Sometimes we end up with a lot of one ingredient in the fridge or pantry, like squash or lemons, or you name it. And we want to use it up, but don't have a recipe that comes to mind that uses a large quantity of that ingredient.
If you ever find yourself in this position, take heart, because it isn't that hard to come up with a new dish that uses plenty of that ingredient, that tastes great, and you'll love.
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One of the stumbling block some of our clients hit when switching to WFPB (whole food plant based) eating is when they don't have the ingredients for a recipe, but there's plenty of food in the house to make something. What to do?
Another conundrum can be that there is so much of one thing you can't imagine how you could ever make a dish using that much and actually like it. Like the 5 Butternut Squash we got from a local grower, or the 4 super-ripe bananas that have been sitting in the fruit bowl for several days now.
Well, we've been doing this for a long time so it was no problem for us. But to help our clients, we created a "Tip Sheet" on what to use as a base to make Soups, Bean and Lentils dishes, Grain dishes and Bowls, as well as Oil-free Sauces and Dressings that can get you started. You can download it here.
With the basic ingredients from this sheet, you can add the ingredients you have on hand and produce a delicious meal. The great thing about WFPB is that great dishes don't require fancy sauces or spicing to please the palette. The vegetables speak for themselves and it's hard to go wrong with nature's natural flavours.
And there's another hack I've been using lately to give me a starting point using specific ingredients, and that's Chat GPT. I know AI is controversial for some, but it is like a personal assistant to me when it comes to a "rough draft" for a new recipe. I ask it to give me a vegan recipe for a lentil dish using this and that ingredients and it's there in a flash.
And Chat remembers that I'm WFPB and SOS-free (salt, oil and sugar), so I don't need to include that in the prompt.
I used to Google ideas for a dish and would read through numerous recipes on different websites and then blend them all together in my head. Chat does all that for me in a matter of seconds, referencing way more sites than I ever would, I'm sure. Where I would spend 30 minutes going back and forth and making notes, I'm off and running in minutes now.
And, just to let you know what we've done with all that squash, we've made Chocolate Pudding (substituting squash for the sweet potatoes), the Caribbean Rice we shared last week, a lentil and squash and dish, as well as a Squash Pasta dish, following the guidelines in our Tip Sheet for the basics of Bean & Lentil dishes.
The squash has disappeared, but it doesn't feel like we've been eating nothing but squash all week because the different tastes and textures of each dish make it a new, fresh experience each time.
So, if you find yourself with a lot of one ingredient on your hands, or don't have a recipe for the ingredients you do have, don't throw in the towel. Use these simple resources and you may be surprised. A number of our very favourite dishes came out of an almost empty cupboard, forcing us to combine things that we never had before. And, voila, a real gem.
The recipe is a Three Pepper Pasta. Lots of veggies and great taste. Enjoy.
To your Amazing Health,
Connie and Bill
Three Pepper Pasta (Serves 4)
- 500 grams pasta—penne, farfalle, or one you enjoy,
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1-pound mushrooms, sliced into pieces
- ¼ cup vegetable broth or filtered water
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 2 yellow peppers, diced
- 1 orange pepper, diced
- 1½ cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 zucchini, cut in quarter slices
- 1 tablespoon no salt seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy or red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Cashew Parmesan (recipe below and on our website)
Add onion, garlic, mushrooms and vegetable broth to a large pot and cook until mushrooms begin to soften.
While mushrooms are cooking, cook pasta, drain and set aside.
When mushrooms are soft, add peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and seasonings. Cook until vegetables begin to soften.
Add pasta and stir in well.
Top with Cashew Parmesan and serve.
Cashew Parmesan Cheese
- 1⁄4 cup sesame seeds
- 1⁄4 cup cashews
- 1⁄2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon Sumac (Optional to give salty taste)
- 1⁄4 tsp caraway seeds
- 1⁄4 tsp fennel seeds
Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until it has the chunkiness you like. Don't over-blend or it's like flour.