Cooking Essentials

Cooking Essentials for Sauces, Stocks, Marinades & Pantry Bases

Shop passata, chopped tomatoes, pesto, stock, seasoning cubes, pepper paste, marinades, vinegar, soy sauce and other practical cooking bases in one pantry-focused section built for easier sauces, quicker meal prep and fuller flavour at home. From Cirio Passata Sieved Tomato Cooking Base 1L and Finely Chopped Tomatoes (Polpa) 400g to Vegetable Stock Powder 1kg, Halal Beef Stock Concentrate – Liquid Gel 150g, Mild Red Pepper Paste 700g, Spicy Gourmet Marinade 1L, North African Chermoula Gourmet Marinade 1L, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar Biona 500ml, Dark Soy Sauce 150ml and Oyster Sauce 1L, this page brings together the wet-base and flavour-base products that help everyday cooking come together more smoothly.

This is the practical kitchen-foundation step of Grocery & Tradition. Rather than focusing on dry spices alone, Cooking Essentials covers the sauces, stocks, concentrates, pastes, dressings and ready marinades that sit underneath the rest of the meal. It is the section that helps you start a dish faster, build flavour with less measuring and keep useful cupboard staples close at hand for soups, stews, pasta sauces, traybakes, rice dishes, grills and stir-fries.

What you can buy in Cooking Essentials

The live range is broad enough to support several real cooking routes rather than one narrow pantry role.

• Tomato and savoury base products such as passata, finely chopped tomatoes, green tomato pesto and mild red pepper paste for sauces, stews, casseroles, pasta dishes and traybakes.
• Stock and savoury cupboard staples such as vegetable stock powder, halal beef stock concentrate, halal lamb stock concentrate, Maggi seasoning cubes and vegetable seasoning for soups, rice, braises and everyday family cooking.
• Ready-to-use marinades and dressings including spicy, curry, Provençale, Orientale, tandoori, BBQ, mint & yoghurt, Mediterranean pepper and North African chermoula styles for quicker grills, skewers, wraps and oven cooking.
• Kitchen-finishers and global pantry bases such as apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice dressing, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce for dressings, pickling, stir-fries, glazes and sharper finishing touches.

A clear piece-led buying model in practical kitchen formats

One of the strongest things about this page is how practical the formats are for real home use. The live products are sold mainly by piece in bottles, jars, cartons and packs rather than tiny one-use formats, which makes the section more useful for repeat cooking and fuller pantry restocks.

Across the page you can move between smaller everyday bottles such as 150ml soy sauce and 250ml lemon dressing, mid-size jars such as 180g pesto and 500ml vinegar, and larger working-kitchen formats such as 700g pepper paste, 1L marinades, 1L oyster sauce and 1kg stock powder. That range makes it easier to choose the right base for one dinner, a few planned meals or a more complete kitchen top-up.

Less mixing from scratch, easier flavour at home

Cooking Essentials is especially useful when you want stronger flavour and smoother prep without building every base from zero. Passata helps you start sauces quickly, stock concentrates deepen soups and braises, pepper paste and pesto bring fast character to savoury dishes, and the ready marinades make grills, traybakes and skewers easier to season without needing a full mixing routine first.

The page also supports more than one cooking style. There are Mediterranean-style bases, North African-inspired marinade notes, everyday European pantry staples and Asian-style cupboard sauces all in one place, which makes this section useful for pasta nights, roast dinners, couscous dishes, rice bowls, stir-fries and easy halal home cooking more broadly.

Built to connect the pantry more naturally

This page works best as the flavour-foundation step between ready savoury food and the rest of the pantry. If you want broader cupboard staples next, continue to Ingredients. If you want the dry flavour cupboard after that, move on to Spices & Seasonings, then Oils & Cooking Fats and Everyday Accompaniments to complete the meal-building route. For delivery, ordering and product guidance before checkout, visit Help & FAQs.

Customer FAQs

What kind of products are included in Cooking Essentials?
This page includes tomato bases, pesto, seasoning cubes, stock powder, stock concentrates, pepper paste, marinades, dressings, vinegar and savoury cupboard sauces such as soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Is this page mainly for dry spices?
No. This is the wet-base and cooking-base pantry page. For dry herbs, rubs and spice blends, browse Spices & Seasonings next.

How are the products mainly sold?
The live range is sold mainly by piece in practical bottles, jars, cartons and packs, with formats ranging from smaller dressings and sauces to larger 1L marinades and 1kg stock powder.

Is this page useful for quick everyday cooking?
Yes. It is especially useful for shoppers who want faster flavour, easier sauces, ready-to-use marinades and simple cooking shortcuts for soups, stews, grills, rice dishes and traybakes.

Does the page support more than one cuisine style?
Yes. The live range mixes Mediterranean-style bases, North African-inspired marinades, everyday European pantry staples and Asian-style sauces, so it supports a broad home-cooking routine rather than one narrow flavour style.

What should I browse next after Cooking Essentials?
The natural next steps are Ingredients for broader pantry staples, then Spices & Seasonings for dry flavour-building, followed by Oils & Cooking Fats and Everyday Accompaniments to complete the meal route.

Where to browse next

If you are moving forward through the pantry route, continue next to Ingredients, then Spices & Seasonings, Oils & Cooking Fats and Everyday Accompaniments. If you want the savoury ready-food step before this page, go back to Savoury Pies & Quiches.