What’s in YOUR pantry?
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After “cauliflower”gate … when that lovely white orb was selling for $12 a head (or more accurately, not selling) I started to really pay attention to my grocery bill. Raise your hand if your grocery bill has a higher than normal number at the bottom.
Ok – so here is my challenge to you (and to myself) Be intentional about using up the food that you already have in your fridge and pantry!
Recipe # 1
Not sure what to do with those cured olives. Are your organic peppers looking like they need a shot of “Oil of Olay!” Never fear. Cut the past-their-prime peppers into big chucks, and throw them and the olives and some mini red potatoes in a pan, toss with some olive oil and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes – dELish
Hmm – you may look in my pantry and see 2 cans of pumpkin left over from Christmas. I see the foundation for a curried pumpkin soup. There was also a can of coconut milk in the back corner
Recipe # 2 is a recipe that I adapted from Taste of Home to use those ingredients:
2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
½ chopped sweet onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp curry (or more)
1 litre vegetable broth
1 can pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg.
In a large saucepan, sauté mushrooms, onion, garlic and ginger until tender. Add curry and stir to blend. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add pumpkin, coconut milk, honey, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Heat through and enjoy!
Now onto the chestnuts … 3 packages!
My sister-in-law made an amazing vegetarian tortiere … I adapted the recipe to make a crust-less version and served it with roasted beets. My pantry has a few less things in it AND I stretched out our food, so that I didn’t have to return to the grocery store so soon. However, this is so good, you may have to ADD chestnuts to your list.
Recipe # 3
CHESTNUT MUSHROOM Yummy-ness
1 ( 15g) package of dried mushrooms
8 oz (250g) cremini or white mushrooms
3 T butter (or oil)
1 stalk celery, diced
½ cup sweet onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage or ¾ tsp dried sage
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp pepper
3 ( 100g) packages of vacuum packed, cooked, peeled chestnuts
1. In small heatproof bowl, pour 1 c boiling water over dried mushrooms; let stand 15 minutes. Reserving liquid, transfer mushrooms to food processor and add cremini (or white) mushrooms. Pulse until chopped.
2. In large skillet, melt butter or oil over medium-high heat and cook celery, onion and carrot until softened, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Stir in chopped mushrooms, sage, salt allspice and pepper; cook until mushrooms are softened about 4 minutes. Stir in reserved mushroom liquid and cook until almost all liquid is evaporated about 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to large bowl; let cool slightly.
3. Pulse chestnuts in food processor until coarsely chopped. Stir into mushroom mixture.
And finally granola mix and aging apples.
I’m sure everyone has a favourite apple crisp recipe – so just use the granola in place of flour or oatmeal. I achieved this amazing sauce with coconut sugar – about 1/2 cup mixed in with the sliced apples.
Please let me know if you took my challenge and let me know what’s in YOUR pantry and what you made with it. Happy cooking!