Other than standard pantry staples I have a large carrot and a medium red onion - what can I make?
Does “pantry staples” include any beans or lentils? Could cook some of those up, saute the onion and carrot, throw in whatever spices/hot sauce kind of stuff you have, and that’d be some yum.
Or same kind of thing with rice. Or asian-y fried rice if that sounds better. Got any frozen peas? Rice, curry, carrot, onion, add the peas, you have something Indianish.
Cans of tuna? Tuna salad with the onion & some mayo, put it on bread. Make a French carrot salad for a side dish.
Pasta? Caramelized the onions, throw in some garlic, some dried chiles. A couple anchovies if you have them. Kalamata or other black olives if you have them. Toss with pasta & some Parmesan. Hell, julienne the carrots and throw them in to saute with the onion, or use them in the aforementioned carrot salad. Yum.
I like the carrot salad idea!
We’re having stew–a leftover chunk of roast beast, V-8 juice, tomato sauce, celery, a red onion that MUST be used today, and a handful of baby carrots.
Maybe some cut up potatoes.
I shall throw all this into the crockpot until the whole family is in the kitchen, whimpering, begging, and crying.
It’s rainy and chilly and dreary in SCal today, perfect stew weather.
(NOTHING like the misery in the South or the North East, thank Gawd!)
~VOW
Carrots and yellow onions are pantry staples at my house. I use red onions pretty much the same as yellow onions, I just generally buy yellow.
So now I’m curious – what are pantry staples at your house?
I just meant like sugar/oil/salt/pepper/flour/etc.
Anything in the refrigerator that isn’t trying to crawl out of the dish.
~VOW
Moderator Action
Moving thread from MPSIMS to Cafe Society.
Assuming you don’t have anything like a can of tuna, other veg, cheese, etc…
Make a dough from flour, a little oil, a pinch of salt and some water
Slice up the onion and put most of it in a pan (reserve a few shreds of onion) with a small amount of oil and a teaspoon or two of sugar - cook very gently until the onions caramelise
Shred the carrot, mix with the reserved raw onion, dress with oil, sugar, a pinch of salt and (if you have it) a dash of vinegar or lemon juice, or any other acidic juice
Roll the dough out thin, place on a baking tray
Bake until crisp at the edges, but still pliable. Top with the caramelised onion; serve with the pickled carrot.
Or…
Make the dough, caramelise the onions, shred the carrot, but:
Use the caramelised onions to make a broth with hot water and a stock cube or bouillon powder, or soy sauce, or anything like that
Roll the dough as thin as you can, then cut it into noodles, drop them into the boiling broth
Serve the noodles and broth into bowls, garnish with shredded carrot
Quick pickles
I’m going to assume potatoes are a basic pantry staple.
Cut up the carrot, onion, and potato into long strips. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put them in a roasting pan and roast at 350 until they’re cooked. Nice, simple roasted root vegetable melange, a good winter side dish. If you have any other root vegetables (turnips, etc) you can include those as well.
Drizzle some oil on them and roast them in the oven. Add some herbs if you have them.
Maybe puree them and mix in some milk. Make a cream vegetable soup.
a (not) papaya salad is always an option. Julienned carrots and thin sliced onions with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, chilli and sugar. (assuming they are staples in your house) Extra marks if you have some mint or coriander leaf to chuck in there and a few crushed peanuts.
That “etc.” is still a big wild-card.
One carrot and one onion isn’t going to get you much by themselves. With celery, you have the beginnings of a mirepoix/soffrito (2:1:1 ratio of onions/celery/carrot, diced finely, sauteed until soft and cooked), which is the beginning of a lot of classic French and Italian sauces, stews and soups.
With lettuce, you have the beginnings of a very simple salad.
With other vegetables (potato, sweet potato, bell pepper, turnip, garlic), you have the beginnings of a roasted vegetable dish. Roughly cut into similar sized pieces, toss with herbs (your choice), salt (a lot) and olive oil, and roast in the oven until done and slightly browned.
I did a simple carrot salad - shredded carrot and slivered red onion with a good splash of white vinegar, a few pinches of salt and sugar and a bit of cracked black pepper and I just let it sit for a few hours - went great with pork chops and fried potatoes.
Thanks all!
Carrot n onion milkshake. You’re welcome.
Just last night my gf created a side dish out of stuff on hand. In her case, she sliced half a leftover onion and Caramalized it. She then cored and cut up an apple, then added the apple to the onions. She had a bit of pine nuts that she toasted in a pan and added them to the simmering sauce. She put this over couscous as a side.
I’d peel, chop, then put the carrots in water. Simmer until soft. Meanwhile, Caramalize the onions. Purée the cooked carrots, add the onions, add whatever else you have and then place this carrot-onion sauce (have some ginger?) onto warmed plates and put something on the sauce. Drizzle balsamic reduction over the sauce, maybe!
Ooh, one of my favorite fall side dishes is apples & onions.
I saute the onions, then toss diced apples in flour with some salt and pepper, and toss them in the pan.Cook until the onions begin to caramelize and the breading on the apple gets brown in places. I like to use goose fat as the cooking oil, but peanut oil mixed with butter is good, too.
Similar to what I was thinking. Pickled red onions are a staple in our family, based on an old hippie recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook. We pour boiling water over ultra-thinly-sliced onions, to wilt them, then put them in a jar of cider vinegar, brown sugar, salt, garlic, and peppercorns. They’re amazing on sandwiches. I suspect that julienned carrots would be a great addition to these pickles, especially if you added chili flakes.