Southerners Will Appreciate the Ingredients Carla Hall Always Has on Hand

Raise your hand if you've been cooking from your pantry a lot more than normal as of late. (We're raising both hands and a foot.) With services like Instacart allowing us to order groceries for same-day delivery from our favorite supermarkets from Publix to Aldi, it's a great way to stock up on shelf-stable ingredients that give our meals a flavor boost. But with a wide array of condiments, beans, sauces, canned goods, and more on our pantry radar, it can sometimes be hard to decide what to buy.

That's where Nashville native and celebrity chef Carla Hall comes to our aid, having shared with food website The Kitchn, her 12 pantry essentials. Of the bunch, three in particular struck a chord with our Southern hearts and reminded us that it's time to stock up:

1. Hot Sauce

"I go back and forth between Tabasco as well as Texas Pete's," Hall told the outlet. "I'm a big condiments' person."

Buy It: Burman's Hot Sauce; $2.35, Instacart.com.

2. Black Eyed Peas

"In terms of beans, we always have black beans, garbanzo beans, and black eyed peas. I have this recipe for 'sittin' salad,' I make with black eyed peas, grilled celery, cucumbers, onion, tomatoes, and hot sauce vinaigrette," said Hall, perking up our taste buds. For something equally appealing, try our Black-Eyed Pea and Grain Salad.

Buy It: Goya Blackeye Peas, Dry; $2.89, Instacart.com.

3. Canned Tomatoes

"When it comes to canned goods, I always have canned beans and canned tomatoes. I love Muir Glen fire roasted, diced tomatoes," shared Hall. Whether you're making salsa or whipping up a stew, these canned tomatoes will be put to good use.

Buy It: Muir Glen Tomatoes, Organic, Fire Roasted, Diced; $2.49, Instacart.com.

Ready to stock up? "The best time to order staples for your pantry, including snack foods, breakfast cereals, rice, beans, nuts, sauces and more is early in the morning or first thing when your local grocery store opens," says Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart's Trends Expert, noting that supermarkets typically restock items overnight, so that's when you may experience the best item availability. "To liken your odds of finding all the pantry staples on your shopping list, create and schedule your order the night before you'd like it to be delivered, so you can select the earliest delivery slot for the next morning."

Another neat Instacart shopping tip: "If you secretly love browsing the aisles to discover new products to try, the good news is that you can do it virtually, too," says Romaniuk. "Instacart's version of a leisurely stroll through the store is the 'Explore' tab, where you can virtually browse all the products from the snack aisle to the canned goods section, and everything in between."

Now, if only we could have Chef Hall virtually pop into our kitchen to guide us through one of her tantalizing recipes. Happy cooking, all.