7 Ingredients Every Food Truck Owner Needs to Use to Maximize Profit

7 Ingredients Every Food Truck Owner Needs to Use to Maximize Profit

Lowering your food cost is the simplest and one of the most effective ways to increase your food truck’s profit margin. The following ingredients are cheap and so easy to work with they can be incorporated into almost any menu and setup.

1 – Sour Cream

Let’s start this list with something that is often overlooked. Sour cream is a good base for many homemade sauces that are cheap and can attract attention to your business. Use cheap sour cream and add yougurt, lime juice and a bit of citrus soda for a creamy lime sauce that goes good an many meat and veggie dishes. Add chipotle for a spicy sauce. There are many possibilities here. Making your own sauces can attract business and save you money.

2 – Rice

Buy it in bulk. Use it as a bed for meat, grilled veggies, beans or any other suitable menu item. Avoid boring soy, and add a squirt of savory Japanese gourmet sauce for an interesting flavor. Consider adding items that feature rice, like beans and rice, stir fry, chilli or soup.

3 – Tortillas

They are versatile and add visual appeal to food. Chances are that some of your current menu items and combos can be rolled in a tortilla, called a wrap and sold for a higher price than a plate. Or you can charge the same price and put less food into it. Either way, your profit margin goes up.

Lay a tortilla on a flat grill. Add rice, some canned black beans, cheese and spice to one side. Fold the tortilla over onto itself. Flip it over after a minute. There you have a quesadilla. Get creative. Marinara, mozzarella and pepperoni make a “pizzadilla.” American cheese, eggs and bacon or sausage make a “breakfast-dilla.”

4 – Eggs

 Eggs are still pretty cheap, and you can charge a premium for a good egg item.

One fried egg between two slices of bread makes a quick, easy and delicious foundation for an anytime sandwich. Cut a hole in a piece of bread, then beak an egg into the hole as the whole thing fries on a flat-top grill for egg-in-a-basket. You don’t have to have a breakfast-all-day menu to take advantage of the revenue eggs can bring.

5 – Rolls

A good roll can form the basis of a great sandwich. There is a little more cost associated with Kaiser, sesame and poppy seed rolls as opposed to plain hamburger buns, especially if you go with bakery-fresh rolls, but you can charge more.

There are other things you can do with rolls other than sandwiches. Cut a plug or cone out of the top of a roll and fill it with a thick soup, like cheddar or New England clam chowder. Call it a bread bowl. The simple egg sandwiches mentioned above take on a whole new dimension of flavor and texture when made with a roll.

6 – Processed Patties

These precooked frozen patties come in chicken, imitation veal, chuck wagon and many other varieties. They are inexpensive, flavorful, have a long freezer life and can be a real crowd pleaser.

Make sandwiches out of them. Add some red sauce and parmesan to an imitation veal sandwich for veal parmesan. Some onions and barbeque sauce goes on a chuck wagon party for a cowboy burger. Let your culinary creativity go wild.

7 – Onions

Onions are cheap and they last for weeks or even months. It takes about one minute to cut, dip and fry a blooming onion. Onion rings are a popular and easy side that hold up under a heat bulb very well. Use chopped and sautéed onions to bulk up any veggie, meat or combo plate for cost savings.

Don’t just raise your prices. Add more cost effective ingredients to your menu items to keep your customers on the hook, attract new ones and pad your bottom line.