Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My FIL and his partner decided to surprise us with a huge load of groceries, full of awesome veggies and stuff. We had actually just picked up some produce, though not a lot, but now our fridge is packed. And some of the items, we just don't happen to use regularly, so I'm hoping the PPK might have some ideas to use these up. There's two adults and one eating-age child, so we might cook two dinners a night and freeze some for next week. Here's what we've got:

-sweet potatoes
-regular small potatoes
-cauliflower
-carrots
-green beans
-1 each, red, orange, yellow, and green pepper
-cremini mushrooms
-portobello mushrooms
-chunk of squash (large/yellow)
-snap peas
-eggplant
-celery
-two bunches of spinach

(and fruit:
-kumquats, oranges, bananas, apples, and kiwis)

Any suggestions would be awesome! Caveat - I'm out of tomatoes (fresh/tinned), and would prefer not to shop for a while. (And I have AFR from the library right now, so any ideas from there would be great too!)

that haul screams thai curry (eggplant, sweet potato, snap peas, peppers, carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms). sauté in oil, then mix a curry paste + coconut milk and pour it over. serve on a bed of spinach over rice.

take those mushrooms and some potatoes and make the VWAV tofu and potatoes with mushroom gravy (i fear that's not the name but hopefully someone can correct me)

Not sure what i'd make, but I would save the things that will last a while like the sweet and reg. potatoes

A big curry for sure. There are a couple of curry recipes that you can use from AFR, subbing in some of the veggies. There is a Thai curry, and also a curry laska, that I have made with a bunch of different veggie subs. Do you have chickpeas? there is a nice Eggplant Chickpea curry in AFR also. And a good Potato and Spinach curry. Just leave out the tomatoes, and since you are not using frozen spinach, it will be less spinach-y with fresh, but still really good.

You can just make whatever curry sauce you usually do, add some coconut milk, then add the veggies and BAM you have curry, just like molasses jane described.

Do you have lentils? you can make a very nice lentil vegetable soup. You could also make the Lentil Shepherds Pie, also in AFR with those ingredients, and just a few others. And Caulipots. You can make a bunch of those with the Cauliflower and Potatoes.

Whatever you do, save your veggie scraps (especially the carrots, celery, potatoes and mushrooms) and make yourself a giant batch of vegetable stock! You can always freeze it.

Yum, what a great mix of veggies! My first thought was also curry! My second idea would be to roast a lot of those veggies in the oven together because I'm lazy!

What about a mushroom Philly "cheese steak" sandwich with some sauteed bell peppers and the cheese sauce that goes with the vegnews mac and cheese on top. That will also use a potato and a carrot.

A simple dish would be the green beans sauteed with the creminis, garlic, and some soy.

I also just like having roasted/baked sweet potato's around to eat on their own, put in enchilada's, tofu scrambles, etc.

Chickpea piccata with Caulipots and spinach?

A single giant pot.

A lot of water.

GALLONS OF BROTH.

We use produce overloads, when we are lucky enough for them to happen, for soups and curries. But tacos are a nice fresh option, and almost every veggie can be tossed into a taco. Roasted potatoes, raw peppers, sauteed mushrooms with garlic, roasted squash, raw spinach, blanched snap peas. With good tortillas and good salsa (if you don't want to make your own, check out SalsaMan or Fresh is Best if you haven't already--they have it at Thrifty's).

If you end up making any stirfrys, add some kumquat slices at the end - they add a very nice touch.

Yeah! And then put the boiled veggies into a giant food processor for a delicious mush that I like to call "mashed everything."

Maybe take out the celery and green beans first.

Awesome! Thank you for all the ideas! There are just so many options, I could hardly pick. I think I will do a few of the AFR curries and maybe that Philly cheesesteak idea. I've never had anything like that before. I'll definitely be making some soups by the end of the week too. (And of course, some magnificent stock!)