Category: ingredient shortage

Vegetable Cobbler

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The vegetable dish you definitely didn’t know you were waiting for, but definitely can’t live without now. This delicious savory tray bake is a use what you have in the fridge and pantry type of recipe. I’ll tell you what I used and the changes I might’ve made, but use what you’ve got. It’ll be delicious and filling either way.

Ingredients

For the scones

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1/3 cup cheddar cheese
  • 1 tbsp. rosemary, chopped
  • egg wash: 1 egg plus 1 tbsp water

For the vegetable mixture

  • 1 can Navy beans
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
  • 1 zucchini squash, diced
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 tbsp. Olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp. Garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. Onion powder
  • Salt/pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a medium size pot on medium high heat put olive oil and diced onion. Cook till onion is slightly colored. It’ll take about 5 minutes.
  3. Add garlic and cook another 3 minutes. Add Roma tomatoes and cook about 3 minutes. You just want to release some of the moisture in the tomatoes but not really cook them very hard.
  4. Add beans, stock, can of tomatoes, zucchini and dry spices and cook about 5 minutes.
  5. Place your vegetable mixture in a 13×9 glass casserole dish.
  6. Combine all your scone ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl and mix until it becomes a slightly dry dough.
  7. Lightly flour your work surface and turn out your dough. Knead gently until it comes together.
  8. Cut into about 10 small scones and place on top of your vegetable mixture.
  9. Egg wash all your scones so the tops will brown nicely.
  10. Bake for 15 minutes.

Orzo and zucchini soup

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Are your cupboards looking a little bare? Mine were too. Going to the store right now is filling me with anxiety and dread so I was definitely pulling myself up by my culinary bootstraps and surviving the day with this one.

A little pasta and a green vegetable can go a long way. If you don’t have orzo rice is a good substitute.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups orzo
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup frozen onion
  • 1/4 cup frozen peas
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 zucchini, diced
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp tarragon
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • Salt/pepper

Directions

  1. Place butter in a medium size pot and melt on medium heat. Then add your frozen veggies and garlic and cook till the garlic colors which should take about 3-5 minutes.
  2. While that’s cooking in a smaller pot place 2 cups of orzo and enough water to cover it plus about an inch. Should come out to roughly 3 cups. This has to cook for about 11 minutes.
  3. After you get your orzo on add zucchini and all the spices to the vegetable pot and cook for about 3 minutes then add chicken stock. You want the zucchini to still have a little crunch to it so you don’t want to cook it to long before you add the stock.
  4. When your orzo is done cooking add it to the vegetable pot. salt and pepper to taste.

You won’t end up with a lot of broth in this soup. Up the chicken stock to 4 cups if you want a thinner soup.

Struggle Bus Soup

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This recipe has two names. Struggle Bus Soup and mean green machine. It’s definitely a raid the crisper drawer for anything green and the back of the pantry cupboard for those packs of ramen you’ve been holding onto for a rainy day type of recipe.

Also parsley isn’t just for decorating every 90’s restaurant plate. Put it in your soups! Put it in your pesto! It’s delicious.

Ingredients

  • 2 chicken ramen packets
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/4 cup frozen peas
  • 1/4 cup frozen onion
  • 1/2 head of broccoli, cut into florets
  • 2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
  • 1 chicken bouillon cube
  • 1/2 tsp tarragon
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp butter
  • Salt/pepper

Directions

  1. In a medium size pot over medium heat put butter and garlic and heat till butter is melted.
  2. Add frozen veggies to the pot and cook for 3-5 minutes cooking off some of the moisture.
  3. Add carrots and broccoli and cook for 3 minutes.
  4. Add garlic powder, onion powder, seasoning packets from ramen and tarragon. Cook for 3 minutes to heat the spices. (Helps bring out the delicious salt flavor from the ramen packets.)
  5. Add water and bouillon cube and stir to mix spices and veggies together. Cook for about 5 minutes.
  6. Add noodles and parsley and cook till noodles are your desired doneness. About 3-5 minutes.
  7. Salt and pepper to taste.

Smoked Bean Duo

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Spicy and Fragrant

The pantry panic is real folks. Stores look real empty and the list of available ingredients is real short. So I created a series of recipes using what happens to be the most available protein in my grocery store…smoked sausage! Here is my smoked bean duo. Now this recipe is one where you can use whatever veggies you have on hand. I used the halves of two different onions you obviously can use a whole onion of whatever variety you have or no onion at all. My hope for the pantry panic series is to give people a framework for inspiration.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound smoked sausage
  • 1 half red onion, chunky dice
  • 1 half yellow onion, chunky dice
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 teaspoons mixed fresh herb(I used basil, thyme, rosemary)
  • 1 can diced tomato
  • 1 can pinto beans
  • 1 bag frozen black eyed peas
  • 3 mini sweet peppers, sliced
  • 3 cup water
  • 2 beef stock cubes
  • salt/pepper
  • 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Put 3 cups of water and 2 beef stock cubs into a large pot. Bring it to a boil.
  2. Add the bag of frozen black eyed peas and stir. The ones I bought had to cook for 45 minutes.
  3. While that’s cooking put your sausage, onion and pepper into a pan with the vegetable oil. Cook for about ten minutes on medium heat till your sausage and onion get some color on them.
  4. While that’s cooking cut your aromatics(garlic and mixed fresh herb). Put half in the stock pot with the black eyed peas and the other half in with your sausage mixture.
  5. Put pinto beans and canned tomato into sausage mixture and cook down for about 5-8 minutes. It allows the juices from the canned tomato to cook down with the juices in the pan.
  6. Put your sausage mixture into the stock pot and stir to combine. Cook down for the remaining time till the black eyed peas are cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Taco Pie

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Hello everybody and welcome to another entry in the pantry panic series. Today we went Mexican which is one of my favorite cuisines to cook and to eat. This pie came together super easy and with only a few pantry and fridge ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 chicken breast tenders
  • 1 can black beans, rinsed
  • 1 can tomatoes, with juices.
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 3 sprigs thyme, chopped or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1 sheet puff pastry
  • olive oil for cooking
  • salt/pepper to taste

For Cheese Sauce

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups cheese blend
  • 2 cups milk

Directions

  1. Brown chicken in a pan with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and cumin.
  2. Add onion, beans, tomatoes and thyme and cook for five minutes.
  3. While that is cooking melt your butter in a sauce pan. Then add flour and whisk until combined. Add milk and cheese blend. Continue whisking until cheese is melted and the sauce starts to thicken. Salt to taste.
  4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  5. Combine cheese sauce with chicken mixture and stir to combine. Put in a pie dish and cover with puff pastry.
  6. Cook for 25 minutes until golden brown and flaky.

Tip: Put a baking sheet under your pie plate. I over filled my dish and it bubbled over.

Sausage Roll

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Welcome to the next post in a series of recipes inspired by my local ingredient shortage. Its my version of a sausage roll with shortcrust pastry. You can make it with any flavor smoked sausage you can get your hands on. The shortcrust pastry is only four ingredients and super simple.

Ingredients

For Pastry

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, cubed
  • about a 1/4 cup water
  • 1 egg mixed with water for brushing

Filling

  • Smoked sausage any flavor, cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch long pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a food processor put your flour, butter and salt and pulse it until the cutter and flour combine in a bread crumby texture. (If you don’t have a food processor you can do it with a fork.)
  3. Slowly combine water and pulse until dough comes together. It will look a little dry.
  4. Dump it out onto a floured surface and combine it into a ball. Mashing the dryer bits into the ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for 10 minutes so the butter chills again.
  5. When the pastry has chilled roll it out onto a floured surface about a 1/4 inch thick. Place your sausage pieces on the pastry and cut the pastry big enough to wrap the sausage completely.
  6. Place your sausage rolls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and brush the tops of the pastry with the egg wash.
  7. put in the oven for 30 minutes. They should be golden brown.

Recipe should make about 6 rolls