New life for leftover veggies
In an effort to be more economical with my vegetable purchasing, I am buying more loose produce, but I still seem to have many leftovers. Vegetable bits and pieces seem to multiply in my refrigerator bin. Just recently I had thirds of red, green, yellow and orange bell peppers, two separate halves of yellow onions, one green onion, a handful of broccoli florets, some baby spinach leaves, four button mushrooms, a few leaves of kale, a stalk of celery and two sad-looking carrots.
Long gone are the days of needing several whole bell peppers for one recipe, or spreading peanut butter on extra stalks of celery and serving it with raisins for the neighborhood kids. And the days have passed when I would throw any extra veggies into a huge cauldron and simmer them into a soup that would feed my family and a few others for several days. All of those ideas were excellent then, but not so much for now.
So when I found this vast assortment in my vegetable bin ready to spoil, I decided to come up with a new way to use the veggies. I remembered an old family favorite for the summer tomato bounty, tomato pie, and decided to make Sauteed Veggie Pie. It's ultra-flexible, ultra-fast and ultra-good!
Since then, I have stirred up various versions (adding cooked ham, chicken and even salmon) and never feel like I'm eating the same thing over and over. So far I haven't found a veggie that doesn't go with the pie. The egg and cheese serve only as a binder to all the great vegetables, so any type of cheese will work. The only trick is to have enough vegetables to start because they do cook down as they saute; you also want enough vegetables to almost fill the piecrust before you add the egg mixture.
Get creative and economical with this delightful and effortless vegetable pie.
Suggested menu: Sauteed Vegetable Pie with bBaby field greens with balsamic dressing and croissant with strawberry jam.
• Write Alicia Ross at Kitchen Scoop, c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106, or tellus@kitchenscoop.com. More at the Kitchen Scoop website, kitchenscoop.com.