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Last night I used up the red lentils that have been sitting in my pantry for months now. I bought them by mistake, thinking that any old lentil would do, when I actually needed green ones to put in the salad I was going to make.
I looked up lentils in my Stephanie Alexander cookbook. She says they go well with bacon, tomatoes, warm spices like cumin, mustard seeds, chillies, ginger, garlic, lemons, and parsley.
Then I typed "red lentils" into the search bar at Taste.com.au, and came up with this recipe: Yoghurt-rubbed chicken with tomato lentils.
It was pretty tasty! I packaged up the leftovers right away, to be eaten today for lunch with a bit of bread.
One of the things that can leave you with spare ingredients in your pantry is not being careful when you shop.
I often make a list, but with vague items like "meat" or "cheese". By the time I get to the shops, I can't remember what I wanted them for, so I just pick whatever looks nice. Then I get home and realise I needed chicken, not lamb, or cheddar instead of brie :)
I'm trying to do better, having read this post at Unclutterer about creating a weekly meal plan. The comments on that post have some good tips too.
Do you plan your meals ahead, or are you a freestyler?
Comments
I'm definitely a freestyler! But I've found a great way to use up old stuff in the back of my pantry or freezer, and still make yummy food. I just pull out a few things that I think might go together, and type them all into Google at the same time. I've found all kinds of weird and wonderful recipes on the internet that I would never have thought of myself, or found in my limited selection of recipe books. I've found things such as chocolate bran muffins, mock chicken, prawns wrapped in sausage and some simple spanish tapas recipies!
This is a great way to jump ‘outside-the-box’ of my normal cuisines and learn how to cook new and interesting things. Over time, I've become better at picking which flavours go well together, and isn’t that what 'real' cooking is all about?
So, you can be an eco-friendly freestyler, plus improve your cooking skills!
It really just takes a spirit of adventure, doesn't it? I've found Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks' Companion quite good for getting me out of trouble when I've bought something I don't know how to cook - all the recipes are listed by ingredient, from common things to very unusual things, plus it gives a list of what other foods go with that ingredient.