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?
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.
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. :/
They contain 1 ingredient, soybeans. I imagine they are made into a paste, extruded, and dried.
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
This is where I get mine if you are unable to make your own. https://www.butlerfoods.com/product-list.html
Could pickle them. Especially the onions. Gives them a near endless shelf life so you can use them at what ever rate you like.
Onions → French onion soup
… which calls for lots of onions limited only by the size of your pot – having white wine is essential and ideally beef broth as well. Of course it’s good to eat the soup straight; better w/french bread and cheese under the broiler. And from there it’s quite versatile as leftovers that can be used in other things, like pot roast.
I really like a cucumber salad, sometimes it’s got more to it like carrots and chickpeas but sometimes it’s just a cucumber sliced up with a bit of soy sauce on it.
Carrots usually last weeks in the fridge, but they’d be good in a spaghetti sauce with the onions and bell peppers too—sautee all three with any spices you like until the onions and peppers are soft, then add a can of crushed tomatoes and simmer for a bit. You could make a big batch and freeze some if you really need to use a lot of veggies.
Absolutely treat yourself to a nice dinner of roasted veggies while things are fresh too!
Gnocci and soup for the freezer. I don’t know what to do with cucumbers apart from eating them fresh.
Potatoes and onions have really long shelf life and can last for months if kept in cool, dry and dark places. However you should not store them together as potatoes go bad really fast if stored near high ethylene producing food like onion, and onions get leaky quite fast from the humidity they absorb(?) from potatoes. Let them breath, and don’t keep them in locked containers, I usually just hang them with mesh bags in different locations
For carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers, I usually add little bit of water into a sealed container and it is enough to last another 3-4 weeks in the fridge
Pickling is also an option for all of them if you like it
Frozen cucumbers and bell peppers won’t have a great texture, but it’s fine for me to chuck them into soups, pourées, etc
Grated carrots are great as salad with a vinaigrette and panned-cooked as a side vegetable or in addition in a sauce.
For great amount of onions you can place them unpeeled on a tray in the oven until very soft and froze them for later use, pureed in a sauce or directly mixed with your grains.You can do mashed carrots. Mixed with potatoes or on its own.




