Things to do with vegetables Part 4

Things to do with vegetables Part 4.

More cooking ideas for what to do with vegetables to make them last and how to use them. Restaurants may be open June 3 but I’ll still be cooking at home until things shake out. Plus not sure about the looting, and other related crime, etc. at this point. Below I’ve made: Sweet Potato Hash, Potato pancake, Roasted carrots and pickles with leftover pickle brine. Enjoy!

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Sweet potato hash

You can use this recipe from the Kitchn. I’ve modified it to be one large serving. Generally I just throw whatever I have around into it. I used the following from my freezer: caramelized onion, flash frozen red and yellow pepper strips and jalapenos, chopped kale, chipotle sauce. I also used fresh garlic and green onion.

1/2 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes. I diced my potatoes in the AM and put them in a bowl covered in water in the fridge because it was too hot to turn on the oven. When you’re ready to roast dump them in a strainer and rinse to remove and starch that was released while soaking. You’ll see at the bottom of the bowl. Then I dried them in a clean cloth towel for an hour. I roasted them at night, cooled on the sheet pan, stored in fridge. You should end up with about a cup.

To roast the potatoes: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. I used the same bowl I refrigerated them in (the bowl is dry). Coat them in a few tablespoons of olive oil. They should be pretty oily so they brown. Place in a single layer and spread out onto foil lined (easy clean up), rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle on salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes and then turn. Roast for another 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheet.

1/2 slice of thick cut or regular bacon How to freeze bacon and other food

1/4 cup caramelized onion. If you don’t have caramelized onion in your freezer follow this recipe. 1 cup of raw onion should reduce down to about 1/4 cup depending on how long you cook them.

1/4 cup diced red and yellow pepper How to flash sweet freeze peppers

1 T finely diced jalapeno or leave it out. How to freeze jalapenos (scroll to bottom)

1 cup frozen kale. How to freeze kale (scroll to bottom)

1 garlic clove crushed I use a garlic press.

1/2 green onion chopped from both ends – white and green. Maybe a tablespoon total.

1 teaspoon chipotle sauce. Or you can use chili in adobo, chili powder, cayenne, or skip the heat. I freeze chipotle sauce in 1 teaspoon mounds on parchment lined pan then place in zip top bag. How to freeze chipotle sauce, peppers, etc. (scroll to bottom)

I take all the frozen veges out of the freezer and dice them while frozen and leave them on a plate. Everything will thaw in a few minutes.

Cook the bacon, remove, wipe out grease, add 1 teaspoon olive oil.

Cook onions, peppers, jalapeños for a couple minutes. Break up the onions.

Add garlic and cook for a minute, add chipotle and stir into veges.

Stir in potatoes, then kale stir in, then white part green onion. Stir in.

Season w/salt and pepper as you go. Plate the hash, crumble and sprinkle on bacon and green part of green onion. Wipe out the pan and cook the egg. Or cook the egg in another pan while the hash stays warm in the pan. Delicious. Nap time!

Potato pancake

In this post I showed how I bake potatoes. Here are some other ideas of what to do with them.

Take a chilled baked potato and remove the peel. Mash it with a potato masher or fork. Add salt.

Heat butter and olive oil in an 8″ skillet. When it’s hot press the potato into the pan evenly.

Cook on medium heat for about 7 minutes until the bottom is brown. Slide pan onto cold burner. Place a dinner plate over the pan and carefully turn the skillet over so that the pancake is on the plate.

Return skillet to heat and add a little more butter and oil. When it’s hot slide the pancake in uncooked side down back into the pan.

Press in any wayward pieces.

Cook 3-5 more minutes until until brown on bottom. Slide out and eat. Crispy on the outside creamy on the inside. Yum!

Crispy on the outside creamy on the inside. Yum!

Add to soups and chili

In this post I make minestrone and chili with bean mixes. If I have a baked regular, sweet potato or squash lying around I dice it up and put it on the bottom of the serving bowl then add soup. I find that cooking raw potatoes in soup never comes out right. They take too long and can be too starchy.

Dice up left over potato and put into soups and chili.

Easy minestrone. I add potatoes and pasta into the bowl and then add hot soup.

Roasted carrots

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel or leave peel on 1 lb. carrots. My carrots were from Imperfect Foods so they weren’t very pretty so I peeled them. Cut into 1′ x 4′ sticks. To make even sticks you’ll have some excess carrot. I just eat it raw! Place in bowl and toss carrots with 2 T olive oil, 2 T maple syrup, salt and pepper. I use a lot of olive oil and maple so they brown nicely. If you don’t have maple syrup you can use honey. Place in a single layer and spread out onto foil lined (easy clean up), rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 20 min. Plate and squeeze on fresh lemon. If I had parsley or chives I would sprinkle them on when done. Yummy. Easy. Dinner. 🐇 🥕

Make pickles

I stuck my fork into my Vlasic jar last week and came up empty. So I knew you could do this – reuse that liquid gold to make your own pickles. I followed this. I ordered an English cucumber from Imperfect Foods and when it arrived I did the following:

I sliced the cucumber 1/4” thickness on my mandoline. I eyeballed it – that is I sliced just enough so they would be covered by the remaining juice.

I placed them in a colander and sprinkled wth salt and let them drain for one hour.

I poured the leftover pickle juice into a small sauce pan and turned the heat on high.

I placed the new slices into the old Vlasic jar.

The liquid reached boiling within 5 minutes. I immediately took the pan off the heat and poured the juice over the new slices and sealed the jar.

I put the jar in a metal bowl and waited about 15 minutes and then I put it in the fridge. I used the metal bowl in case the jar cracked or exploded because I didn’t want to have to clean that up!

After 24 hours I tasted the pickles and they weren’t right so I sealed up the jar and waited another 12 hours and they are pretty good! Nice and crispy bread and butters.