Tuesday, August 16, 2011

refrigerator soup

Today I thought I would share a little habit of sorts that I have been cooking up every week for the past month. Once a week when I bring my groceries home, I clear out and set aside any vegetables that are left from the previous week in the fridge. I really hate wasting good food, particularly of the organic type, and I find it is all too easy for vegies to become forgotten, only to emerge several weeks later, growing mould and totally inedible. Not nice. But my new system seems to have put a stop to this.

I make a big, all in one pot of soup from the leftover, not-as-fresh-as-it-could be vegetables. Last week I used my big cast iron pot, but I usually do this in the slow cooker. With the slow cooker I merely throw everything in water, without frying first.


But this day I fried the onion and any subsequent vegetable thrown in for a few minutes in some butter. I do like the taste of a little butter in soup.


Chopping up the vegies that were leftover. Today this was cauliflower...


cabbage...


zucchini and carrot. 


I then filled the pot with water, seasoned with salt and pepper and added some sprigs of thyme from the garden. You can also add handfuls of dried lentils, split peas or barley to bulk up the soup if needed. You can add combinations of herbs and spices if you like.

I allowed it to cook all afternoon. When I cook this in the slow cooker, I leave it cooking about 24 hours on it's low setting. 

Often I serve the soup as it is, but this time I pureed the soup with a stick blender and stirred in a small carton of cream. Stirring through until heated, and then adjusting seasonings.



Enjoy!

15 comments:

  1. I love that you do this! I hate wasting veggies and do end up putting most of the too ripe ones in our compost pile..but I like this idea even better!

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  2. What a fantastic easy idea! And I LOVE the look of the soup after you purée it :: YUM! I'm gonna do this today! Thanks xx

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  3. this is a great idea and super easy by the looks of it. pureed it does look tasty. thanks for sharing.

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  4. I am sure I have some less-than-fresh veggies lurking in the bottom of my fridge....soup it is :)

    x

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  5. My daughter and her partner do this also. They call it Fridgesstone ( as in Minestrone)

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  6. Now that is a great idea!! I mostly use vegies up before they get really icky but I think one big pot of soup that uses all the bits at once, when you refill the fridge, is great! Thank you!!

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  7. That soup looks really good! I have a few vegies lurking in the vegie crisper so will give this a try. Might try the slow cooker. I dislike wasting food too.

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  8. Tania that soup sounds warm and comfy perfect for the cold nights. I really will try and give this one a go, usually I give the not so fresh veggies to the chooks but this is a much better idea, thank you. xo

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  9. Great idea and the soup looks delish. Like Catherine we have a two step process of chooks first, then either the worm farm or compost if they are too far gone. I like the idea of the soup first but the chooks may not be impressed!

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  10. Great idea Tania with the veggies! You inspired me to make soup tonight and I used cream instead of milk, very creamy and yummy!

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  11. Great recipe Tania.

    I prefer to cook using this method as frying veggies first gives food a bit more flavour. My favourite addition is pearl barley.

    It is cold here today might make me some soup to warm the tummy. Hubby will have to do it though while I am recuperating. Bit difficult to chop veggies with one hand.

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  12. Your soup looks delicious! I just cooked up a batch this morning with left over veggies from the week - zucchini, carrot, cauliflower and celery. Dinner and a few lunches done! Yum!

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  13. What a savvy idea, I must remember this one.

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  14. We like to do the same in our house. We usually stir in some pasta and a can of tomatoes and call it 'fridg-e-strone'!

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  15. A very appropriate meal for a vegetarian like me.
    refrigerated trucks

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