Paleo Food List and Pantry Guide

Paleo cooking centers on meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds, and it leaves out grains, legumes, dairy, and refined sugar. For a cook, the fun part is figuring out how to get the same textures and flavors you love without those staples. Here’s what’s on the paleo food list, the pantry swaps I reach for most, and a few techniques that keep paleo meals full of flavor.

What is paleo cooking?

The paleo diet, sometimes called the Stone Age, hunter-gatherer, or caveman diet, is modeled on the foods people ate before farming began: animals they could hunt or fish and plants they could gather. In the kitchen, that means building meals around protein and vegetables, using nuts, seeds, and root starches in place of flour, and cooking from scratch instead of reaching for packaged foods.

Paleo has a lot in common with the Whole30 program. Both skip grains, legumes, dairy, and refined sugar. Whole30 is a stricter 30-day program that also leaves out natural sweeteners and baked treats made with paleo ingredients, while paleo is meant to be an everyday way of eating.

Paleo food list

Here’s a quick guide to what fits, what to enjoy in moderation, and what’s left out. Exact rules vary a bit depending on who you ask, so use this as a starting point.

Foods to enjoy

• Meat and poultry, ideally grass-fed or pasture-raised when available
• Fish and shellfish, ideally wild-caught or sustainably sourced
• Eggs
• Vegetables, including sweet potatoes
• Fats like olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, nut oils, and animal fats
• Herbs, spices, and fermented foods

Foods to enjoy in moderation

• Fruit
• Nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pine nuts, and macadamia nuts
• Seeds like sesame, sunflower, and poppy seeds
• Starches like tapioca and arrowroot
• Natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar

Foods to avoid

• Processed and packaged foods
• Grains like wheat, rice, oats, and corn, plus grain-like seeds such as quinoa
• Legumes, including beans, peanuts, and soy products like tofu
• Refined sugar and artificial sweeteners
• Dairy
• Highly processed oils like corn, canola, vegetable, and safflower oil
• White potatoes
• Alcohol

Paleo pantry swaps

Most paleo cooking is finding stand-ins for a handful of everyday ingredients. These are the swaps I use most:

• Flour: Almond flour for baking and breading, and cassava flour for tortillas and flatbreads. See my guide to gluten-free flour alternatives for more options.
• Cornstarch: Arrowroot or tapioca starch to thicken sauces, gravies, and stews.
• Soy sauce: Coconut aminos for a similar salty, savory flavor that’s a little sweeter.
• Pasta and rice: Zucchini noodles or other vegetables cut on a spiralizer.
• Butter: Many paleo cooks use ghee, which is butter with the milk solids removed. Olive oil and avocado oil work well too.
• Sugar: Add a little honey or maple syrup to sauces, dressings, and baked treats.

Tips for cooking paleo

• Lean on browning. Without breading or flour-based sauces, searing and roasting do the heavy lifting. Pat meat and vegetables dry and give them room in the pan so the Maillard reaction can create deep, savory flavor.
• Brighten with acid and herbs. Fresh salsas like pineapple salsa and mango salsa, citrus, vinegar, and chopped herbs keep simple proteins and vegetables interesting.
• Add arrowroot at the end. Whisk it into a little cold water first, then stir it into a simmering sauce just until it thickens. It doesn’t hold up to long cooking the way flour does.
• Watch nut flours in the oven. Almond flour browns faster than wheat flour, so watch baked goods and tent them with foil if the tops darken before the centers set.

Paleo recipes to try

• Paleo Pancakes
• Sweet Potato Hash with Eggs
• Paleo Blueberry Muffins
• Baked Paleo Energy Bars

Looking for more ideas? Browse all of my paleo recipes.

Frequently Asked Questions