Sweetcorn, Peas & Mushrooms

These are the everyday tinned vegetables that sit happily between Asian and British cooking. Sweetcorn is cut from the cob and packed in water, peas are softened garden peas, mushrooms are sliced button mushrooms in brine, and carrots come sliced and cooked. None of them needs more than a warm through, which makes them the fastest way to add colour and bulk to a dish.

In an Indian kitchen, tinned peas go into matar paneer, aloo matar and keema matar, and sweetcorn becomes corn chaat with lime, chaat masala and red onion, or a sweetcorn soup in the Indo-Chinese style. Mushrooms suit mushroom masala, mushroom pulao and chilli mushroom. Carrots and peas together make a quick vegetable pulao or a filling for samosas and cutlets. Small tins suit a single meal, while large catering tins make sense for restaurants, takeaways and anyone cooking in quantity.

Drain and rinse brined vegetables before use, and add them near the end of cooking so they keep their shape. For the rest of the shelf, see tinned vegetables, where tinned tomatoes and saag and spinach sit alongside, and pick up an Indo-Chinese masala or a jar of chaat masala to finish them.