What’s In My Ocado Order: Tonia Buxton

FRIDGE STAPLES

Total Greek Yogurt – We go through so much yogurt in our house. I use it in dips, cakes and with fruits and nuts for breakfast.

Halloumi Cheese – I’m Cypriot, so I grew up eating halloumi. It’s such a versatile cheese. As children we would always eat it as is, with a slice of watermelon, so you would get that lovely salty/sweet mix. I cook with it all the time too: sometimes I put it in muffins, which are great savoury snacks for my children, or throw a few grilled pieces into a salad.

Organic Odysea Feta Cheese – As with all our food, I try and go organic as much as possible. Feta is another cheese we use so much. I like to sprinkle it onto avocado toast, or into a tomato stew. I also love it on toast with honey. 

Anchovy Fillets – I always have a few packs of these in the cupboard. I chop them up finely and put them into all kinds of sauces to give that extra zing and also for an omega-3 hit.

FRUIT & VEG

Bananas – I am very lucky that I have a garden and plant as much as I can, which means we try to eat seasonally. We have a great glut in the summer and autumn, but not so much in the winter. I also always have to buy things that can’t be grown in the UK, such as bananas. I usually have a few to hand for porridge toppings, and when they go brown, I use them in cakes as a natural sweetener.

Lemons – We are a lemon family. We put them in everything: sauces, dressings, over the top of dishes. I love unwaxed ones for zest in cakes.

Avocados – We eat so many, on toast or in my spicy guac, with eggs, with cheese… It’s such a nutritious healthy fat, I feel my body craves it, especially in the winter.

CUPBOARD ESSENTIALS

Belazu Beldi Preserved Lemons – I love the zing you get from these. I use them in stews and salads –especially salads with fruit in, such as grilled peach and halloumi salad. Adding these lemons finely sliced take it to another level.

Spices – All of them. As you will see in my book The Secret of Spice, I am obsessed with herbs and spices and the difference you can make by adding them to your food, not just for the flavour but for the incredible nutrients and micro-nutrients our bodies get from them. My favourite spice is cinnamon. I use it in everything: from savoury roasts and stews to sweet cakes and desserts. I even put cassia bark in my tea. It tastes wonderful and has the added benefit of being a blood-sugar regulator. 

Plenish Organic Oat Milk – I use this for my daily turmeric latte. I add cinnamon too. Honestly, a cup of this a day really is the elixir of good health.

Tahini – I use tahini in so much of my cooking – from tahini sauce, which is like my ketchup as I add a drizzle to everything, to cookies and cakes. I love to make tahini pittas which are like cinnamon buns, but with tahini as well as cinnamon.

Canned Organic Chickpeas – Gone are the days when I would soak and boil dried chickpeas. These are so much easier. I do use them in stews, but mainly for making humous. My simple humous is made with tahini, lots of garlic and lemon juice, but sometimes I pimp it up by adding different spices like cumin or coriander, or puréed beetroot.  

Organic Spelt Flour – For muffins and cakes. I always have a batch of homemade muffins on the go at home and try to snack just on these

Cru Kafe Organic Coffee Capsules – I like my coffee with frothy oat milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

SNACK CUPBOARD

Itsu Seaweed Thins – In wasabi flavour. I love these when I need a salty hit.

Organic Medjool Dates – My favourite snack is a date stuffed with two pecan nuts. Just perfect.

Salted Cashew Nuts – These are dangerous, in that once I start, I just can’t stop eating them.

Dark chocolate – I like all types, but the salted or ginger-flavoured Green & Black bars are so good.

DRINKS

Tsantali Organic Red Wine – It’s from Greece, full-bodied and lovely.

Aquariva Organic Agave Syrup – I love to use this in cocktails, especially ones with Aquariva tequila in. This is my friend Cleo Roccas’s brand and, for me, it really is the purest. It makes the best margaritas, which I make sure to serve with loads of lime. 

Gin Mare – I do like a G&T. One of my favourite brands is Gin Mare – I like it with a squeeze of grapefruit and a bit of zest.

FREEZER STAPLES

Frozen Peas – Just to throw a bit of green into whatever I am cooking. I make a lot of stews in my slow-cooker as I can get it all ready the night before or before I go to work. I’ll then throw in some frozen peas at the end.

Duchy Frozen Berries – Mainly for smoothies. My son Zeno likes to make a frozen berry yogurt dessert sometimes. He blitzes the berries and yoghurt together, then drizzles a little honey and cinnamon on top. It's delicious. 

Bread – I always freeze bread and use it from frozen. My guilty pleasure is buttered toast topped with honey, a slice of strong cheddar cheese and a dusting of mastika spice, which comes from tree resin.

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