Mariam's special: Fridge-and-freezer sauce
I tend to freeze every scrap of produce. Once in a while, I round up my 'treasures' and turn them into stock, sauce, or something else.
I can't afford to waste anything. Call me a hoarder, but I freeze even just a leftover leaf of wilted romaine lettuce. And obviously any scraps for stock. Nothing goes unused in my kitchen!
Once in a while I pull everything out and add to it whatever is going limp in my fridge or on the counter. Then I make stock from the scraps, and depending on what's there, I might start a chili. But if things are a bit too disjointed, everything goes in the slow-cooker to become 'sauce'.
For today's sauce, here is what I pulled out of my freezer: Chopped romaine, home-made pumpkin puree, chopped tomatoes, a few basil leaves, a lemongrass stalk, some cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots, plus diced cantaloupe, honeydew, and mango. To pull it all together I added a jar of Tandoori sauce and some water. Then I let the slow-cooker do its thing and thaw everything out. Once the veggies had softened and cooked through, I blended it all into a sauce.
I used half of that sauce to make a chickpea curry with rice. The rice soaked up the sauce beautifully! I froze the other half of the sauce for another time.
Submitted by Mariam