|
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
Double-Use Produce
|
| Eating Economically at the
Co-op series |
by Miriam Axel-Lute
|
Two for the price of one!
What savvy shopper could pass up an offer like that?
Here’s a secret: Such deals are there, but unmarked, all over the
produce section, if you know what to look for. We’ve all heard about
how those who practice subsistence hunting don’t waste a single part of
an animal, carving hooks and arrowheads from bone and using hides for
clothing. In that spirit, we can take a step toward both eating well
and stretching our dollars by stretching the ways we use our veggies
and fruits. Here are some suggestions:
|
Turnip/beet
greens
|
Those
greens on top of your favorite roots aren’t just indicators of
freshness. They’re tasty and nutritious eating all in their own right!
Cut them off the roots as soon as you bring them home, and store in an
open plastic bag in the crisper, as you would with other greens. Use
wherever you would use spinach, chard, or kale.
|
Humble
stems
|
Broccoli
stems make a crunchy, healthy addition to stir-frys, soups, and
basically anywhere you’re using broccoli. Cut off the tough bottom inch
or two, peel with a vegetable peeler or paring knife, and slice or
julienne. Chard stems are colorful and fun to eat—slice and add in when
you are sautéing onions.
|
Winter
squash seeds
|
If
you’ve ever enjoyed roasting pumpkin seeds around Halloween, remember
that you can roast the seeds of any winter squash (such as acorn or
butternut), any time you use one. They’re a tasty snack high in good
fats. Just separate the seeds out from the stringy stuff (but don’t
wash them!), toss with 1 tablespoon oil per 1 cup of seeds and some
salt, and bake on a baking tray for 90 minutes at 250°. Then, if
you want, add seasonings and toast for 5 to 10 minutes at 350°. If
you want to wait until you’re using the oven already, or until you open
up another squash, the uncooked seeds will keep in the refrigerator for
a few days.
|
Inside-outside
citrus
|
Zest
every citrus fruit you buy, whether it’s an orange for eating or a
lemon for juicing. Keep the zest in a ziploc bag in your freezer, and
pull it out for a quick addition to everything from stirfries to cake
icing, without having to buy a separate fruit whose juice you didn’t
need.
|
Celery
leaves
|
Though
they are a little bitter to eat directly, fresh celery leaves can by
used as a parsley-like herb in salads, salsa, or soups. Some cooks use
them as a substitute for cilantro to appease those (like me, alas) with
the cilantro-tastes-likesoap gene.
|
Vegetable
stock
|
Homemade
stock is easier that you might think. Toss (clean) vegetable peels and
trimmings into a plastic bag in your freezer after you do your
chopping. Good things to include: onion peels, garlic ends, stems of
leafy greens, carrot tops and greens, apple and pear cores, beet and
turnip peelings, stems of fresh herbs. Avoid: bitter, waxy, or inedible
plant parts, such as cucumber peels, stone fruit pits, or citrus peels,
as well as anything moldy. Also skip uncooked potatoes, which don’t
freeze well.
When the bag is full, empty it into a pot, fill with water to cover,
add a bay leaf or two and a couple cloves (optional), simmer for a hour
or so, and strain.
Use your stock as a soup base, for cooking grains or dry beans, or
anywhere a recipe calls for vegetable stock. Remember that your stock
is unsalted, which most commercial preparations are not.
Even simpler is to save the steaming/ boiling water from cooking
individual vegetables. If you end up with have too much stock to save
or use, as I do when I’m blanching bunches of greens for freezing, use
it for fertilizer on your garden or houseplants.
Homemade stock keeps for a week or so in the fridge and freezes
wonderfully. In fact, if you have a partially empty freezer, filling
the rest of it with containers of frozen stock will help it operate
more efficiently. On the other hand, if you’re short on space, leave
the lid off and simmer for longer, reducing the volume to a concentrate.
How do you stretch your produce?
Send suggestions to writer@mjoy.org.
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
|
|
|
