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?
Table of Contents
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.
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
Free Bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
Sign up for your favorite recipes delivered straight to your inbox plus get our FREE bonus: Secrets to Keto Baking!
There are so many comments that I didn’t have time to read through all of them. I know these can be kept in the fridge, but can these be vacuum sealed for room temperature storage? With cranberries on sale now for the holidays, I’d like to make a whole bunch. Thanks!
Yes, if you can really vacuum all the air out, they should be fine for a month or two.
Thank you, Carolyn. Can you freeze the sliced raw cranberries then thaw them out to oven dry? Or do you think they’ll be too mushy?
I really don’t know, I haven’t tried.
Thank you SO MUCH for your helpful hints and wonderful recipes!! I’ve lost 55 lbs. since May by following a low-carb WOE and really appreciate posts like yours which offer top-notch suggestions from a seasoned low-carber. Please keep ’em coming. TKS again! ????❤️
Thank you for the inspiration to make these. I did tweak the recipe a bit. Instead of using a 1/2 cup sweetener, I used 5 packets of pure via. I baked them at 200 as instructed but time got away from me so I cut the oven off and left them sit overnight. They turned out terrific. Little bit tart with a hint of sweetness.
We would like to share with you Honestly Cranberry…
In addition to growing cranberries in Wisconsin, we dry cranberries with no added sugar, juices, or oils – just the fruit – delivering the true tart taste of cranberry year round. These dried cranberries are ready to use an an addition to your favorite recipe or to enjoy out of the bag as a ‘good-for-you’snack. More information can be found at http://www.honestlycranberry.com
Cheers,
Mary
I just love these creanberries! Now that they are out of season, would this work with frozen? Thanks!
Yes, it would. Just thaw them first.
Couldn’t the cranberries be slightly chopped up in a food processor instead of cutting them in half?
I am just afraid you would end up with cranberry mush, but you could certainly try.
I made these and loved them, I cooked mine a little too long, but they were still delicious.
Loved putting them on my salads, they gave them a little punch.
I just found this page and want to make the dried cranberries. I’m a little confused about the water — do I cut the cranberries in half and then put them in water, sweetener and oil, and then put them on the tray to dry??? Any help much appreciated!
Don’t boil them at all. I forgot to remove the water from the ingredients list. Hope that helps!
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.) 🙂
Yes, you do! It takes time to cut them in half but then you can just go straight to baking them.
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!)
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!
Wow, that idea for cutting them is really great, I will have to try that!
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!
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!
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!
So glad to hear it. Please feel free to ask any questions, I will try to answer them in a timely fashion.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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…
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.
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 🙂
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.
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
Neutral oil means not very strong smelling or tasting. “Light” olive oil or grapeseed is fine, but EVOO would have too much olive flavour.