Using leftovers to make soup
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
I ended up with a fridge full of un-used vegetables the other week. It hadn’t been a super-busy time, instead I’d over-estimated my shopping.
I bought ingredients, forgetting I was going to spend the week developing recipes for an upcoming magazine issue. The recipe development created a lot of meals. Yet there was still the shopping I’d done for Richard and myself.
I hate wasting food. So I used my leftover vegies to make a vat of soup.
I chopped about 8 cups of vegetables into 2cm chunks. I put these into our largest pan, with some stock, onions, bay leaves, water, garlic, barley and red lentils.
I brought this lot to the boil and gently simmered it for about 45 minutes. While it takes some time, this is not intensive cooking. With only the odd stir required, I was free to do plenty of other things.
I then whizzed up the soup, using my stick blender. Before finishing it off with a couple of tablespoons of shoyu, a smidgeon of red wine vinegar and some pepper.
No vegetables were wasted and we now have a freezer full of soup – which is just as useful as having dal in there.
22 April, 2008
Comments
I love it when dishes come together this way—and no waste! And great to have some stock in the freezer, too.
Brilliant. Like a fridge clean out, only much more delicious.
I’ve been a little guilty of wastage lately.
Great idea, Kathryn, and a fantastic use of all those veggies. It’s always nice to have homemade meals tucked away in the freezer. And your soup sounds deliciously hearty.
The last line of the post made me smile :)
I find it immensely satisfying to have a freezer full of home-made meals. Although I realised on the weekend I haven’t labelled any of my recent cooking. Which means dinners are a freezer “surprise” – it’s the problem of cooking lots of bean-based dishes, they tend to look the same!
We have started leaving a marker pen on top of our freezer for writing down the names and date of the leftovers. I love having back up food.
soups are such great healthy comfort food and a simmering stockpot always makes the kitchen feel so homely
Good idea Sue – think I need a marker pen chained to the freezer. And Johanna, agreed. I love having soup simmering away, warming the house and filling it full of wonderful smells.
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