Monday, February 1, 2010

braised white turnips with spiced peanut sauce and the beauty of leftovers


I'm really trying to be good and stay on budget. I have so many random ingredients in the fridge that I just let sit there and rot. It's simply no good. I cannot afford to do that. So, my goal this month has been to use up as much as I creatively can.

My friend Ellen had made this lovely African peanut soup for a little get-together we had a couple of weeks ago. She kindly gave me a tupperware of it to take home. And let me say, I've never been a fan of leftovers. I hate eating the same thing two days in a row. I don't know what it is. I get bored easily. Food or otherwise. Well, the next day I had a soup potluck to go to and I decided I should regift the soup that was given to me. Problem was, I didn't have enough of it to generously give to anyone. Then I remembered I had this random plastic container of pureed peanuts that I had made using my juicer. The consistency didn't come out exactly like peanut butter, therefore, I let it just sit in my fridge hangin out. Well, it looked find. No mold to be seen. I sauteed it with some paprika and cayenne and then added some veggie broth and the rest of Ellen's leftovers. Well, now I had too much. So I took most of it to the potluck and kept the rest for myself. 
Long story, kinda short. A coupe days later, this thick re-adjusted soup is still sitting in my fridge. I was sick of soup at this point and had a couple of white turnips in my fridge that looked so bland, but I knew they needed to get eaten. I hate wasting food. So, I thinly sliced the turnips. Added them to a heated pan with olive oil, sprinkled with paprika, cumin and hot pepper flakes. Sauteed for a couple of minutes. And added the peanut soup. I let it reduce in volume, till is resembled a thick creamy peanut sauce. Topped it with a bit of crushed black pepper and I had myself a great leftover of a leftover. 

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