Perfectly Good Leaves

As someone who is not on TikTok, I recently became aware of the term "ingredient household." This label makes me feel ambivalent at best. I saw a video of a man with a tired expression with the caption "when you're hungry but you live in an ingredient household." Ingredients are food! Ingredients are what you make meals with. Meals don't have to be elaborate or take a long time to make. In fact, they don't even need to involve cooking! I'm aware that many adults were not fortunate enough to grow up in households where they learned to cook or were able to eat homecooked meals, and I'm further aware that groceries prices have risen considerably. But to this young man looking forlornly into the fridge, I say: Here is a real learning opportunity for you! Here is a chance to be creative with those ingredients! To this point, I've been doing my best lately to eat everything I have on hand instead of running to the supermarket as soon as I get a craving for a specific dish.

There are a lot of great cookbooks in our collection that focus on making meals with what you have and reducing food waste. Perfectly Good Food: A totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking, opens a new window stood out to me not only because of it's adorable cover, but also because I once ate the celery a friend left in her Bloody Mary and declared them "perfectly good leaves."

This book does contain some recipes, but for the most part it provides guidelines and inspiration for using some common ingredients one might find languishing in the crisper drawer. It also suggests some strategies to help you use the ingredients you have before they go bad. I've decided to adopt one idea from the book to have a "use first" box of ingredients that you keep somewhere visible in your fridge. Admittedly, I had to resist the temptation to purchase a really cute new box for this purpose. 

Not only was I inspired to implement a "use first" box, flipping through the book also inspired me to make something with the last of my garden produce still left unharvested. I find tomatillos a real thrill to grow and I love the way they look like tiny lanterns. I usually have big plans for making salsa, but I'm ashamed to say they often fall to the ground before I manage to pick them. So, I went outside and picked all the tomatillos, tomatoes in various states of ripeness and peppers from my garden. I roasted some and left some fresh, added a white onion and blended it all up with some salt. I have to say the results are excellent. The roasted tomatillos give the salsa a sweetness that's balanced by the chiles. I suppose the color might not be for everyone, but I think it's quite a nice golden shade. 

In trying to reduce my food waste, I've found it's a real pleasure to get creative with the ingredients I have. Rather than a chore, making a meal becomes a puzzle, a kind of a game. And I love puzzles and games! For me, taking the time to care for myself and do my bit for the Earth feels nourishing. Experimenting with food is fun, and it feels good to make a dish without buying anything new for it.

If you're interested in learning how to cook with what you have on hand, be sure to register for In the Kitchen with JustFood, opens a new window happening this November to learn from our community experts. Don't worry if spots fill up, they'll be back soon! 

-Terese Winters is an Information Services Librarian at Lawrence Public Library.