1 month later, I still have a full bag of potatoes and at least 20 onions (the good news is that both of these ingredients don't spoil easily).
The lesson learned? When dumpstering, you need to exercise a lot of restraint. Free stuff is free stuff, but overestimating what you'll eat is unfair to other folks who dive your dumpster and ultimately makes you just as wasteful as the stores you're scavenging from.
That said, sometimes you end up with a surplus of a few things. For me, potatoes and onions are my most prevalent dumpster finds. Potatoes can get pretty BLAH after a while, so you have to find ways to spice them up.
In case you needed some inspiration, here's a long list of potato and onion-related dishes and two potato recipes:
- Smashed Potatos (best w/ red potatoes - boil, smash with fork. Stir in butter & salt). Stir in homemade pesto to spice it up.
- Mashed potatoes (best with Yukon Golds. Boil, blend with milk, butter, & salt)- Roasted potatoes (best with red) Coat bottom of a tin-foil covered pan with olive oil. Cut up potatoes into 1-inch pieces, put in the pan & coat with oil. Cover in salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, and whole garlic cloves (or garlic powder). Bake in the oven at 375 degrees until the potatoes are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.
- Potato Latkes - perfect combo with homemade applesauce (recipe forthcoming) & sour cream.
- Potato Chips- Hash browns - diced or shredded (for variety)
- Making soups heartier- Baked potatoes (w/ sour cream, bacon, chives)
- Potato salad
- Gnocci (seems hard to make but is actually pretty easy - it just takes a little time to get ratios right)
- French fries (you can make them in the oven - you don't need a deep frier)
- Potato skins
- Veggie kabobs
GRUYERE POTATOES
My dad travels a lot for his work. So, he's eaten at a LOT of restaurants. A long time ago, he got into the habit of carrying around a food journal whilst voyaging. If he likes what he eats at a restaurant, he asks for the recipe so he can make it again for himself.
When I went off to college, he started sending me one of these recipes with each letter.
So, this recipe is from somewhere in France and is uber-yummy.
Ingredients:
Potatoes (Yukon golds or equivalently large baking potatoes are best)
3-4 cloves of garlic
Butter (unsalted)
Salt, Pepper, & ground nutmeg
Gruyere Cheese (and any other cheese if you'd like)
1-1.5 cup Beef bouillon or stock (if you don't have it or are vegetarian, you can use water)
Get a pyrex baking dish (or equivalent). Peel enough potatoes to fill half the dish. Carefully slice the potatoes so that they're paper-thin.
Peel and cut your garlic cloves in half and rub the garlic all around the bottom and sides of the baking dish, then take a stick of unsalted butter and coat the bottom and sides of the dish.
Next, put a layer of potatoes, some salt & pepper, ground nutmeg, and pats of butter over all the potatoes, followed by a liberal portion of grated Gruyere cheese. Repeat the layering process until you're out of potatoes, making sure the cheese is the last thing you put in the dish.
Pour boiling beef bouillon over the mixture.
Put the dish in an oven at 400 degrees. The dish will be done when the cheese on top turns golden brown - but don't let the cheese burn. If the potatoes aren't fully cooked, turn the temperature down to 300 until they're soft.
POTATO & ONION SOUP
Ingredients:
4 slices of bacon, diced (optional)
3 onions, chopped
3 tbsp butter
1/2 leek, chopped
6(ish) potatoes, peeled (I used Yukon golds)
Garlic powder, salt, black pepper, & cayenne pepper to taste
Water (approx. 6 cups)
2.5 tbsp flour (or more to thicken)
1 sprig basil
Cook bacon until brownish in a large pot.
Add butter.
Throw in chopped onions & leeks on medium heat until they're soft.
Put in the garlic powder, salt, & pepper.
Add flour slowly, sprinkling in.
Add water slowly, continuing to stir. Bring to a high boil to thicken the soup a bit.
Once it cooks down, add the potatoes and let them soften. Smoosh them with a spoon or potato masher to unleash their starch. This will thicken the soup a little more. At this stage you can add a cup of red wine and/or a few cups of (soy) milk or cheese. Don't use vanilla soy milk, though. It will taste disgusting. You can also throw in some rice, quinoa, pasta, or kale to make it more hearty.
Add one chopped potato at the end while the soup is simmering to add some textural variety.
Makes 2-4 bowls.
Items not dumpstered or donated: Butter, spices, bacon, flour, basil (from my window garden), (soy) milk
To use up extra onions, make caramelized onions. Slice and place in a thin layer in a cast-iron skillet with just a tiny bit of oil. Turn on low heat and heat the onions until they brown on one side, then turn and heat. You can deglaze the pan when they're cooked through by adding a little water to the pan.
ReplyDeleteI *think* you can also dice & freeze onions if you have a lot at one time, though the texture would be different than regular--but probably okay for adding to marinara or soups in a pinch.
Save the skins and make dye from them, or give them to someone who dyes their own fabric.
Also, your dad's potato recipe is quite similar to Potatoes Anna (sometimes called Pommes Anna), which is also layered but uses no cheese--just butter, salt, pepper, and potatoes. Same idea, also yummy.
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