Make Do Food for the Crisis

[Dutto]

Having sorted through a cupboard - what the hell do I do with dried Adouki beans and quinoa flakes?
......

Soup
Soak beans and flakes overnight in salted water.
Drain and refill pan with water until covered by about 2cm.
Bring to the boil and skim off any scum.
Add 2 x stock cubes of choice (chicken, beef or vegetable).
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer until everything is fully cooked. (Beware1 Pulses that aren't fully cooked can result in some of the hardest turds known to mankind!)
Allow to cool a little before serving in soup bowls.

Serve the soup with a bit of grated cheese on top and with either croutons (see below) or with "soldiers" of toast.

Croutons
Cut up a couple of stale slices of bread into cubes.
Place the cubes in a plastic bag.
Add a sprinkling of salt.
Add bit of olive oil.
Shake everything together in the bag so that the olive oil and salt are evenly distributed.
Decant the contents of the bag on to a baking tray.
Stick it in a hot oven until dark brown (and crunchy).

Either sprinkle into soup or allow people to grab their own.

Nachos
If you have any Doritos or similar then why not make Nachos & Dip as a main meal, instead of eating them on their own as a snack?

For the Dip:

• Bring to the simmer a tin of chopped tomatoes in a saucepan.
• Add sufficient chopped chillies (or chilli flakes, Tabasco Sauce, Harissa etc) to give it some oomph.
• Add a dash of Soya Sauce.
• Add a dessertspoonful of sugar, honey or syrup.
• Keep simmering until the sauce is reduced to half the original size.
• Pour the sauce into a shallow bowl so that it can be used as a communal dip.

For the Nachos:

• Place a layer of Doritos in a shallow baking tray and then sprinkle on a thin layer of cheddar cheese.
• Repeating these layers to a maximum of three.
• Place in an oven at 150*C until the top layer of cheese melts and the edges of the Doritos go brown.
• Allow the Nachos to cool and then break them up into manageable portions.

Serve the two together whilst still warm.

 

[foxy]

+1 for the watercress, keep that going all the time, wasabi rocket is my rocket of choice. Also if you are growing sweet potatoes don't discard the leaves.
Nutritional Value

Sweet potato leaves contain niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, fiber, beta-carotene, and vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K. They also contain essential minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, and manganese.

 

[foxy]

As you will soon be collecting strawberries from the garden, give this a try. First had this in New York a few years ago and my youngest son has made it. Don't be put off if you think it isn't a good combination.
http://www.iconscoloursoftaste.com/en-us/Recipes/Strawberry-Recipes/Spaghetti-with-strawberries

 

[The Baron]

Use the leaves off Cauliflower as greens or stirfry, chop the stalk of the Broccoli into discs and use the same. Do not peel carrots, parsnips etc so no waste and better for you just wash any veg same with potatoes. Use less meat/mince and bulk out with frozen diced veg then add flavours such as chilli or dried soup to give that bit of extra taste

 

[kelper]

Use small dinner plates; save money, lose weight, extend your supplies.

 

[terrym]

My "go to" veg was always Spinach.

Grown in the garden (as opposed to the hydroponic farms that supply the supermarkets) it has a superb taste and the joy of it is that it can be cropped throughout the year, It really is a crop that keeps on giving!

Spinach is another veg that grows quickly. There are two sorts, the sort that you normally buy in the supermarket, and 'beet spinach' which looks and tastes more or less the same but is actually a root veg. The beet spinach grows a little slower but can overwinter. But normal is best cut young as a salad veg and will then keep coming with new leaves until it starts to go to seed, but this is helped if you plant a succession. And neither take up much space.

 

[kelper]

I've been growing a wasabi plant for two years. Looking forward to digging up the root and having some freshly grated on a jacket potato. I have a sharkskin grater at the ready.

 

[kelper]

If you are making a stew, crumble a black pudding in to make a rich, thick sauce.

 

[An Ankoù]

I tell you what, since a minor stomach issue I have discovered that lentils are in fact awesome.

These days we nearly always have a pack of 2 in the cupboard, they are insanely versatile.

we like the merchant gourmet range

You're not going to get very far with a pack of two!!!

 

[An Ankoù]

Use small dinner plates; save money, lose weight, extend your supplies.

Smaller plates and bigger glasses is the way to get through this.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

You're not going to get very far with a pack of two!!!

Lol yes true, but we haven't stocked up massively.

Some things we have more of than normal, but not many. Our cupboard is full of random stuff anyway.

Turns out it's actually been like that for a while, we just only really noticed when we did a stock take the other day lol.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Having sorted through a cupboard - what the hell do I do with dried Adouki beans and quinoa flakes?

Aduki/Azuki beans are great, one of my favourite store-cupboard ingredients. They're a nutty, more interesting version of kidney beans - great in chillis but also cassoulets, stews, bean salads and that kind of thing. You do need to soak them first though, but add them later than you would than kidney beans, as they tend to mush if you cook them too long.

Health nuts use quinoa flakes to add protein to almost anything, but in general think of them as a fancy replacement for oats - you can make porridge with them but also use them in flapjacks and things like that, or in stews.

+1 to black pudding making a lot of things better.

Also you can use a spoonful of Marmite to make any meat sauce better even if you don't like it on its own, it's full of umami goodness.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Thanks for the tips on the beans. Currently I'm soaking about 50g as of last night and changing water often. I want to see if they will sprout as they are old. If so I will blanch then add to a stir fry. If they don't they will get boiled and go in a chilli.
Quinoa flakes - flapjacks sound good.
Made some bread today. May plant more radishes and put out the sweet peas I started before all of this kicked off. Want them out of the way to make more room for food crops.

I grow alfalfa sprouts quite a lot and are great with a salad, coleslaw or with egg mayo, in sammiches etc. Takes about 10 days to be ready and grow in a jamjar.
Sometimes you can sprout brown lentils too. Just try soaking for 48 hours, then each day rinse and drain them. Keep warm. Eat when sprouts are about 1" long and don't leave them till they get leaves or they are tough at that stage.

 

[The Baron]

Try yoghurt breads they are like a cross between a flatbread and chapatti just make slightly thicker then they are like those flatbreads that you can fold over to make a sandwich or good with chilli/curry.
Just mix SR flour with plain unsweetened yoghurt until normal bread dough consistency then roll out and dry fry in a frying pan both sides.
They keep for a few days just clingfilm or wrap in a tea towel and freeze well too
Ps they are quick to make as no proving needed just roll out straight away and fry

 

[kelper]

As you will soon be collecting strawberries from the garden, give this a try. First had this in New York a few years ago and my youngest son has made it. Don't be put off if you think it isn't a good combination.
http://www.iconscoloursoftaste.com/en-us/Recipes/Strawberry-Recipes/Spaghetti-with-strawberries

This sounds disgusting! Bought spaghetti and strawberries today.

 

[foxy]

If you are making a stew, crumble a black pudding in to make a rich, thick sauce.

If I have black pudding on hand when I am making pork sausages I put it into the mincer with the pork to make pork and black pudding sausages.

 

[Rodcx500z]

This sounds disgusting! Bought spaghetti and strawberries today.

Don't fancy that, but strawberrys on a salad with salad cream is off the scale

 

[johncrobinson]

Lets hope clint is ok.

a message from you would be good

 

[Subtle Duck]

Don't fancy that, but strawberrys on a salad with salad cream is off the scale

My summer favourite is strawberries with a balsamic dip. Mmmm
Gonna have to try them with salad cream now

 

[foxy]

My summer favourite is strawberries with a balsamic dip. Mmmm
Gonna have to try them with salad cream now

Never heard of that combination until recently, I was telling an American brewer how to stop strawberries going mouldy in the fridge using water and white vinegar, he then told me he loved strawberries and balsamic vinegar, not tried it yet.