Cleaning out the fridge dinner

‘When in doubt eat the rainbow’ that’s my approach to most of my meals and the result in the end is amazing, well most of the time. When I cook I don’t strive for perfection , the process is messy itself, the end meal might also be messy but my logic is that the food will mix up in the stomach either way. Today was an interesting day in the kitchen. Firstly I had limited fresh produce, I literally cleaned out the fridge! I ended up with:

• 1 pack of baby marrows • 1 red onion • 2 beets • 2 cloves of garlic • some ginger • 1/2 of each red, yellow and green peppers from the pantry: •1 can of baked beans. • 1 stock cube • white rice • brown lentils

Prep

I always say that the most difficult part of eating so many vegetables is the prep, there is no shortcut to it and it can be tedious. The most important thing is to clean vegetables properly, the best way is to rinse them is using a mixture of water and vinegar this will remove harmful bacteria from the skin of the vegetables. From there comes the peeling and chopping.

Cooking

I use a cast iron to do most of my cooking. I find that it brings value to the whole cooking process and its aesthetically pleasing. If I could I would do all of my cooking with a cast iron. Cooking with a cast iron can be intimidating and difficult if the cast iron is not seasoned well and maintained. If the cast iron is seasoned then cooking with it is beautiful. With a sufficient amount of oil I fry my veggies I add in from the one that takes the longest to cook to the one that takes the least amount of time to cook.This translates to starting with the boiled beets to ending off with the ginger and garlic. I season as I add. Seasoning most steps of the way creates depth in flavour. The only vegetable I’ve not put in the pot is the red onions. I like to put them aside slice them up nicely to top my bowl with. Do not kill the colour of the veggies! It is important not to overcook veggies we want to still keep them delightful.