You’ll find it in your soup, soup…
Add article to favourites
"You'll find it in your soup" soup - using miso
Yesterday I announced my ‘spend no money’ food week. This week I’ve set myself the challenge of using up things I have found in the cupboards and, apart from fresh fruit and vegetables, I won’t be buying anything new.
I want to do this to reduce food waste (I Freecycled a load of stuff that was out of date), to create more space (otherwise I can’t see what it in the cupboards and I end up buying duplicates) and to get more organised in general.
Today’s ‘use it up’ item is packet miso soup.
Picture a soup-in-a-cup product but with miso instead of a regular exciting flavour.
Basically it’s liquid salt once you’ve poured boiling water onto it. But it’s so GOOD for you, right?
Another thing I’ve always wanted to do, yet not quite had the courage, is a true ‘you’ll find it in your soup’ soup.
This morning I headed to the fridge where I found Mrs Green’s special container of left over foods. Most of it was veggies from Sunday lunch – a couple of potatoes, some carrots, broccoli, kale and runner beans. There were also a few cooked lentils, half a jar of tomato sauce and some cream.
Usually I would separate the vegetables into more ‘usual’ combinations such as carrot and lentil, broccoli and cheese and the kale and runner beans would have probably ended up in the compost bin if I’m honest. Then I would have added other things such as barley, fried onions and spices to liven things up.
But I decided to take the bull by the horns and literally whiz everything from this container in the blender without adding anything else. Radical!
I loosened it with the aforementioned packet of miso soup and put it back in the fridge. It took me longer to clean the blender than prepare the soup …
At lunchtime I warmed the soup up and plopped it on the table infront of two hungry mouths. Yes it was a weird browny, greenish colour but hey, who cares?
The verdict?
One empty saucepan, two empty dishes, four licky lips and two round tummies.
I think it was a winner.
Did you use up items from your food cupboard today?
Readers who viewed this page, also viewed:
Don’t throw it away… That's rubbish, just throw it away ... How many times have you heard that or said…
Day 3 of my zero food waste week challenge Have we made any more food waste or used up leftovers?
weekly weigh in 50 Behold our rubbish bin this week. She's not looking too bad because we had a couple…
Private: Zero Waste Week! Welcome to the third National Zero Waste Week! National Zero Waste Week takes place week beginning…
Mrs Green makes baked beans! Recipe for baked beans from the 'no spend' food challenge
Easy Related Posts
Tags: food waste
I found a packet of diced turkey in the back of the freezer so that was made with some soy sauce, organic noodles and the usual veggies (from my veg box) into stirfry for 4. (pepper, onion, mushrooms, courgette and a tin of pineapple chunks)
Clean plates, with requests for it again another day.
There was also a tub of mince in gravy obviously leftovers from a previous meal, plus 2 hm burgers so that is all going to be made into mince cobbler in the slowcooker today.
The cobbler topping will go on during the last half hour and the dish will be put in the oven the crisp it up.
There is a cabbage in the veg box so that will go with as the accompanying veggie.
We leave for vacation this Friday – so while I always pack a lunch, I’ve threatened the teens that they can only eat leftovers, or what ever they find in the fridge for the rest of the week – no cooking new foods while I’m out of the house – or else they may have to face these same food options when we get back a week later. I imagine that they will start w/ the left over pie and leave the fruits and veggies hoping they will eventually land in the compost bin.
I’ve started using up leftovers. I created an anchovy-garlic-bean spread for use on crackers, and then thinned it out with milk and cream into a white sauce for our fish and vegetables the other night. That turned out well — Mr. Savvy asked for seconds on it, anyway, which is unusual in my house!
Not to derail the conversation or anything, but have you had good luck with Freecycle? Every time I post something, I get a lot of people flaking out!
We had a completely left-over lunch today. Bacon from last night, lettuce that was just hanging about, cheese that was being sold off cheap as it was at it’s sell-by-date, balsamic vinegar that was passed it’s sell-by-date and 3 lonely cherry tomatoes that hadn’t been used with the rest of the punnet. It made a really nice bacon salad and we’ve got enough left for tomorrow too. Although we’re not joining in on the only eat what’s already in your cupboards week we are trying really hard not to waste any of our food. We’ve cleared our fridge of a few nasties that were lurking in the back and we’re ready to go forward with visibility (of what’s actually in the fridge) and responsibility 🙂
@maisie dalziel: Sounds like some lovely recipes, Maisie. Stir fries are a great way to use things up and a mince cobbler sounds like just the sort of thing Little Miss Green would love. Is that like shepherds pie, but with a cobbler topping rather than mashed potato.
@Deb from Boston: Have a great time, Deb and it will be interesting to see what your teens get up to.
@SavvyChristine: I have always found Freecycle works well for us. Ok, so there is the odd let down, but I would say 95% have been fab – always picked up on time and very polite.
@Kira: Well done on your clear our of the fridge, Kira; it will be great to see how little food waste you can create – good luck!
@Mrs Green: Hi yes it is the same basic mince as shepherds pie but with a savoury scone/cobbler topping.
This goes down well with my 2 boys as well although DS2 prefers potato.
@maisie dalziel: Thank you ma’am; I think LMG would absolutely LOVE it. I’m going to try it – thank you!
Also with this for a more “rustic” look I don’t roll out the scone toping I just pinch off bits like making dumplings.