Photo by kaktuslampa
Here’s how to turn those soggy, old vegetables into something delicious.
It happens to all of us. You go shopping with the best of intentions. Then a week passes. Two. Maybe even three, and you find yourself with a drawer full of old vegetables. They’re still edible, technically, but no one really wants to dig into their soft wrinkly skin.
Some ideas of what you can do with instead of throwing them away.
Pickling
From kimchi to kosher dills, pickling has been preserving food for centuries. You can read about the science of pickling and compare notes with other picklers at the Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception.
Pickling works best as a preemptive strike. Say you went to the market, got all excited and ended up buying more than you need. It’s simple, quick to prepare and has a long shelf life.
A Simple Pickling Recipe
Photo by biskuit
3 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
¼ cup salt
Then add whichever spices appeal: dill, whole allspice, whole raw garlic, celery seeds, mustard seeds, whole black peppercorns.
Use this liquid to preserve just about anything from tomatoes , cucumbers, carrots and peppers to fruits like mango and peaches. Store in the refridgerator.
Boil It Into A Jam Or Sauce
Chutneys, preserves and sauces provide ample opportunity to hide imperfections.
Sautee garlic, onions and spices before adding your old tomatoes. Cook them until saucy. You can also throw in any other vegetables or even fruit pureed or whole for additional flavor. Jams are also easy in that you simply heat your old fruit with water and sugar and cook until thick.
Chutney, a more savory type jam, works on a similar principle as pickling except where pickling is cold, chutney is heated. Throw in fruits like mango, apples and peaches with vinegar, sugar and spices and cook.
Spicy Apple Chutney
Photo by Clara S.
4 apples, peeled and quartered
2 tbs vegetable oil
Whole mustard seeds
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger
1-2 chillies of your choice, sliced. Include seeds for a spicier.
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup red wine or apple vinegar
1 cup water
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add mustard seeds until toasted. Then add onion, and salt and cook until onions are translucent. Add garlic, chile and ginger and cook another minute. This releases the flavor of these last ingredients.
Add remaining ingredients and cook over moderate heat until everything is soft. Takes between 30-45 minutes depending. Stir occasionally to keep from burning.
Roast Them
Salvage your root vegetables – potato, yam, carrot, turnip and the like – by roasting.
Batatas Bravas
Chop whatever you have into bite sized pieces, coat generously with olive oil, salt and powdered chile pepper. Bake for 30 minutes at about 375F/200C until soft. Then turn oven to broil and let cook until everything turns crispy. Add more oil if you see the pan drying out.
These are incredibly spicy and go perfectly with beer.
Hide It All In A Soup
Again, the boiling principle comes to the rescue. Just about any vegetable can be salvaged by a pot of water, vegetable stock cubes or tomato sauce and spices.
Vegetable Soup
Photo by rusvaplauke
3 tbs olive oil
4 cups of whatever vegetables you want to add, chopped into bite size pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp rosemary
1 16oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 16oz cans of water
4 tbs dark soy sauce (also called sweet soy sauce)
4 tbs regular soy sauce
Heat oil until it runs like water in the pan. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and rosemary and leave on heat for another minute. Add rest of vegetables and cook.
When the vegetables just begin to soften, add crushed tomatoes and water and cook covered for half an hour. Pour in both kinds of soy sauce and cook uncovered for another ten minutes. You may want to add additional soy sauce depending on your preference.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION:
What are your favorite food preservation recipes, tips and tricks? Share them in comments below. Then check out Matador’s Food and Travel page where two favorite past times unite.
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15 Comments... join the discussion!
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Very cool. My wife likes to toss it all in the juicer. I’ve had juice of just about every color, and it’s usually delicious.
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Good one, Hal. Yes. Juicing and also drying — sort of what Susanna says below.
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Oooh, very good ideas! We have recently had the revelation that sometimes, old, wrinkled apples (not moldy — just oldy) taste fantastic, like their sweetness is condensed as the liquid slowly evaporates.
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I have to admit, I’m squeamish in that sense. Very particularly about how I’ll eat fruit and veg raw.
But what you’re saying is the same principle as dried fruit, right? The only thing that pops to mind now is the Ron Popeil food dryer — in which I’m told you can dry anything — but I’m sure it can be done in the oven too.
Will have to go look that up and try it.
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My roomie and I will often roast our leftover veggies! We’ll coat them with a bit of oil, sprinkle with rosemary and pepper, and they taste delish.
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Great tips at a perfect time: I’ve been guiltily staring at the wilted chard and kale in my fridge, wondering what to do with it.
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I love both of those, and they work really well in the soup. Roasting also, but my favorite thing to do with both those greens is sautee garlic in a good amount of olive oil, throw in the chopped greens, let them cook a little.
Then at the end, you just add salt to taste and squeeze half a lemon on top.
Greens are always funny in that way. At least with us. For whatever reason, it just feels like more work dealing with them so they end up sitting around longer.
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Fantastic, Leigh! Looks delicious and makes my mouth water
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That stew looks delicious.
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Thanks Leigh, I love this! I never realized it was so easy to pickle. And probably way healthier, too.
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Yep. It’s pretty straight forward. Pickling actually works on a similar principle as making some tinctures and such in herbal medicine, except you’re using vinegar instead of alcohol.
Pickling, canning and syrups were how people kept healthy in the pre-allopathic medicine days. It doubled as both food as medication and food preservation.
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Wow, I’ve always thought that pickling and canning went hand-in-hand, and it seemed like too much of a hassle to me. How long does the pickled whatever stay fresh in the fridge using your recipe above?
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Most recipes I’ve seen say up to two months, but the reality is vinegar and salt are age old methods of food preservation. My guess is you can keep them for much, much longer.
I can’t say for sure, though, because when I make them, they’re not really around for more than a few days after being ready. Especially pickles. And chutney and jams tend to be eaten the same day, often when still warm.
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Great suggestions, Leigh! I love finding great bargains at markets, but then hate if the stuff goes to waste.
I was a bit overzealous with the Korean cucumber buying last week when I thought I would make Japanese pickles. Time got on and I realised that I’d never gone to buy the salt (it takes kilos) so they have now been sitting in my fridge for two days in salty vinegar. They’re pretty nice, but I’ll try your recipe in future since I, stupidly, didn’t watch the proportions of what I was throwing in this time.
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