A Pro Chef Is Sharing Grocery Store Tips And Tricks Everyone Should Know

Legumes are so versatile: They're cheap, readily available, and pretty much imperishable. They're also nutrient dense and a solid source of plant-based protein — which is extra useful if you're trying to eat healthily and affordably.

Buy them dried, then soak the legumes and leave them in your fridge overnight so they're not "grainy" tasting and they cook quicker. Assuming that you don’t throw them out and you keep them properly stored, buying legumes is a 100% return on your investment.

Check out: 38 Easy Recipes You Can Make With a Can of Beans and 21 Easy Can-to-Pan Dinners That All Start With Beans

Not all canned tomatoes are created equal — and it's worth double-checking the label to make sure you're getting the pure stuff, as opposed to tomatoes with added sugar, salt, or other ingredients.

To that point, try canned tomatoes whenever you're making something that calls for cooked tomatoes. Use raw tomatoes, obviously, for fresh salads and the like. But many argue that when you're cooking tomatoes, canned tomatoes taste better!

Check out: 20 Meals You'll Actually Want to Eat That Begin With a Can of Diced Tomatoes, 27 Delicious Ways to Use Tomatoes, and I Tried the Tomato Sauce Recipe That People Really, Really Love

Grab some huge sacks of rice when they go on sale. They'll last you a long time, and rice easily fills you up. (Just remember that rice is a pure carb, so you'll want to pair it with other nutrient-dense foods for a balanced diet.)

If you're looking for a side dish or base for fried rice, get long-grain rice. In terms of cooking, cooling, and reheating, it's often more forgiving than short-grain rice.

Check out: 12 Ways to Make Rice That's So Good, You'll Want to Eat It Cold, 10 Rice Recipes Perfect for Dinner, and How to Cook Perfect Rice Every Time

Barley has a chewy texture and expands around 3.5 times when you cook it, so it's sure to go a long way.

Check out: 3 Exciting Ways to Add Whole Grains to Your Breakfast

While a lot of people do store potatoes in the fridge, the lower temperatures cause the starch to turn into sugar. Oh, and treat potatoes like a starch, similar to grains and cereals.

Check out: The 34 Most Delicious Things You Can Do to Potatoes, 29 Amazing Potato Recipes That Will Keep You Cozy, and 21 Potato Recipes That Will Ruin You for Anything Else

They're nutritious, and you can use them in almost any dish — but it's important to keep them away from moisture when you're storing them.

Check out: Lentils and Rice With Caramelized Onions, Chopped Mediterranean Salad, Here's a Recipe for a Really Tasty Deep-Fried Blooming Onion, and French Onion Soup

They're full of nutrients, and they're a lot cheaper to buy when they're in season.

Check out: A Comprehensive Guide to Freezing Your Groceries so They Last Longer and These Miracle Plastic Containers Keep Berries Day One Fresh for Almost 2 Weeks

Oftentimes, these can include rutabagas, turnips, apples, corn, and cabbage (especially in the fall!). Just learn some good recipes for them, and you'll be eating well and saving money.

Check out: We Tried Eating "Ugly" Produce and It Tasted Exactly the Same As Other Produce

If you're not sure how long you can keep meats (and other food) in the fridge or freezer, here's a handy storage chart from the FDA, and here are some freezing and food safety guidelines from the FSIS.

While seafood is a solid protein choice, it's good to be mindful about whether the seafood you buy has been properly handled and stored. Make sure you're buying from a reputable brand.

A sushi chef (u/desumery) chimed in to add that if you do need frozen fish, get salmon because it retains its taste and texture through freezing better than other common types of fish.

To make sure you're supporting sustainable seafood, see Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch's recommendations. And see Seafood Health Facts for a guide on how to select seafood.