Frugal Cooking

This is a delicious Romanian eggplant salad that is amazingly simple and even more delicious. You won’t believe the flavor you get from just three ingredients. The key is in the specific but simple preparation.

I can’t tell you how many times I find myself with a bunch of fresh vegetables and no idea what to do with them. I love to browse the farmer’s market and pick up whatever looks good. The challenge then is how to take those random items and make something good. I turned cauliflower and leek into an amazing soup that I just had to share with you.

I love fresh herbs. Sometimes what would otherwise be a mediocre meal can become really fantastic with just a bit of fresh dill or parsley. A bunch of fresh herbs can be pretty frugal too. You’d be hard pressed to spend more than $1 for a pretty big bunch of something. The only problem is how to use it all up.

From the title of this post it sounds like I’m going to go on about how I had a bumper crop of summer squash this year. Actually, I own a small, 4th floor condo with a tiny patio so I don’t even attempt to grow vegetables. I do love all types of squash, summer and winter, and am always looking for new ways to use it.

I’ve experimented with various asian peanut sauce recipes. There is some kind of peanut sauce variation in Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian and other culinary cultures. Most recipes I’ve tried had some less common ingredient I didn’t have or just didn’t taste good. I finally hit on something that tastes great to me and is made with ingredients I almost always have.

I like making my own seasoning blends. Not only is it more frugal, but it also allows me to control the amount of salt myself so I can use as much or as little of the seasoning as I like without worrying about the end result being too salty. Here is my version of Montreal steak seasoning.