A huge box of veggies. There'll be lots of cooking (TGTG edition)

yirara

I love using Too Good To Go every now and then because I like getting surprising food and having to figure out what to do with it. Today I finally managed to get a leftover veggie and fruit bag from a local supermarket. Which was MASSIVE! This is what I got:


(note, about 8 mushrooms were included, but I'm allergic and left them there, and potatoes, not on the photo)

So what do I do with this? Food prices have gone through the roof here, so I'll try to add as little as possible or add cheap things. Rough ideas so far:
* Aubergine, zucchini, tomato, carrot, maybe potato for either a Palestinian or a Moroccan stew, both with chickpeas. Maybe I can do both mostly together so that I end up with 2-3 portions of each and serve with couscous or rice.
* Ukrainian borscht with beetroots, potato, carrot, bell pepper, maybe a bit of kohlrabi. Still uncertain about the protein. Maybe a sausage. Serve with bread.
* roast kohlrabi with a Spanish chunky sauce of bell pepper, tomato, garlic and almonds. Maybe with chicken breast.

As my planning sucks I just cooked three servings of doro wat today that I don't want to freeze. The stew and borscht will go in the freezer - provided I have enough space Yeah, my freezer is tiny. So I guess my dinners are kind of sorted for the next nearly 3 weeks. Each meal will in the end be between 500-600 calories, btw.

acpgee

That box looks great.
For the eggplant, potato and bell pepper I would make Sichuan Di San Xian, using an air fryer or convection oven for the aubergine and potato. Cube, toss in a little oil and air fry before stir frying everything together with the sauce.
https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/di-san-xian-chinese-sauteed-potato-eggplants-and-green-peppers/
My favourite easy thing to do with carrots is Portuguese marinated carrots.
https://arecipeforgluttony.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/in-portuguese-marinated-carrots/
Or following comments to this recipe, microwave until tender and then glaze in a tablespoon of butter and half a tablespoon of sugar with salt and pepper to taste.
If that is an iceberg lettuce at the bottom my favourite thing is to quarter it, drizzle olive oil on the cut edges and griddle on cast iron until the edges are blackened and drizzle with ranch or vinaigrette.

acpgee

The sous vide carrot recipe, where one of the comments suggests microwaving instead.
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-glazed-carrots-recipe

yirara

Oh, that Chinese recipe looks delicious! that's something to think about. Would have to be in a wok though as my only kitchen electronics are a rice cooker, kettle for tea and a hand blender. I use mortar and pestle for grinding and making marinades. Yeah, my kitchen is tiny and I don't have an air fryer or anything like it, and with current electricity prices I use the oven as little as possible.

The iceberg lettuce (I think it was) went to my neighbours as lettuces only taste like bitter water to me

acpgee

Air frying minimizes the oil needed for Di San Xian. You can also shallow fry on the stove in a sautee pan, using less oil than the recipe calls for if you use a non stick pan and keep the veg moving. I would do this. Cube the potatoes into half inch pieces and stir fry until tender in a little oil. Set aside. Do the aubergine in the remaining oil until tender and set aside. Finally stir fry the bell peppers with garlic. You can do this step several hours in advance. When you want to eat toss in the stir fry sauce sauce with the peppers and garlic and the potatoes and aubergine. Warm everything up in the sauce.

yirara

Oh yes, I know how to cook this. I've also kind of revolutionized cooking in one pan when a recipe asks for 3 or so Seriously, I have a proper stove top and oven, but not really any other kitchen electronics as worktop and storage space tends to be tiny in the kind of places I rent in the countries I live here in Europe. When I was in the UK I had 60cm worktop space for working, and 30cm for kettle and rice cooker. Things look a bit better at the moment, but that will change again some time in the future. Thus I don't buy kitchen electronics, especially not when I can do everything by hand as well. Plus for an air fryer: I don't like fried food, and fat means flavour.

yirara

Bootstrap cooking pt. 1
Lebanese chickpea, aubergine and zucchini stew done. 2 portions.
Moroccan same stew with potatoes nearly done. 5 portions.

Spent so far: 4 Euro box of fruit and veggies
3 tins of chickpeas: 1.80 Euro
3 onions: about 0.50 Euro
small amounts of garlic, ginger, lots of spices, raisins and dried apricots: small change?

thus currently I'm at about 0.9 Euro per dinner. Of course I need to add rice or couscous in the end. But with what I have left I can cook another 6-7 meals. And the fruits go into my breakfast.

yirara

Added to that:
200gr of chicken breast: 2 Euro
2-3 sausages: lets say 3 for 1.50
Tin of white beans 0.7 Euro
onions: 0.5 Euro
more spices, herbs, garlic: 0.5 Euro in total?
Bread: from a tgtg bag: 1 Euro
Beetroots: 1 Euro

I was wrong with above with regards to portions.
Lebanese chickpea stew: 3
Moroccan stew: 5
Chicken breast with kohlrabi and paprika sauce: 2
Ukrainian borscht: 4-5 portions

Adding all up plus above gives 1 to 0.93 Euro per portion for lots of delicious food. Not bad.