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!
Hi there,
So glad to have found this site. I am looking for a good flour mix to replace all purpose flour in my baking. I live in Australia and many of the products that are available in the US are not available here, including some from Amazon as they don’t ship all their items to Australia.
I have Almond flour, Coconut5 Flower, Xantham Gum, Baking Powder and Baking Soda as well as the 3 different types of Monk fruit sweetner.
Would be very grateful for any assistance
There is no good sub for all purpose flour. It all depends on what you are making… crisp cookies require very different amounts of keto flours than a cake. I suggest following my recipes as written.
Thank you for the list of keto baking pantry staples. I don’t see Glucomannan or Xantham Gum listed. Would you consider adding these items to the pantry list and providing information about these two thickeners?
I so appreciate seening you on Youtube, and have tried a few of your recipes with great success. I am a senior, spent a happy year or more on “easy keto”….And then had a year of very little activity (and some weight gain) after a broken bone.
Now my goal is even easier…Lo Carb; and I am happy with 100-125 grams a day. So I feel more free to experiment.
Loving your scones…. I changed mine to chopped almond and dried cranberry, with vanilla…. And it was time. I needed ANYTHING that smacked of bread/cracker/flour.They are delicious. Thanks.
Your recipes sound delicious. My daughter from Germany led me to your site.
Welcome! Feel free to ask any questions… comments on my website are the easiest for me to find and answer.
I have been doing some keto for six months or more.I miss pastas and a loaf of bread.
Thank you for writing this. It helps a lot. It seems that all the recipes I try have different flours and different sweeteners. I have a lot of different ones of each. I’m glad I can pare it down to just a few.
Thank you
I love all of your recipes. I should finally be able to get healthier. I am gluten free and your recipes are a life saver for me. Thanks for all you do❤️
Best ever info I have ever read and I have been a die hard dieter almost all my life. I am now going on 79 and find this info invigorating This will now be my new go to morning routine to see keeping healthy what exciting things I can prepare for myself and in doing so keeping healthy. All day I dream about food and am thankful for your thoughts to help me get through all that life has to offer me Many Thanks
Is this information available in a pdf format? I have a binder where I keep the keto recipes that I like the most and this would make a fantastic addition to my binder.
Not at this time although it is in my cookbooks!
Hi Carolyn
Tried many recipes from different keto blogs and must say your blog is the most successful and reliable. Now I use only your recipes. Thank you 🙏🏻
I am delighted to hear it! <3
I really miss pavlova, it’s the crunchie crust on the outside that I love most. I did make one and it looked fab, but it didn’t harden and although my husband and son enjoyed it, I didn’t. Can you recommend a sugar that I can use to achieve this.
Many thanks for your recipes. I’m a newbie to keto.,
It needs to be an erythritol based sweetener with no allulose or xylitol.
I love to bake and previous attempts were disastrous! Looking forward to trying again. Multiple health issues making a nutritional intake change a must. Looking forward to being back in the kitchen with your recipes.
Have you tried other protein powders, like collagen, or other plant based protein? Egg and whey are not allowed for my diet. Would love to try the recipe but need to make some adjustments. Thanks!
You can see what I recommend for each individual recipe. Often collagen is not an option as it makes things very gummy.
I’m a diabetic and also a keto beginner. I’m so excited to get started. I’malso a big lover of sweets. my extreme favs are cheesecake and ice cream.i can’t wait to try yours.
On your recipes your carb count is that total carb or do you have to remove the fiber for total carb count
have you tried/used lupin flour? thoughts on lupin flour use in your recipes please
It spikes my blood sugar.