Trusty Ingredient Combinations You Should Keep On Hand For Easy Dinners

Arm yourself with these food combinations and life will never be the same.

Cooking dinner night after night can be a chore. No matter how much you love to cook, thinking up and putting together dinner recipes every night can feel like a burden. But it doesn't have to be this way. If you arm yourself with some essential ingredient combinations, making dinner can be almost effortless.

Whether you're a pro or a novice in the kitchen, keeping a few trusty food partners in your mind palace is a surefire way to alleviate potential cooking stress. If you're buying one ingredient, just make sure you also have one or two others, and you'll be in business. If you're buying chicken, for example, make sure you always have lemon and garlic. Nothing can go wrong with this winning combination.

Take a page from the Flavor Bible and commit the following 11 food matches to memory. They'll be the starting point for endless dinner recipes and will inspire you to bookmark your own reliable food combinations. Let us know your favorites in the comments. Dinner (and life) just got infinitely easier.

1
Chicken + Garlic + Lemon
Just A Taste
2
Beef + Red Wine + Mushrooms
Food52
Get the Beef Bourguignon recipe by TasteFood from Food52
3
Pork + Apples + Cinnamon
Gimme Some Oven
Get the Apple Cinnamon Pork Chops recipe from Gimme Some Oven
4
Pasta + Tomato + Basil
Oh, Sweet Basil
5
Pasta + Anchovies + Bread Crumbs (For The Anchovy Appreciators Out There)
Martha Stewart
6
Lamb + Mustard + Mint
Martha Stewart
Get the Roast Rack of Lamb With Mint recipe from Martha Stewart
7
Risotto + White Wine + Parmesan
Martha Stewart
Get the Parmesan Risotto recipe from Martha Stewart
8
Salmon + Cucumber + Dill
FoodieCrush
9
Sweet Potato + Brown Sugar + Pecans
Pinch Of Yum
10
Shrimp + Cilantro + Lime
Skinny Taste
Get the Cilantro Lime Shrimp recipe from Skinny Taste
11
Lentils + Cumin + Carrots
Food52
Get the French Lentil Soup recipe by Maja Lukic - Veggies & Gin from Food52

One last tip: Always have an onion or two on hand -- always. Every single combination above would be enhanced by the presence of an onion. For onions you have no excuse: they're cheap and you can find them pretty much anywhere. Once you master the simple art of chopping an onion correctly, you'll never go onionless again.

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