The French call them les restes, we call them leftovers. Recently I was appalled to read an article that revealed a dirty little foodie secret: in the states we tend to get carried away and fill our market basket with fresh vegetables. Then we get busy, or don’t know exactly what to do with our bounty, and we throw a large proportion of them smack dab into the poubelle. Who would do such a thing! Then I realized: souvent, c’est moi!
A new study says, in fact, that we throw away 40% of our food (see Tara Parker-Pope's excellent article From Farm to Fridge to Garbage Can in the NY Times). You know how it goes. Your fridge is overflowing with good intentions. The beautiful veggies beam expectantly. You really meant to get out your recipe books and whip up some fabulous concoctions. But life intervenes–you went out to dinner, or you were in a hurry, or you grabbed a sandwich–and there you are, with WAY too much produce on your hands, all headed south.
I took a cue from frugal French cooks, and I now have a system. Here in southern Burgundy, market day is every Saturday in Cluny. So mid-week or at least by Friday, I clean out the vegetable drawer and put it all out on the counter, and I make something.
And here are my rules: I try to use everything, it has to be fast and quick, and it can’t require a recipe. I often end up with several days of lunches or side dishes, all ready to go, or cooked veggies ready to add to another dish. Brilliant! And with the money I’ve saved, I can go shopping for something really important, like shoes.
Details on my seat-of-the-pants method is below. Now how about y'all, how about giving up some of your tricks?
RECIPE IDEAS: Clean out the Fridge Day
Option 1: Cheerful Chopped Salads
Take most any fresh vegetable Including:
tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, green beans, onions (red, white, sweet or scallions), zucchini, yellow squash, artichokes, avocados, peppers of any sort, corn, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, celery, radishes.
Chop them up, steam them lightly if needed, depending on the type. You can stop here and dress the salad, or continue:
Add one of the following, cooked and cooled: rice , small cooked pasta, bulgur wheat, quinoa, or chopped potatoes. OR go Italian and add white beans, or go Mexican with black beans.
And/Or toss them with: fresh greens, such as arugula or baby spinach.
ADD as desired: fresh herbs, nuts, seeds, chopped cheese, croutons.
Toss the salad with French dressing #1 (you do keep a jar of this on hand, don’t you?) or your favorite salad dressing. Photo: A white bean and whatever salad.
Option 2: A One-dish Meal
Make Pasta Primavera: steam or sauté a combo of veggies and dish them out over pasta, dressed with some butter or olive oil, and top with parmesan cheese.
OR serve sautéed vegetables over grits or grains. If you want to add meat , throw in some cooked bacon, sausage, leftover chicken, etc. Photo: sauteed veggies for pasta or to start a soup.
Option 3: Roasting for Richness
Roasted veggies are supremely versatile, and delish. Some that take well to roasting are: tomatoes, squashes of all types, peppers, mushrooms, turnips, carrots, pumpkin, cauliflower, fennel, potatoes, onions.
To roast, toss with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and pepper; roast at 400F (200C) until done. A jelly roll pan works well, and don't crowd them (some veggies, like tomatos, do better in a slow oven with a longer cooking time).
SERVE them as a side dish, or re-heat and serve them over hot pasta, grits, polenta, rice, or grains. Photo: sweet potato slices, tossed in a little maple syrup and roasted.
Option 4: Make soup!
Just invent a new recipe with what you have on hand. Your really can’t mess this up. Soup is Good.
In the COMMENTS: Frank, I got a kick out your adventure with pears. Kelley is roasting pears in Paris—Kelley, will you be blogging about your Paris experiment? Christine who blogs at Pen at the Ready has a travel tip in her comment. If you're young at heart, please do go to the link that Paula suggests, a youtube children's book about a French monsieur with perfect pears, The Beast of Monsieur Racine. It's great fun, I sent it to my grandkids. Mariella's cooking with pears in Australia, Michelle in New England, and Dee, our pear cake recipe author, suggests a new twist.
Favorite Reads: OK ladies, speaking of shoe shopping, here's a book on how to get that elusive Paris style, even if you go to Paris only in your dreams. Check out Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris
12 thoughts on “‘Les Restes’: What to Do with Those Pesky Veggies”
I’m all about the roasting, or occasionally doing some quick kind of pasta stir fry that we toss with some leftover salmon. Unfortunately, lately it’s been too much of the take-out routine and we throw out all the good intentions sitting in our fridge.
Stock is good too. Put all the offending articles into a large saucepan, cover with cold water and simmer for a couple of hours. Cool, strain and freeze for later.
This is a fantastic post–one that I will come back to when I am stuck!!
Thank you et Bon Weekend!
Thanks, Lynn, for making some of us feel less guilty! The carrots in my crisper are rubbery and I forgot all about that big bag of parsley I carefully washed, then whirred through the salad spinner–all for nothing! Compost pile to the rescue… at least that is one way to feel less guilty: knowing that we are building good soil for the veggie patch! But should the veggie patch ever take off–then there’ll be all that guilt again–for how to use it all? Time to get to know the neighbors, and to barter 🙂
I did not get to provide my fantastic pear recpe last week, but I am delighted to report that it works just as well for THIS week. Should you have cabbage and pears wilting in the fridge, make this. If you have to, go buys them because…WOW! is all. could NOT be easier:
1 small cabbage (I used that hard green one, but next I will try it with red, then Savoy…) and three small pears (I used Comice; how I envy you those gorgeous French pears!). Slice everything, put it in a big bowl and toss it with olive oil, slat, pepper and maybe a stalk of some herb that is taking up space in the fridge: rosemary, thyme tarragon…bang it all out on a jelly roll pan and stick it in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Devour. This is not too much for two people as a main dish. Oh, Nelly, this is good.
A note on this week’s entry: I usually make stock with leftovers (rubbery carrots and wilted parsley work great, Kristen) and I usually do it with a good grade of chicken stock.
Does everyone know the trick of making “homeade” chicken stock from the dregs of a rotisserie chicken? Easy, fabulous way to always have stock on hand if, like me, you always have rotisseire chicken in the fridge (since my daughter went vegetarian last January, I now keep one for when I need some meat!) Be sure, when you are doing this, to add the jelly in the bottom of the chicken container (if there IS a chicken container. For those of you in Europe, where you get your chicken fro the guy on the street, I’d suggest you use save the drips from the plate you put the chicken on when you unwrapped it…oh, God, I want one of those chickens RIGHT NOW, and some of those little potatoes that they throw in the bootom of the rotisseries, soaking up the fat! Heaven, heaven, heaven!)
Learning to cook vegetarian has been so interesting and delicious, I am also eating much less meat. As I am all about presentation, I have been experimenting with that,as my plate changes dramatically. I’m learning a lot about what veggies are compatible — or not!
Oh, I love your posts…have a great weekend, wherever you are.
Linda in Maine, where the leaves are abreathtaking.
I think the US has a lot of spoilage because we tend to do our food shopping for the entire week on one day. Within two to three days, all that lovely produce is wilting. By the end of the week, it has to be tossed!
The French, and I am generalizing here, with smaller refrigerators & storage space, shop for groceries more frequently throughout the week = fresher food & less spoilage. I envy that!
One of the best soups I ever made was from a motley assortment of leftover/unused veggies after Thanksgiving! Agree with Linda that roasted chickens make the best stock. Try adding a beaten egg to your soup just before turning off the buner. Changes the consistency to a cream of… soup. Yum!
You have some great ideas here, Lynn. Merci!
I love roasted veggies. Other veggies that are good roasted are asparagus (with tarragon) and cauliflower (with curry powder).
This is also helpful with the current trend of joining CSAs (community supported agriculture) where we weekly get heaps of fresh vegetables – some of which we are not familiar with!
My composting operation keeps me from extreme guilt when “lost” vegetables are “found” during a refrigerator purge. Even the unrecognizably horrific ones can contribute to the next generation of garden soil in the yard. I try to catch them when they can still contribute something to some stock, but it helps with the guilt knowing that for vegetables at least, reincarnation as next years garden is a certainty.
Lynn, another wonderful post with even more wonderful recipes!
YUM!
We are all so fortunate to be extended members of the SFF family, and exchange thoughts and ideas!What a very nice part of life!
THANK YOU!
Bon journee!
Yes Linda! Making stock from a store bought rotisserie chicken is an awesome way to truly get your money’s worth! Last week I made the most delicious Chicken Rice soup that started from simmering that meaty carcass for about 2 hours and adding onion, carrot, parsley salt & pepper, and of course rice. Came out delicious.
Wow. This is a great post worthy of the save. I’m trying to build up those “muscles” of being able to just throw things together. Thank you!