Leftover Vegetables Made Into A Healthy Stew
Don’t throw away those veggies that are looking a bit neglected in the back of your refrigerator. If you’re like me and hate to waste food give a vegetable stew a try. When I find I’m short on time and any meat I have is still in the freezer, I’ve turned to preparing vegetable stew using any canned beans I have in my cupboard as the protein. I also utilize any kind of boxed broth I have on hand. I love using homemade but low sodium premade is fine.
While cleaning out my refrigerator today I came out with these. Two zucchini, some carrots, three potatoes and about one cup of unused tomato sauce. I had vegetable broth, onions and some baby onions and fresh basil fresh from my garden. So I pulled out the cast iron pot and went to work.
To start I chopped the carrots and onion and sauteed them in enough olive oil to coat for about 10 minutes.
I found some remaining prechopped jarred garlic and added what was left to the sauteing vegetables. I cooked that until fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
As the other veggie cooked I cut up my potatoes, skin on, and zucchini.
TIP: When precutting up potatoes make sure to place them in cold water to keep them from turning brown.
My cute little onions from my garden were trimmed on both ends and peeled before being added to the stew.
The chopped potatoes were added next along with enough vegetable broth just to cover, 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of thyme. I simmered them with the lid on for 10 minutes.
Now it wasn’t far from being complete. The chopped zucchini, baby onions and the drained and rinsed kidney beans were added to the pot. I covered the pot and you guessed it…Another 10 minutes.
By this time all the vegetables were soft. But if they weren’t, I would just leave the pot simmering and checked on them every 5 minutes until they were done.
To finish this pot of comfort up, I threw in a hand full of fresh chopped basil I pulled from my garden.
This dish tastes great the day it’s made but better after stored in the refrigerator for a day or two.
REMEMBER: There are no rules to your veggie, herb or bean choices. Be creative and enjoy experimenting with the flavors you love:)
Thank you for stopping by!
Roni
