An Empty Fridge

We arrived home from holiday a few weeks ago and I decided I would see if I could manage without going shopping for 24 hours even though the fridge seemed empty. My organic vegetable box was due to arrive the next day and also the market was on in town where I can get anything else I needed. OK, I couldn’t have managed without my freezer and allotment but I was surprised how well we ate.

For breakfast we had mixed cereal porridge with fresh apple and walnuts- brought back with us for the journey. For lunch I made a vegetable soup using the wilting carrots and onions from the bottom of the fridge and some frozen vegetables. We followed that with some potato cakes from the freezer along with a salad of rocket and lettuce. These had started to sprout again under a glass cloche in the garden. I also made some fermented cabbage this winter and we had some of that with the salad. All in all it was a pleasant meal.

We walked up to the allotment in the afternoon to pick some of the remaining vegetables. I was sad to see that the Cavelo Nero kale had started to sprout. It looked very much like sprouting broccoli so I collected all the seed heads and steamed them for our evening meal. They were absolutely delicious – just as good as purple sprouting broccoli. In future I will encourage the kale to sprout.  I served the sprouted kale with some baked potatoes and a lamb casserole from the freezer and we had a wonderful meal.

I came to the conclusion that it’s always possible to make a meal even when you need to go shopping as there is always something lurking in the bottom of the fridge or freezer and there are packets and tins in the store cupboard. It’s also very easy to go to the supermarket, spend lots of money then end up eating the things you have bought rather than using up.