So I was making gazpacho yesterday and I reached for my honey and could not find it anywhere. It was, no doubt, off cavorting somewhere with Cole’s mustard, looking for a stray bottle of balsamic vinegar so they could have an impromptu get-together and turn themselves into salad dressing. But I digress.
The gazpacho calls for fresh lime juice, fresh lemon juice and wine vinegar, so it definitely needs a little something for balance, but I couldn’t bear to add sugar and I was sure I would get the proportion wrong and ruin my gazpacho, so I called my neighbor and she gave me the 1 teaspoon of honey I needed.
Then today I foraged for lunch items in the fridge. I had taco meat and cheese and salsa, but no lettuce, no tomatoes, no avocados. So I melted the cheese on my tortilla, mixed some taco meat with the salsa and heated that up, and then out of desperation I added some veggies from my gazpacho. (I don’t blend my gazpacho like some people do, so there are good-sized chunks of cucumber, red pepper and tomatoes in the gazpacho.)
My last thought before scooping out the veggies and adding them to my tortilla and meat was “how bad can it be?”
As it turns out, it was awesome. I would not have predicted, but it was really, really good.
Another time I had a tiny bit of chili left and a tiny bit of southwest vegetable soup left, so I heated them up together. That was pretty good, too!
What kinds of stuff have you thrown together out of necessity – or a sense of adventure – and what were your results?
Totally open thread.
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joel hanes
The shrimp and veggies from leftover kung-pao shrimp can be used to make a delightful omelette.
Gin & Tonic
Honey in gazpacho?!
RaflW
I needed a quick meal the other night, with a sore hand (tendinitis). I had 1&1/2 grilled chicken apple sausages left over, and a friend had brought over snap peas, carrots and hummus a day or two before.
I boiled some buckwheat soba noodles, tossed em and the snap peas in some toasted sesame oil and soy sauce in a skillet, and then added the diced sausage. I don’t expect I’d win any awards from actual Asian chefs, but it was a fine solo meal in ~10 mins using mostly leftovers.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Not very much, just 1 teaspoon in 48 ounces of V-8, plus the juice of the lemon, lime, 1/8 cup of vinegar. And other ingredients, of course.
I think the recipe was from the Moosewood Cookbook.
Yutsano
@Gin & Tonic: Cuts the acid in the tomatoes? I don’t know. I’ve actually never made gazpacho.
I put mushrooms and onions in my biscuits and gravy. It really does elevate the dish plus it bulks it out some. I await my stoning from our Southern commenters…
Mike E
I was going to say leftovers for breakfast too, just add eggs… I recently stumbled on a veggie taco recipe that deploys lentils, red bell pepper, onion, corn (fresh or canned), can of green chilies and the ubiquitous packet of seasoning loitering in the corner of the pantry. Wrap in tortillas and add some hot sauce and homemade crema (sour cream, lime and a splash of water). Really good.
Raven
I was cookin and reached for my honey and she slapped my hand!
BigJimSlade
I wasn’t afraid for you even a little bit :-) (I could tell it would be tasty, that’s all.)
A couple years ago I was tired of smothering raviolis (frozen, Trader Joes) in a red sauce, so I thought hmm… maybe I can extend the idea of a pan sauce. That would be: after making chicken, you remove the chicken, throw in some onion or shallot, a splash of wine, then add some chicken broth and herbs and cook it down. That’s my idea of a basic pan sauce (from Cooks Illustrated chicken recipes).
I wasn’t cooking chicken, so I just cooked down more broth (in the last step) to add flavor missing from having nothing browned in the pan. Now I saute some onion, garlic and pepper flakes; throw in some red bell pepper, zucchini and white beans; add the broth; mix it with whatever ravioli you like (and whatever herbs you like, but thyme and oregano are mine, plus aleppo pepper sometimes). Top with a metric ton of finely shredded parmesan.
If you have leftover chicken, it goes in just fine, too.
This happens most Thursdays :-)
Tonight I’m making pizza.
BigJimSlade
@Raven: Hm. That honey doesn’t sound sweet enough!
Raven
@BigJimSlade: None sweeter!
WaterGirl
@BigJimSlade: So is the ravioli hanging out in kind of a soup-like mixture? Or is most of the chicken broth cooked down so it ends up kind of thick-ish?
Pizza sounds good.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: I make gazpacho often, and have never added any sweetener.
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: Dude knows how to stay married.
Keithly
I made penne regate alla putanesca for the first time ever tonight. I’ve been skeptical of anchovies for years, but the recipe called for them, and I’m resolutely trying to expand my palate, so in they went. Boy howdy! it turned out great.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: A second with your hand on a hot stove is like a lifetime and a lifetime with a beautiful woman is like a second! Try that one!
Geminid
I used to like crackers in my soup. Then one day I didn’t have any so I used corn chips. Mmh, mmh!
StringOnAStick
Sounds like you make gazpacho similar to mine, but now I just peel and chop heirloom tomatoes and Persian cucumbers with sweet onion, then salt, pepper, balsamic and olive oil. I keep a glass container of that pretty much constantly as my easy go to salad, no added tomato juice so it’s a chunky salad instead of soup. I stopped adding bell peppers because they are the first thing to go bad. Some black olives and a spoonful of sour cream and it’s very satisfying.
BigJimSlade
@Raven:
BigJimSlade
@WaterGirl: Oh, I forgot to say that I sprinkle about a tablespoon of flour while sauteing the onions/garlic, so it thickens up a bit. Basically I just eyeball it and can tell about how much the broth will cook down to end up being a sauce.
cope
The first time I made fried rice, the meat component was the only meat in the house, pepperoni. It was strangely delicious but I’ve been afraid to repeat the combo.
Wapiti
We make nachos some nights: corn chips; black beans and ro-tel tomatoes and cilantro and cumin; sliced jalepenos; and grated cheese. We always make too much. But the left-overs are really good chopped up a bit, heated in a pan, and then scrambled with a couple of eggs and rolled up as breakfast burritos.
smike
@StringOnAStick:
You know, with all this loose talk about recipes, I expect the gazpacho police to arrive any moment. And I hear they’re pretty bad…
Glidwrith
I was going to make Schadenfreude pie as posted by John Scalzi, but decided it was way too much sugar. Cut the recipe in half and added roughly equal volume of fresh diced strawberries. Chocolate crust was walnut/pecan from the store instead of Graham cracker. Pie was delicious but kind of wet, dried fruit would work better.
Also had some leftover filling with no strawberries, so grabbed some old stale ginger cookies, put one on the bottom of a cupcake paper and poured the filling on top (variation of a Nadia Cooks idea). Cookie turned into delicious goo, but everything stuck to the paper. Need to use little Pyrex dishes next time.
mali muso
Last week my neighbor gave me two loaves of French bread (peasant style loaves not baguettes) and we weren’t able to eat all of them before they got stale. So earlier this week, I sawed them into rough cubes and left them in a paper bag to get even drier. Then tonight I took some fresh asparagus that I picked up from the farm market the other day, sautéed it lightly along with onion. Chopped some breakfast sausage links and tossed all of it into the slow cooker and covered it with an egg-milk concoction and shredded cheese. Tomorrow morning, I will see if my random strata turns out to be edible.
JAFD
Leftover tuna fish salad (tuna, Mayo, mustard, pickle relish) mixed into scrambling eggs is darn good.
MagdaInBlack
@Yutsano: I sometimes put mushrooms and onions in mine. I call it my Gourmet version
I have also added frozen peas. Sacrilege, I know.
Currants
One grocery order recently contained nearly 4 lbs of enormous tortillas, largest circumference I’ve yet encountered (it was my error). Couldn’t countenance that quantity of burrito or even quesadilla, so like you,@watergirl, I foraged in the fridge and garden and made some pizza on my stone with a deliciously crispy thin crust. Toppings included pesto and sun dried tomatoes (in oil) and mozzarella, asparagus and arugula and Parmesan. Made other versions for friends and then pawned the rest off on another friend who made her own versions for several nights. There were a LOT of tortillas in that package.
danielx
Gazpacho earlier this week – red wine vinegar?
Salty Sam
Thats pretty much what is called Migas around here, a breakfast mainstay of most TexMex joints.
jeffreyw
I really like your style, WG!
NotMax
Put eight pounds of pork loin in the oven yesterday (good sale at Costco) then went to rest my eyes for a few minutes while sprawled on the couch and promptly fell into a nap, not waking until an hour after the time it should have come out.
Luckily cooked it in a slow oven so the extra time had basically zero deleterious effect. Only thing missed out on was basting it while it roasted.
NotMax
FYI.
Pineberries? Strawapples?
Kristine
Tuna fish and baked bean sandwiches were a staple of my college years. I thought it was just my weird little combo until I watched a Barefoot Contessa episode during which Ina Garten made a tuna salad and hummus sandwich based on one she had in iirc the Netherlands. Fish and beans FTW.
Ruckus
You guys!
Lose your sense of smell then you won’t worry about what to make for dinner, you really won’t hardly recognize most any food. Easy to diet, easy to cook, all those things that are good for you but taste just a bit off never bother you anymore and as a bonus clean up is a breeze.
joel hanes
@NotMax:
Burnt ends are the best part of pulled pork
LeftCoastYankee
I made Caldo Verde soup with bulk Chorizo instead of sliced links of Chorizo or Linquica. It went from something I liked a lot to something I LOVED. Wonderfully chunky, but still awesomely soupy. Added toasted country sourdough bread on the side…
mrmoshpotato
“That’s just you cooking.”
-Chef John from FooooooodWishes.com
Food Wishes
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Did your Instant Pot find out? Was it jealous?
Regine Touchon
We used to do big crawfish boils and luckily had leftovers. One year took the crawfish, boiled onions, and diced Connecuh sausage and put them in leftover cheesy stone ground grits and made them into cakes and sautéed them. Delicious with a remoulade sauce. Love serendipity.
Capri
I recently dowsized and lost my garden. This year I got a vertical garden that I can put on my tiny deck. I planted it with an assortment of herbs. For breakfast I go out and harvest a random assortment of the basil, chives, oregano, and thyme that is growing and then make it into an omlet with goat cheese.
Very yummy.
As an aside, the vertical garden is great for getting a ton of produce from a small footprint. The one down side is that I need to water the side pockets separately. Even if it has been pouring and the top is saturated the side soil never seems to get wet unless watered directly.
mrmoshpotato
Pork Diablo
Pork tenderloin in a horseradish cream pan sauce
JoyceH
I’m currently on Weight Watchers and trying different things with my ‘zero points’ food. Recently realized that you could ‘pull’ chicken like pork, so have started making BBQ pulled chicken wraps. Lovely!
Tony Jay
I’ve just woken up and now hope I have leftovers, because something is getting reheated in a pan with eggs and sweet chilli sauce for breakfast wraps and I care not what.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Let’s hope it’s not soup!
WaterGirl
@Glidwrith:
I had never heard Schadenfreude pie, so I googled. Fun story, beautiful family, yummy recipe, and great comments on the thread.
My birthday is on Monday and I am officially going to blame you for the pie I just decided to make. My birthday plans just got cancelled because my best friend either has a cold or has covid (obviously hoping for the former!)
The weather map predicts 105 degrees tomorrow, so i am not going anywhere. Ugh.
I think I’ll have to make the cherry galette this evening because who wants to bake when it’s a hundred and five fucking degrees?
Albatrossity
I regularly make a pan pizza from random ingredients. Last week we had one that featured chunks of a leftover barbecued chicken thigh and some white button mushrooms sautéed with garlic, on a regular tomato-based sauce with leftover fontina grated and sprinkled liberally across the whole thing. It was pretty good!
texasdoc
@cope: Made some fried rice just today with leftover barbecued chicken. Awesome!