What's In the Fridge for Lunch? ~ Fingerlings!

Often I have a large green leafy salad for lunch with a limitless variety of combinations of fruits, veggies, beans and grains.  And over the months I’ll share many of those with you, and talk about all those wonderful greens and combining salad “fixings”. 

Today however, it’s cold and damp and I felt like cooking something.  And the purple fingerling potatoes my husband boiled last night were calling my name.  If you haven’t tried fingerling potatoes, I should let you know that they are delicious cooked and eaten with nothing added (and nothing taken away!).  Gently wash, leave skins on, no need to cut fingerlings, place in a pot, cover with water, cover the pot, and boil until slightly soft; pour off the water, let them cool a bit and enjoy!..  Of course you can have them as part of a meal, but I walked in the door hungry and enjoyed them as an hors d’eovres.

​Today I got the extra fingerlings out of the fridge and looked to see what else caught my eye (and my taste bud fancy).  Hmm – lovely organic cherry tomatoes, zucchini and mushrooms.

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And, oh yes there was some home garden made gespacho soup that we thawed a few days ago.  The mushrooms were starting to dry out a bit, but that’s just fine.  

​To get ready to stir fry without oil, I put my nonstick pan (I use a ceramic one) on the stove and set it on high (yes high, things stick less if the empty pan is heated to high.)

​Then I chopped the veggies and added the veggies that give off the most liquid to the pan first; so in went the tomatoes and zucchini and I turned the heat down to medium.  ​

​Then as things started to brown, I stirred with a soft spatula (better than rigid utensils for a nonstick pan) and then added a splash of the soup for a little more liquid. 

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Cooked a little longer until the tomatoes and zucchinni started to soften and then in went the mushrooms and potatoes and ½ cup more of the soup.  Heat it through, and ready to enjoy as a vegetable stew.

Cook until heated through and I could have been done here.  But, the 3 bean and corn salsa in the fridge had caught my eye, and I knew that would add a dash of spicey heat, so in went a cup of that.

 The dish was delicious and spicey.  I think I would also have enjoyed it even without the salsa – the taste of the potatoes, mushroom and zucchini would have popped through a little more.  And, I’ve put the rest in the refrigerator in a tupperware container that I’ll grab in the morning to take for my lunch.  An apple and kiwi will go in my bag also and some frozen home grown raspberries.  Yum!!

Next Blog... a Well Stocked Pantry will share what to have on hand to be creative with meals any day, any time!