Hi folks! Hope this is okay to post here. I also put it in r/povertykitchen but I thought slrpnk people would probably have a different perspective.

I recently got a very generous amount of groceries from the local food pantry, including a lot of fresh veggies that I wouldn’t normally buy for myself - I get frozen every time to make sure I don’t waste anything/let it go bad but honestly my diet is mostly carbs since it’s cheap. I have carrots, baby potatoes, cucumbers, a really shocking amount of onions, and some bell peppers. What’s the best way to stretch them as far as possible knowing I may not have access to more fresh veggies for a while (at least until I’m allowed to go back to the food pantry)?

My ideas so far -

  • Carrot cake, slice and freeze
  • Treat myself to a nice dinner with roast carrots, potatoes, and onions?
  • Cucumber sandwiches
  • Vegetable soup

As you can see I’m not really sure what to do with a fresh vegetable. Any ideas or should I just try to cook and eat it all as quickly as possible so it doesn’t go to waste?

  • nocturne@slrpnk.net
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    23 hours ago

    I love when I get a lot of onions and peppers. I grill them up then make a wrap with them, usually the grilled veggies, cheese, cyclospora free lettuce, and ranch dressing.

    I have also done the veggies on a sub roll with cheese and soy curls for a cheese “steak”.

    Same with the veggies, soy curls, in a tortilla for a fajita.

    Carrots make a good carrot salad, raisins, and a mayo like sauce, I think it might actually be Cole slaw sauce.

    My go to way to cook carrots is in a pan with a little veggie bouillon, some honey, maybe a dash of cayenne. Cook covered until almost fork tender, uncover cook and them until the bouillon is mostly gone and thickened, add a little butter to further thicken the liquid.

    They can also be boiled/steamed and mashed with potatoes, or other root veggies. Diced browned onions added to mashed potatoes add a great depth of flavor too.

    Depending how small the baby potatoes are, I cook mine in a pressure cooker with copious amounts of salt (only use potatoes with the peel fully intact or they absorb too much salt), they come out really tender, and are great served with some butter.

    Most if not all of this can be frozen once cooked.

    As for the cucumbers, there was a dude on TikTok that had some viral videos of some great cucumber salads. I think his name was Logan or something. The videos were so popular a lot of places were experiencing cucumber shortages.

    I have recipes for most of suggestion’s and Will gladly share if anything interests you.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      2 hours ago

      soy curls

      I’m looking up these “soy curls” and finding plenty of recipes using them as an ingredient, but none on how to make them yourself. :/

      • nocturne@slrpnk.net
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        2 hours ago

        They contain 1 ingredient, soybeans. I imagine they are made into a paste, extruded, and dried.

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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          1 hour ago

          I noticed reference to “stretching” but I’ll see if one of these videos shows how to do it. Will share back here if I find an answer