Vegetables Archives – Karyn's Kitchen

What Goes with Fish That’s Quick and Delish?

Get inspired to cook a delicious and nutritious fish dinner that the whole family will love.

So, you’ve started shopping without a list, buying what looks fresh and on sale. You’re trying to eat healthier and have decided more fish is a good idea. Bravo! You don’t need a recipe. What you need is an idea to get dinner on the table without a lot of fuss. What goes with fish? Try making a quick caponata. A combination of vegetables with a tangy kick and a briny element is perfect for an oily, wild fish such as mackerel.

When shopping at the local Asian market for some pantry staples that I was in need of, I picked up some frozen mackerel fillets, fresh Japanese eggplant and tomatoes. Once I had defrosted the fish, I decided that something sweet, tangy and salty would complement it, so I got to work chopping the eggplant and tomatoes to prepare them to go into a big, lidded pot that would have room enough for the fish to poach on top of the vegetables. Yes, my friends! Everything in one pot is the easiest and I love doing fish this way. Quick, easy and delicious is the way to go.

If you need a more precise recipe for a caponata, you can try this one from the NY Times. However, if you are learning to cook without a recipe and develop your intuition in the kitchen, please focus on the basic concepts instead. See what ingredients you have available; decide on the direction of flavor you want to pursue and a cooking method. Then have some fun. For this dinner, here’s how I answered the question of what goes with fish:

Japanese eggplant, chopped
tomatoes, chopped
garlic, minced
olive oil
capers (for the briny element)
salt
white balsamic vinegar (for the tangy kick)

Any eggplant would do for this simple caponata. I tend to prefer the slender Japanese variety because they have fewer seeds and are sweeter. Therefore, I don’t feel the need to salt them and drain prior to cooking. If you wanted to go to a tiny bit more trouble, you could roast the eggplant before adding to the pot with your other ingredients. It will give you more depth of flavor that way. But in the heat of summer, I preferred not to turn on the oven and getting the eggplant started on the stovetop with some olive oil and garlic worked out just fine. The time it takes for them to cook will depend on how small you’ve chopped them, of course.

After about ten or fifteen minutes, I decided it was time to add a splash of vinegar and salt to taste. Tossed in the chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of capers before reducing the heat to its lowest setting so that I could lay the salted mackerel fillets on top and cover. Cook just until the fish flakes in the middle with a fork. This took about 12 minutes in this case. The variety of fish and its thickness will determine how long you should cook it. Just be sure to test it sooner rather than later. You can always cook it longer, but no one likes dry, overcooked fish. And these babies were anything but that, BTW!

poached mackerel fillets with eggplant caponata in a stainless-steel pot

What kind of fish can you find locally that’s economical? This would have also been great with salmon or seabass. What other ingredients do you think would go with this fish dinner? How about artichokes instead of eggplant? What about olives instead of capers? Maybe you would prefer to start this dish with onions? Can you combine all of those items? Why not?! Make sure to taste as you go and adjust accordingly. Does it need a touch of sugar? More acid or salt? Let us know in the comments how you make it your own and answer the question, “What goes with fish?”

The possibilities are endless when it comes to fish. Try this idea beginning with a savory roux and poaching with celery and bell peppers. And please share via your favorite social media if you are finding these tips useful.

How to Beat the Heat with Cold Beet Soup

If it’s good enough for a centenarian, this 3-ingredient cold beet soup is good enough for me!

What’s your favorite simple meal on a hot day? Cold beet soup is refreshing and couldn’t be easier to prepare. Michael’s parents love borscht, so I called to ask my mother-in-law how she makes hers. Chuckling, she answered, “I don’t make it. I buy it in a jar.” While I have no problem with that idea, I had some fresh beets that I wanted to use, so I decided to search for recipes online.

Guess what? I had no idea how many different versions existed ranging from the simple cold beet soup I had envisioned to a hearty winter stew comprised of multiple ingredients. Because it’s known as an Eastern European dish, I decided to ask a friend whose mother was originally from Czechoslovakia, (an area that would now be considered part of Ukraine), if she made borscht. Her reply reiterated what I had already discovered, “Borscht means different things to different people.” Thankfully the way her mother makes it consisted of only 3 ingredients and was always served cold in the summer. Bingo! That’s the cold beet soup I was looking for.

How to Make Cold Beet Soup

It’s really no trouble preparing beets. Just remember to put on a dark apron to protect your clothes from any splatter. After cutting off the greens and reserving for another meal, scrub the beets with a stiff bristled brush under running water. I generally don’t find it necessary to peel them, but I cut away any particularly rough bits where the root meets the stem and scrape off any hairlike roots with a paring knife. After chopping them into quarters or smaller, put them into a saucepan with enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and simmer until fork tender. Chill beets along with their cooking water. Once cold, grate or chop strained beets in the food processor.

To serve, put some plain yogurt into a bowl. Then stir in the beets and reserved cooking water. Top with sauerkraut. I was told that in the olden days, they added lemon juice instead. The sauerkraut is a new twist that Miriam substitutes, and I think it’s great this way.

Ingredients for Cold Beet Soup:

boiled beets in their cooking water
plain yogurt or sour cream
sauerkraut or lemon juice

If you’re into dietary supplements, you know that beet powder has been heavily advertised in recent years. There is no question that beets are good for you. While I have no issue with supplements per se, I dislike the idea of superfood fads and marketing the idea of taking a supplement rather than eating what’s found in nature. If longevity is what you’re after, take a cue from the Blue Zones. Eat a balanced diet with a variety of fresh vegetables, fermented foods and exercise regularly. Miriam, who makes this cold beet soup is nearly 100 years old. She makes her own sauerkraut for this dish. I confess that mine was store-bought, but I do believe that beets and some probiotics can’t hurt!

How might you tweak this recipe for your family’s taste? My husband didn’t like the sound of borscht when I wanted to serve him some, but he was just fine when I put it into his morning Nutribullet along with some lettuce, a few radishes and a couple mandarin oranges. So, adapt and find what works best for you and your family.

If you’re looking for ways to sneak in some fresh beets for a meat eater, read Take Your Burger Further with This Surprise Ingredient. Small changes over time can have a big impact.

Chilled Vegetable Soup is the Easy, No-Cook Answer

What’s at your local farmers market that will inspire your chilled vegetable soup this season?

Who feels like cooking on a hot, summer day? Not me! A simple chilled vegetable soup is an easy, make-ahead solution. There are endless possibilities based on the fresh produce available to you. A staple in our household is gazpacho, of which there are many variations. I haven’t yet traveled to Spain to taste the most authentic pureed version. However, our family enjoys its own creation consisting of many diced vegetables. Feel free to make it your own and improvise according to your taste but be sure to prepare it ahead of time so that it has sufficient time to chill. This is one of those dishes that definitely tastes best the next day. Pat yourself on the back for eating your vegetables while enjoying a different texture than a salad.

Ingredients for Chilled Vegetable Soup:

64-ounce bottle of V8 juice
½ green bell pepper, diced
3 green onions, chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
1 cup fresh diced tomatoes
3 ribs of celery, diced
2 Persian cucumbers, diced
4 radishes, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste, (less than a teaspoon)

Directions:

Into a big pitcher that can be covered and refrigerated, put each of the finely chopped vegetables. Season with garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil, vinegar, hot sauce and Worcestershire as you build the layers so that the flavors begin to marry. Toss to combine and pour in V8 juice. Stir, chill for at least a few hours, and serve.

Serving Gazpacho

Preparing this chilled vegetable soup ahead of time means that it’s perfect for a picnic. It makes a delightful first course or an accompaniment to a sandwich or lox and bagels. How about making it a complete meal by adding some bay shrimp and avocado for protein and texture? How will you add your own unique twist? Let us know in the comments below and share how you have been developing your intuition in the kitchen.

Looking for more refreshing ideas this summer? Try Cold Soba for your next picnic.

Making Skillet Pasta in a Bad Airbnb

No stockpot? No problem. You can make pasta in a skillet.

Who agrees that making pasta is just about the easiest thing ever? It can be the quickest and most satisfying meal as long as you don’t labor over a slow cooking sauce. That makes it perfect for preparing on vacation…. except when your airbnb rental doesn’t have a proper pot for boiling pasta water!

Listen up, hosts of short-term rentals. A big stock pot is one of the most necessary items to provide in a kitchen where guests are expected to prepare their own meals. Upon arrival to any new destination where I’ll be spending more than a night or two, I am bound to pick up a few basic essentials. For me that includes grapeseed oil, garlic, pasta, eggs and a fresh vegetable or two. My most recent Airbnb experience required some ingenuity as there was very little in the way of kitchen equipment. So, lacking a big pot, I learned to make skillet pasta. You know I’m always up for a challenge to try doing something in a new way!

How I Made Skillet Pasta With Rapini

First, I boiled water in the small saucepan that I had. Breaking the dry spaghetti in half so that it would fit in a skillet, I placed it in the bottom of an empty one. In the other skillet, I blanched some cut rapini or broccoli rabe. After draining, I sauteed it in grapeseed oil with chopped garlic. Once the water in the saucepan boiled, I poured it into the skillet with the spaghetti and turned the burner on to simmer. This took longer than boiling in a big pot, but it worked out just fine.

spaghetti with simmering water in a skillet, rapini cooking in another skillet and raw eggs in a white bowl.

Not knowing how this process would work exactly, I kept some water boiling on the back burner while I simmered the pasta so that I could add more water as needed. My idea was to have very little water remaining by the time the pasta was al dente and then to toss it with the rapini. Then I realized I needed a protein, so I whisked a couple of eggs together…using a fork, of course. You didn’t think a kitchen without a stockpot had a whisk, did you?! LOL.

Once the pasta was done, I spooned some of the hot water into the raw egg mixture while whisking. I wanted to temper the eggs so that they would gently cook without becoming scrambled. Tossing the tempered eggs with the cooked pasta and rapini finished their cooking process and yielded a richness to this simple meal of skillet pasta with rapini. Yum. My husband said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had some crusty garlic bread?” LOL. I reminded him it was like camping in this bad Airbnb that didn’t even have a coffee maker and I had done quite enough, thank you. Bless his heart. He got the message. He picked up some delicious Korean take-out the next night.

Is the idea of cooking eggs this way with pasta new to you? Try My Awesome Carbonara next.

Make Your Chicken Kabobs the Bomb

Cooking inspiration is everywhere! Try a simple marinade to make the best chicken kabobs.

How often I hear, “Karyn, your pictures look so good. You’re making me hungry!” Thank you, friends! My early pictures weren’t so good. I am glad to know I’m improving. BUT, have I inspired you to cook? That is my intent and I would love to know what you’ve been doing in the kitchen.

Yesterday I was asked about making kabobs. Immediately I shouted, “shawarma spices!” The question was really about cooking them, however. Simply put, I prefer to have meat and vegetables on separate skewers because they may need different cooking times, especially if you’re doing chicken kabobs. The exception is onion. I always enjoy onion alternating with chicken on a skewer…which leads me to the purpose of this post. Chicken and onion and shawarma spices with yogurt!

I’m salivating at the idea now. Do ideas about food ever keep you up at night? Recently I tried a recipe for a roasted chicken from Bon Appetit magazine. A recipe??? Yes, once in a while I do follow one…sort of. If something sounds particularly appealing, I will experiment with the general idea. Just don’t expect me to go line by line exactly.

So, you know I love a roasted chicken. It’s just about the easiest thing ever. According to this recipe, you marinate it in yogurt and shawarma spices. Cook it with onions, garlic and lemon slices. We enjoyed it, but now that I’m thinking about chicken kabobs, this could be the bomb! They say the yogurt is good for tenderizing and it was good for a little char. Mix it with shawarma spices and you have a winning combination.

With a couple tablespoons or so of shawarma spices, whisk in 4 cloves of crushed garlic, 1/4 cup of yogurt, and 2 Tablespoons of oil. Coat chicken in this mixture and season with salt. Let sit for 30 minutes before cooking or chill for up to 12 hours. Let chicken come to room temperature before cooking.

Ready to fire up the grill? What will you serve with your kabobs? Rice? Parsley salad? Hummus and flatbread? Yes, please! But honestly, this chicken and veggies are a meal on their own!

Make Shrimp Asparagus Risotto Your Easy Go-To Dish for Spring

Celebrate spring with shrimp asparagus risotto. It’s an easy main dish with so many possibilities.

Spring is here and asparagus is on sale. Eat with the seasons by combining asparagus with shrimp and arborio rice for a no fuss, one dish meal of risotto. Arborio rice releases its starch slowly while simmering with a little liquid added at regular intervals. The result is creamy and delicious. Look for it at an Italian market if your local chain doesn’t carry it. You will need two pots: one on the back burner for simmering a flavorful stock and a smaller one for cooking the risotto.

What will you use for stock? Packaged vegetable or chicken stock would be fine, but here at Karyn’s Kitchen, we waste nothing while looking for more flavor opportunities. So, if you’re using shrimp, put the shells into a pot of water to boil along with any veggie scraps you’ve been saving in the freezer. You will want to have about 4 times as much stock as dry rice to begin. You can always save any remaining stock for later. I always begin risotto with onion, so the ends of the onion go into the boiling water along with the tough, woody ends that I’ve snapped off the asparagus. I decided to add more seafood flavor by putting dried bonito flakes in my stock pot as well. Buy them at a Japanese market and keep in your pantry to make delicious seafood stock anytime.

Preparing the Risotto

Once you’ve got your stock simmering, sauté a chopped onion in some olive oil and butter. Once translucent, add the arborio rice. For two people, I tossed in a few handfuls. (This is one dish that I don’t recommend making more than you intend to eat for one meal because leftovers don’t retain the original texture.) Stir the rice to coat with fat and cook on medium/low heat for a couple of minutes before adding a splash of white wine. Once that has cooked down, add a ladle full of stock, stir and lower heat to simmer. (Because I had all kinds of loose bits floating in my stock, I ladled it through a small strainer. Unnecessary if your stock has already been clarified.)

The remainder of the cooking process is just to repeat, repeat, repeat adding a ladle full of stock, stirring and waiting for it to cook down. Add more stock each time before the mixture has completely dried. When it looks nearly done, taste a kernel and see if it’s tender. Ultimately, you want a toothsome center with a soft exterior. Don’t let it turn into mush. Once it’s just about al dente, which I find takes at least 30 minutes, add the shrimp and chopped asparagus. Both items take just a couple of minutes to cook. Shrimp should turn pink and opaque. Asparagus should turn bright green and remain crisp tender. That’s the way I like it anyway.

Flavoring Shrimp Asparagus Risotto

While your risotto is simmering away, you can explore your spice cabinet and see what flavors will complement what you have going. I chose a pinch of saffron and turmeric. A teaspoon of dried mint and a touch of fresh basil rounded things out. Eyeing a lemon, I decided to finish the dish by stirring in its juice at the end of cooking. You could add the zest of the lemon if you wanted to further brighten it up. Salt to taste.

So, there you have it. If you’re looking for an exact recipe with measurements to follow, you’re in the wrong place. Instead, think about proportions and flavor combinations using available ingredients in order to create a delicious, balanced meal you and your family will love. Start with an anchor ingredient. In this case, it was the fresh asparagus. Find a protein and a grain and have some fun experimenting in the kitchen. I didn’t mind stirring risotto on this occasion, but you could just as well prepare something similar by steaming another item from the pantry such as barley or farro. The choice is yours!

Ingredients For Stock:

water
shrimp shells
bonito flakes:
asparagus ends
onion and miscellaneous vegetable ends

Ingredients for Risotto:

arborio rice
onion
butter
olive oil
dry white wine
asparagus
shrimp
saffron
turmeric
dried mint
fresh basil
lemon juice
salt

What’s your favorite way to prepare asparagus? Try it with a lightened-up version of Beef Stroganoff.

Look To the Pantry For Easy Spicy Salad Dressing

Salad is never boring when it’s tossed with a great dressing. Try a spicy salad dressing with your favorite veggies.

In the mood for a spicy salad dressing? It’s easy to make one at home if you keep a few basic ingredients on hand. An oil, an acid and maybe a savory or sweet component are all you need to make a delicious dressing. Look at your available ingredients and decide in which direction to take your flavor profile.

Inspired by the last of the season’s sweet, colorful peppers, I decided to toss them together with some mixed greens, chopped red onion and browned ground turkey because that’s what was in my refrigerator. Another protein such as fish or some nuts would have worked just as well. How about some edamame? Hey, that sounds good, especially because this spicy salad dressing had an Asian influence. Get out your food processor, blender or mortar and pestle. Whichever is your favorite tool to smash some garlic and whisk some liquids together works for me.

Ingredients for Asian Influenced Spicy Salad Dressing:

one clove garlic, minced
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon mirin
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 drops sesame oil

What do we have here? An umami ingredient meets tangy, sweet and spicy. That’s the principle. Measurements are only a baseline to get you started because I want you to taste and adjust proportions according to what your palate prefers. I am not kidding about restraining yourself with the sesame oil though. It has a strong flavor and can quickly become overpowering. So start with a drop or two. You can always add more if you want to. That is why I keep this oil in the refrigerator. It takes me a while to go through it and I don’t want it going rancid. I blast through olive oil and grapeseed oil, so it can stay in the cupboard or on the countertop.

More on Substitutions

Basically, the above items are things I will always have on hand. If I didn’t have a fresh lime, I might have used a lemon or a vinegar of some kind instead. If I didn’t have mirin, I might have used some honey instead. Do these substitutions taste exactly the same? No, but that doesn’t really matter, as far as I’m concerned. What matters is that you learn to develop your intuition in the kitchen and cook with greater confidence using ingredients available to you. Learn to trust your palate as you experiment combining sweet, savory and spicy ingredients. Salad dressing can be made with an endless variety of items so long as it’s a pleasing consistency and complements the salad itself.

Instead of tender leafy greens, you could try a similar dressing with chopped or shredded cabbage. Keeping a head of cabbage in your refrigerator means you can shop less often and still eat fresh vegetables anytime. It’s delicious and nutritious cooked or raw and will keep much longer than other more perishable vegetables. Try this Amazing Zingy Unstuffed Cabbage Anytime.

How Do You Eat Greens? Swiss Chard is Easy and Delicious

Spice up greens according to your mood and the season. Create something wonderful with everyday ingredients combined in a new way.

Do you like to eat greens or want to know how to incorporate more into your diet? First, you have to make sure you buy a variety of them when you go grocery shopping. Swiss chard, kale, beet greens, collards, dandelion, radish, mustard etc. I love them all and make sure to stock up and use them in the appropriate order so that nothing goes to waste. Start with your tenderest greens and save the hardier ones for later in the week or next. I generally find swiss chard to be good for about a week in my fridge and I especially love to buy the red or rainbow chard because they’re so beautiful.

After defrosting some ground turkey for dinner, I realized I had some chard that needed to be used up. Time to eat greens. My anchor ingredients had been chosen. What should I do with those items? Michael requested pasta, so that defined the direction I would go with this meal. What else could round out this dish? I had part of a can of peeled tomatoes and the end of a carton of chicken broth left in the fridge, so I pulled those out. I was in the mood for some warming spices, so I took a few out of my cabinet. Cooking without a recipe is this simple. Experiment with combining different ingredients to find out how much you like to eat greens.

Putting It All Together

While I boiled the water for the linguine, I browned the ground turkey in a large skillet with grapeseed oil. Then I added some chopped onion and garlic to sauté. Seasoned with salt, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Poured in some red wine, scraping up all the browned bits to let that simmer and reduce. I added a couple of those canned tomatoes and smashed them into the mixture. Then added the chicken broth. At this point, I decided to add a little more depth of flavor with part of a chicken liver from my treasure chest of freezer gems. So I chiseled out a couple of small chunks with a butter knife and tossed them into the sauce, smashing them to incorporate as they cooked. Just before the noodles were done, I added the chard and covered so it could wilt down.

Using tongs, I removed the pasta from the boiling pot and mixed them with the sauce in the skillet. This was a delicious meal, prompting my husband to ask what spices I used. I don’t use cloves often enough and they’re amazing with meat and greens like this. Allspice and nutmeg also. Let me know what you think and how you like to eat greens.

Ingredients:

pasta
grapeseed oil
ground turkey
swiss chard
onion
garlic
canned tomatoes
chicken broth
dry red wine
chicken liver
cloves
allspice
nutmeg
salt

Want to experiment with beet greens? Read this next for inspiration.

Be Confident Cooking Fish, Such As Cod, in the Oven

It’s simple to cook moist, flavorful fish that everyone will love.

Are you afraid of cooking fish? It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, I find fish one of the easiest things to prepare. The most common crime is overcooking it. No one wants to eat something dry and tasteless. Fish should be anything but that. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever been served overcooked fish, you probably didn’t want to eat it again any time soon.

As usual, I did not know ahead of time what I would do with the cod that I had defrosted. That’s the fun of cooking: creating something delicious and new with ingredients on hand. I don’t often repeat exactly the same dish because ingredients available vary and I can’t be bothered with shopping lists and recipes. Buying lots of fresh vegetables, whole grains and proteins makes that possible.

Once I was ready to think about dinner, I looked at my produce and realized I had some tomatoes that I needed to use. What else would pair well with my anchor ingredient, the cod? Looking into my refrigerator, I remembered I had some feta. Hey, I don’t often use cheese with seafood, but I remembered a shrimp dish from a Greek restaurant that contained tomatoes and feta. It had been delicious, so I began to get inspired with a Mediterranean theme. Fresh fennel and some rice could round out this meal.

Here’s how I went about cooking this fish dinner:

Sliced fennel bulb and tossed with olive oil to put on the bottom of a casserole dish. Sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt. Spread a layer of leftover cooked brown turmeric rice on top of that. (Always cook extra rice because it comes in so handy for easily pulling together a future meal like this one.) Seasoned cod with garlic powder, dried oregano and salt. Topped each piece of cod with sliced tomatoes. Crumbled a couple of dice sized chunks of feta all around it and sprinkled some chopped parsley on top. Drizzled a touch of olive oil over the fish and covered casserole dish so everything would stay moist while baking at 350 for about 40 minutes.

Now, 40 minutes sounds like an awfully long time for fish. Here’s why it worked in this case: multiple layers of ingredients filling up a casserole dish take longer to cook. The cod I used were really thick chunks. The sliced tomatoes and casserole lid kept everything super moist. You want the fennel to get tender and the fish should just be cooked through until opaque and flaky. So start looking at it sooner rather than later. I checked on things after 20 minutes and then at ten minute intervals based on how it looked.

How Will You Know When It’s Done?

Fish was moist and juicy and the tomato had just begun to slump down. Test the middle with a fork to see if it flakes and is opaque. It looked beautiful in the baking dish and on the plate, but at the end of a very long day, I was more interested in eating than in taking pictures for your benefit. So, today’s picture is of a leftover bite just so you can see the way the inside of properly cooked cod should look. Never dry. Always flavorful and juicy.

So there you go. Cooking a fish dinner is so simple that it could become your favorite go-to meal. Develop your intuition in the kitchen and start cooking without a recipe. Here’s more on how to successfully bake fish fillets.

Ingredients I Used:

sliced fresh fennel bulb
cooked brown rice with turmeric
cod fillets
dried oregano
garlic powder
salt
olive oil
feta cheese
chopped parsley

A Pantry Meal In Minutes is Amazing

An impromptu meal is always attainable with a well stocked pantry and freezer.

After waiting on a business appointment that had gone very late, we decided to scrap our plans to go out for Chinese food. You gotta drive there, order, wait…I was too hungry to do all that, but my tastebuds were set for Chinese. What was the quickest pantry meal I could throw together that was the next best thing? Putting a pot of water on to boil, I imagined a chow mein-like dish with ingredients I had on hand. For me that meant spaghetti, pieces of leftover chicken, napa cabbage and julienned carrots in a great sauce.

I always have leftover pieces of chicken in the freezer and cabbage and carrots in the fridge, don’t you? Cabbage and carrots are superstars as far as I’m concerned. Good for you, colorful and with a long shelf life. Never be without them! Cooking without a recipe means intuitively using what you have to create something delicious. Don’t let the idea intimidate you. You can do it!

By the time the pasta had cooked, I had stir-fried the vegetables with:

minced garlic
minced ginger (kept in the freezer)
grapeseed oil
a touch of sesame oil

Heated the chicken through and seasoned everything with:

soy sauce
mirin (sweet cooking sake)
drizzle of oyster sauce
smidgeon of Sriracha sauce

After tossing the cooked noodles with the other ingredients, lunch was on the table. How’s that for a quick pantry meal?

Pantry Meal Basics

You will always find yourself prepared to create a great, impromptu meal if you stock a variety of proteins, veggies and starch/grains in various forms. Think fresh items with longer shelf life, dried goods and freezer gems. Sometimes I even open a can of something like cream of mushroom soup. It might be all you need to transform a couple of other ingredients into a satisfying dish on the fly.

Have you been benefiting from any of these ideas for stocking a pantry, keeping freezer flavor gems on hand and developing your intuition in the kitchen for cooking without a recipe? Please share via your favorite social media platform using the buttons below.