I skipped Food Waste Friday this past week due to the July 4th holiday, so here I am with my promised report.
It feels weird to write about food waste on a Monday!
First up, you all know about my kale struggles.
(You all left so many helpful comments in that post. Thank you!)
One thing several of you said was that orange juice and pineapple help to disguise the taste of kale in a smoothie. I had some OJ concentrate in the freezer, so I threw a little of that in along with some pineapple, blueberries, and peaches, and the resulting smoothie was far more drinkable.
Plus, it used up some miscellaneous frozen fruit and the last bit of oj concentrate in a can as well.
I still had more kale, and since many of you gave a shout-out to Zuppa Toscana as a great way to use up kale, I poked around on the web and found a recipe to use.
I saw that it called for chicken broth, and I remembered that I had a bunch of chicken bones in my kitchen freezer, just waiting to be turned into broth.
So, I threw them into a pot with some herbs and a few veggies.
I ended up with about 8 cups of broth, plus a lot more empty room in my freezer.
Win-win.
I only needed four cups for the soup, so I froze the rest.
(This is not the jar I froze. You can’t freeze this much broth in a glass jar or the jar will crack. Headspace is a must!)
When I took the chicken bones out, I realized I also had a number of bread odds and ends in the freezer, so I toasted and cooled them and used my food processor to turn them into bread crumbs.
The bread crumbs went back into the freezer for use the next time I make fish cakes.
I also defrosted a package of Italian sausage that had been living in the freezer for a while.
(You guys, my freezer is looking so much better now!)
Then I made the soup.
And you know what? It was pretty good.
I’ve never had it at Olive Garden, so I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the recipe, but it did make kale taste better!
The kale tasted a little like broccoli once it was in the soup, and I can totally deal with that.
I basically used this recipe, except that I subbed kale for spinach (obviously!), and I sauteed the bacon and the sausage in the same pot I cooked the soup in.
(I’m really quite unsure why the recipe calls for cooking the meats in a separate pan. It makes an extra dirty dish, plus you miss out on all the flavor from the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Use a single pot, I say!)
Oh! I made another kale smoothie too.
Thank you so much for helping me get through my kale bunch. I feel much more confident about my ability to use it up if it appears in my produce box again.
And hey, I managed to get a goodly amount of kale into our bodies this past week, so yay!
I’m not really out of the woods yet, because I have a new problem:
I actually have two heads of cabbage from my produce box.
Oof.
We are not a cabbage-loving family, so I’m at a bit of a loss here. No one here likes coleslaw or sauerkraut or cabbage rolls or much of anything else I can think of to do with cabbage.
Help me out here! What can you do with cabbage that can win over diehard cabbage haters?
Nikki
Tuesday 15th of July 2014
Cabbage pizza. For reals.
I've used this recipe before http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/08/16/cabbage-pizza/ but have also just put it on as a topping. After I discovered it's an awesome way to use cabbage, anyway!
Randi
Monday 14th of July 2014
Way to go, me for not noting that "no cabbage rolls" was mentioned. Lazy cabbage rolls taste almost nothing like cabbage rolls. Especially if you use bacon...
I almost forgot! Piergies!They're a little labour intensive, but they're little nuggest of delicious! carmelized onions, carmelized cabbage and mashed potato filling. My recipe is posted here for the dough... (scroll down) http://inspiringsavings.com/2013/02/09/latkes-potato-bacon-coupon-pierogies-recipe-contest-submissions/
the filling can be mixed and matched however you need... just make sure it's all well cooked.
Randi
Monday 14th of July 2014
Cabbage is one of those ingredients that doesn't seem like goes with anything sometimes. My husband loves it boiled (yuck!) but I like it incorporated into things. Egg rolls are tasty, but a lot of work, and don't necessarily use up a whole head. If you're looking to use up a whole head, make cabbage rolls (labour intensive... no lie), or lazy cabbage rolls. Very simple, in terms of ingredients.
1 large head of cabbage (or two small ones) 3-4 cups prepared rice (any type) 1 lb of bacon OR ground beef (I recommend 80-20) 2 large onions, diced salt, pepper 2 cans of tomato soup (IF you're making actual cabbage rolls)
If you're making rolls, freeze the head of cabbage and let it thaw, it will make using the leaves so much easier. Just cut out the thick stem. If you're making lazy cabbage rolls, shred whole raw cabbage.
Sautee the meat with the onions until the onions are slightly carmelized. Season appropriately (you're going to need a lot of salt if you use ground beef, and none if you use bacon) -drain about 1/2 the fat. Toss in the shredded cabbage, stir it as it cooks down. When the cabbage is cooked through and starting to carmelize add in the cooked rice and stir well, heating the rice through. Taste and season appropriately - serve hot or cold.
If you're making rolls, sautee meat and onions until cooked through, add rice, season to taste. Spoon about 2tbsp of cooled mixture into a whole leaf and roll it up like a burrito. Place seam side down in a baking pan. When whole pan is filled, top with tomato soup and bake in oven at 350 for about 40 mins to 1 hour, or until cabbage is tender. Serve.
Both these methods are GREAT for using up extra cabbage, I made lazy cabbage rolls last night, took about 40 minutes and used nappa cabbage in place of regular cabbage.
You could also make kim chi if you're adventurous!
Patty
Saturday 12th of July 2014
I like to make Chinese Chicken Salad. Any kind of cabbage works good. Chop up the cabbage into thin slices along with thin slices of peppers, snow peas and green onions. This is the base for the salad. Get some chicken thighs and marinate them in any honey ginger or teriyaki type sauce and then broil them. Slice the chicken into narrow strips. Mix all together with the cabbage.
Elizabeth
Saturday 12th of July 2014
We like Holupki (sp?) but you said no cabbage rolls so I'm not sure if that's what you meant. I don't usually like cabbage, but with tomato broth, beef, and rice it's yummy. You could also probably add some to a puréed soup, like squash soup?