Taking in the garbage, aka refrigerator recycling

During this change of seasons, bits of this and that seem to pile up in the fridge. We've been trying to grab as much fresh produce as possible before frost disappears it for months. So we've got more than we can eat right away. Eventually that beautiful fresh food molders into "garbage." BUT before that happens, why not clean out the fridge and put all that buried treasure together into one delicious dish or another. Turn it into a free lunch. My own recent recycling efforts after clearing out and cleaning up the refrigerator produce these:

Minestrone Soup

I'm prejudiced toward this traditional Italian version of vegetable soup because it's such soul warming comfort, helped up the flavor heights by tossing in an old Parmesan rind. It's also vegetarian and gets hardy with the inclusion of white beans or chickpeas plus macaroni, ditalini or even orzo--any small pasta. Plus when serving you can top it all off with a spoonful of pesto--and use up the last fresh basil of the year.

There's no rigid rule for what vegetables you can use but it does help strengthen the flavor if you have a celery stalk and a carrot. Beyond that an onion. Then give it whatever you've got (cut into bite sized pieces): zucchini, green beans, corn, peas, tomatoes, bell peppers of any color, broccolini, cauliflower, kale.... If you've got fresh beans still in the pod, shell them and add.

What you'll need to proceed is olive oil-- enough to heavily coat the bottom of your soup pot, freshly ground black pepper, enough homemade or boxed vegetable broth or water to cover everything and make it soupy, half a can of white beans,  1/4-1/3 c small pasta depending on how much soup you have (it should not overpower the vegetables but just be one of them), 2 tbsp of tomato paste if you didn't have tomatoes to use, and a tsp of dried oregano. Optionally a tsp dried sage. Now further garbage recycling: a Parmesan rind; failing that about 2 tbsp grated Parmesan.  And finally in the end fresh flat leaf parsley and basil or pesto.

What to do?
Cover the bottom or a soup pot with olive oil.
Dice the onion, carrot, celery and any of its leaves. Toss into the hot oil with the Parmesan rind (not the cheese) and sauté on med heat while you chop up the other vegetables. Season the onion mix with freshly ground black pepper, oregano and sage. Add the other vegetables, stirring to blend. Add a pinch of salt. Pour in the broth/water, enough so that everything is submerged. Add the grated cheese if you didn't have a rind. Bring to a boil, lower heat to simmer, cover the pot and cook 20 minutes until veggies are all tender. Add the canned beans and tomato paste, stirring to blend.. Bring the pot back to a boil, be sure everything is still submerged, adding liquid if not. Add the small pasta with a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot and cook 10 minutes until the pasta has enlarged and is soft. Be sure there is always enough liquid so you will have a thick soup.

To serve, top with freshly chopped flat leaf parsley and a dollop of pesto or else a sprinkling of chopped fresh basil leaves. You can also freeze this.


My inevitable trash torte, this time with celery leaves added.

To the left you see the mountain of greenery clogging my vegetable bin after getting detached from its roots: red beet greens, Hakurei turnip tops, radish greens, celery leaves, scallion tops. All this garbage was enough for a nourishing, low calorie 9" Greek style torte with cheese. The perfect partner for minestrone soup!

I've posted the trash torte recipe before and it got included in the magazine ZEST! where it's still quite popular, I'm told. All you need, as the picture says, is a pile of greens.  This time I found celery leaves added addictive flavor and using red beet greens put intriguing touches of red in the baked torte.I also happened to have excess fennel fronds that gave a hint of licorice.

Best to use a removal bottom cake pan or pie plate; if not a pie plate. Olive oil whatever you use so the slices lift off easily. Preheat the oven to 400º.

Chop the greens or blitz them in a food processor.If you have the scallions themselves, include them. Onion flavor helps. Add chives if they're still in the garden or pot. Ditto dill. Cover the bottom or a saute pan with olive oil, heat it, add a spritz of freshly ground black pepper and then the greens. Cook over low heat just until they wilt, maybe 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Salt to your taste.

Stir in a big handful (say 1/4 c) grated parmesan cheese and another of whatever cheese you may have around. I had some shredded mozzarella this last time and it worked fine.  Lastly, stir in an extra large egg to hold it all together. If it looks like you need two eggs, or have only large eggs so need to, no worries. Blend it all up and turn it into the oiled pan. Level the top. Sprinkle with nutmeg. I sometimes sprinkle a few breadcrumbs on top, sometimes not. Sometimes I add cheese on top. Whatever.  Bake at 400º until a cake tester comes out clean or the top doesn't accept a fingerprint, should be 12-15 minutes.

Slice in wedges to serve. You can serve hot or at room temperature.

Cozy vegetable paella, with or without bits of chorizo 
Paella is the Spanish word for pilaf, a rice mixture dish of any kind. My Catalan friend, a professional cook, long ago taught me how her family whips up a vegetable version for fast food that's very comforting. Everyone eats it right out of the pan. There is no strict recipe for this; you just give it all you've got. In Spain that might include artichokes and chickpeas. At my house this time around it was celery, carrot, red bell pepper, Tuscan kale, leek, turnip, onion and a garlic clove. You add glam/bling with a pinch of saffron.

To feed 4, you'll need about 3 cups of chopped veggies, 1 1/2-2c paella rice (this is short grain starchy rice that cooks fast and soaks up juices) and 4 c veg broth. You can use chicken broth if you're not vegetarian just as you can toss in a handful of diced chorizo for authentic flavor if you're not kosher or halal either. A pinch of smoked paprika enhances authenticity too. Nobody will suspect you're just recycling leftovers.

A paella or a large sauté pan is what you need. Coat the bottom with olive oil without being skimpy. Over med heat, warm it up and put in the chorizo if using it to flavor everything. Cook 60 secs, then add the crunchier veggies like onion, carrot, celery, turnip, bell pepper. Grind the black pepper over them to your taste. Cook 5 min to soften. Season with smoked paprika. Add the remaining vegetables, a tsp of salt, the rice and a thick pinch of saffron, Stir to mix everything. Raise the heat and pour in the broth. When it begins to boil, drop heat to low/simmer, do not stir the pot! But watch to see if it needs more liquid as the rice rises. Cook until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and blossomed all over the pan, 12-15 minutes. Test a piece of rice to be sure it's soft. Serve and enjoy your thrifty treat.

Garlic Croutons

This is my favorite way to deal with three-day or more old bread. It beats tossing it into the trash because it saves you from having to purchase croutons made from some industrialized stale bread and lets you always have emergency crackers on hand. I've found these croutons add immensely to a Caesar salad as well as a tomato salad, the bread based salads known as fattoush and panzanella, to all sorts of soups when served on top, and when pressed into action under soft cheese slathered with homemade chutney or hummus or eggplant salad serve nobly. I store them in a tin.

Baguettes, olive bread, walnut bread, pain de levain, rustic rounds...it all works.
Line a baking sheet** with tin foil and preheat your oven to 325º. Cut what you've got into 1/4" thin cracker size pieces. I thinly slice baguettes. Fill a bowl with enough olive oil to coat each piece and add a minced garlic clove. Pushing a large one threw a garlic press is good. Stir it into the oil. Quickly dip each piece of bread into the garlicky olive oil and lay it on the tin foiled baking sheet. Keep a single layer. When every piece is done, put the baking sheet into the oven and bake until the bread is slightly golden and hard, maybe 20-30 minutes. Cool and wrap in that tin foil and put away in a tin. Or put the tin foil into a zip tight plastic bag and put that in the fridge.

**if you don't have that much bread to process, you can use the tray of the toaster oven. I do that a lot.

And finally, if none of the above works, you can throw everything into a full swing omelet or frittata.

NEXT UP: CHICKPEAS PART 6