when thawed. I also may have boiled them a *leetle* too long, so when they popped they also leaked too much of their juice. When I mixed them with the erythritol and dried them, I ended up with many good, chewy dried cranberries, but also crispy, flaky sheets of cranberry-infused erythritol that were a little gross and kind of a waste. So do make sure to boil your cranberries as little as possible!
Carolyn says
Good tips. I love that you came back to comment on everything, the feedback is really great!
Catherine H. says
You’re welcome! I love it when other people share their experience, because there’s nothing more discouraging than using all these expensive ingredients to make a mess. I always check the comments first myself in case anyone’s made it first and has something to share. Also, I’m so impressed by the work and genius you put into this blog that it’s a privilege to contribute my mite.
Susan says
Hi Carolyn,
Have you tried experimenting with psyllium powder yet? I’ve been making the sub sandwich bread (in the form of buns) from the Maria’s Delicious and Nutritious website and I am amazed by the texture. Very nice gluten substitute! It does give the baked goods an odd color though (slightly purple), but darn, I’m taking sandwiches for lunch and they’re low carb! Just wondering if you’re creative/genius baking mind has worked with this product yet.
Kelly says
Hi Carolyn! I just love these cranberries! I’m about to make my 3rd batch to use in your cranberry ginger cookies and some other recipes. I am dying to make your orange cranberry, ricotta muffins from the Low Carb w/ friends cookbook, but want to sub the soy flour with something else. I know I could use more Almond flour, but do you think vanilla protein powder would work as well? And if so, would you use the same amount? Also, I can’t find anything about these muffins anywhere on your blog, so do you still reccommend? I don’t like to make anything with all these expensive ingredients unless they will be amazing (and I’m looking for something special to serve Christmas morning).
Carolyn says
I don’t use soy flour any more at all. BAck then, I was still experimenting. I think, though, that replacing it with vanilla whey would give you far too much vanilla flavour and overpower the other flavours. I think you would want at least another cup of almond flour, plus maybe 2 tbsp whey protein, vanilla or otherwise. And yes, the flavour of these muffins is very good and will be just as good this way! Maybe even better (I like almond flour far more than soy!).
Kelly says
Hi Carolyn! I just wanted to let you know that I finally made the orange/cranberry/ricotta muffins this past weekend and they were TO DIE FOR! I sub’d the soy flour with 1 cup of almond flour and 2 TBS of vanilla whey protein powder per your suggestion and it worked great. The only adjustment I had to do was I added a little bit of water to the batter because it seemed a little too thick and I chopped the fresh cranberries. Anywho- I just wanted to let you know how they turned out. They were so good you might want to consider adding this recipe to your blog at some point. Note to readers- if interested, this recipe is in the first version of the Low Carb with Friends cookbook. They were so good, I’m going to make another batch in the next couple of days!
PS- I also made the cranberry/ginger cookies at Christmas and they turned out well as well
Carolyn says
So glad it worked, Kelly!
Jan says
This is going to be very helpful 🙂
Kelly says
Hi Carolyn! I just love these cranberries! I’m about to make my 3rd batch to use in your cranberry ginger cookies and some other recipes. I am dying to make your orange cranberry, ricotta muffins from the Low Carb w/ friends cookbook, but want to sub the soy flour with something else. I know I could use more Almond flour, but do you think vanilla protein powder would work as well? And if so, would you use the same amount? Also, I can’t find anything about these muffins anywhere on your blog, so do you still reccommend? I don’t like to make anything with all these expensive ingredients unless they will be amazing (and I’m looking for something special to serve Christmas morning).
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking says
I’ve said it before and I’m gonna say it again : you’re a genius!
I never understood why the store bought dried fruit comes with lots of grams of sugar per serving but now I can make my own without feeling guilty
Allen Bennett says
When I took the cranberries out of the saucepan, they were all jelled. I have no idea what I did wrong, or maybe that’s how they’re supposed to be. I used 1 cup of water and a 12-oz. package of cranberries. Then I baked them at 200 for three hours. They came out all jelled together, and somewhat softer on the bottom than on top.
Carolyn says
I think maybe they got overcooked in the first part of the process. If you let it come to a boil, they pop right open and let all the juicy insides out. You just barely want them to pop. But even if they do get too jelled like that, you can simply separate them before baking. I think I noted that in my instructions.
Lynn says
The amount of sugar on dried cranberries has always been a mystery to me. I’m not a low carber, but I don’t like to eat sugar for no reason. I’ve never considered drying my own, I’ll give this a try!
Kelly says
Carolyn, I’ve made 2 batches of these now and I LOVE them! I love their sour tartness. My favorite way to enjoy them is to eat a handful with some almonds and dark chocolate…it’s like eating my very own “healthy” Fruit & Nut bar. Delicious! Question…do you bake them until they are completely dried out or are they supposed to be more like plump raisens? I’ve been baking mine until they are all dried out, kind of chewy, some a little crispy…the are still good, but wondering if it’s necessary…
Carolyn says
I like a little plumpness left in mine, personally. That’s why I store them in the fridge. Do what works for you!