Budget conscious, taste forward A roundup of use-it-up recipes that shop the shelves of your fridge, pantry
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
This week’s round-up of Homemade recipes is dedicated to frugal, filling dishes that make use of inexpensive ingredients and give leftovers new life.
Ahead of Valentine’s Day, I’m looking for a very specific kind of comfort food: breakup food. Send in your recipes for easy, emotionally comforting dishes by filling out the submission form at winnipegfreepress.com/homemade.
Harriet Zaidman isn’t a splashy cook, never has been.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS North End Nosh blogger Harriet Zaidman comes from a long line of frugal, culinarily gifted home cooks.
“It’s not how I was raised,” the Winnipeg author says with a laugh.
Her mother was a thrifty home cook and she comes from a long line of frugal, culinarily-gifted North Enders — a lineage that inspired her to start a food blog, called North End Nosh, in retirement.
Zaidman has since shared hundreds of her own kitchen adventures on the site, including recipes for baked goods (bread is her specialty), desserts and colourful, vegetable-filled mains that mesh with her use-it-up style of cooking.
“We can make beautiful food with what’s on hand, it doesn’t have to cost a lot,” she says.
As the price of groceries has skyrocketed in recent years, Zaidman’s approach to shopping has shifted. Bulky, inexpensive vegetables such as cabbage and mushrooms have become a staple; and although she’s not vegetarian, she frequently turns to legumes, eggs, grains and other sources of protein when meat is beyond the budget.
“I’m not going to buy things if they’re too expensive,” Zaidman says, adding that working with substitutions can pose a fun creative challenge.
Kuku Kadoo
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
60 ml (1/4 cup) olive or other neutral oil, plus more for drizzling
3 medium zucchinis (about 12 oz.), thinly sliced
1 large onion (yellow or red), diced
Salt and fresh ground pepper
7.5 ml (1 1/2 tsp) ground turmeric
8 large eggs, beaten
125 ml (1/2 cup) fresh herbs (basil, dill and/or parsley), coarsely chopped
Lemon wedges, optional
Heat 30 to 45 ml (2 to 3 tbsp) of oil in a large ovenproof skillet with a lid over medium heat.
Add the garlic and cook until golden, about two minutes.
Add zucchini and onion, season with salt and pepper, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini and onion are almost jammy, 20 to 30 minutes. Add more oil as needed to prevent sticking. Sprinkle the vegetables with turmeric and stir until coated.
Beat the eggs until light. Drizzle more oil around the edge of the skillet and pour in eggs, season with salt and pepper.
Stir a few times to incorporate the ingredients. Cook, undisturbed, until eggs are set around the edge of the pan, one to two minutes. Cover and cook until the bottom is set but the top is still wet; about four minutes.
Heat the oven broiler. Uncover the skillet and broil the kuku, watching closely, until the top is set and lightly browned; two to three minutes.
Remove skillet from the oven, sprinkle with herbs and lemon juice (the latter is optional, but highly recommended). Adjust seasoning to taste.
Originally published on North End Nosh, adapted from Bon Appetit.
“A kuku is like an omelette or a frittata and you can add whatever you like to it, there are thousands of recipes for different kukus online.”
— Harriet Zaidman
Other readers shared their tips for stretching a dollar in the kitchen.
Jordan Miller keeps a stash of broth in the pantry and makes a big pot of soup with veggies approaching their best-before-dates.
“I call it everything soup. Then I freeze most of it and pull it out when I am super tired,” she writes, adding she often makes double batches of meat or mashed potatoes and freezes half for later.
Janice Scott, a retired home economics teacher, is also in the habit of saving ingredients for the future.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Harriet Zaidman’s Kuku Kadoo is a versatile herby egg dish, ‘like an omelette or a frittata and you can add whatever you like to it.’
“Setting aside extra food in the pantry and freezer gave my family (including two kids) food savings — as good as money in the bank!” she writes.
Scott continues to relish the challenge of “shopping” her freezer and pantry while seeing how long she can avoid the grocery store.
Enjoy this week’s Homemade recipes for Kuku Kadoo, an herbaceous egg dish, submitted by Harriet Zaidman; use-it-up Turkey Soup from Barb Howie; and Moujadara, a one-pot rice and lentil dish from Zana Lutfiyya.
eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com
Grannie’s and Nana’s Turkey Soup
Leftover turkey carcass
Leftover turkey meat, chopped
250 ml (1 cup) long grain rice, uncooked
625 ml (2 1/2 cups) carrots, peeled and sliced
625 ml (2 1/2 cups) celery, sliced
125 ml (1/2 cup) onion, diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Add turkey carcass to a large stock pot and cover with water.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cover pot and simmer for at least six to eight hours, adding water as needed to keep the carcass covered. The longer you simmer, the thicker your broth will be.
Drain the broth into a large bowl and discard the bones, you should have about 2,000 ml to 2,500 ml (8 to 10 cups) of liquid. At this point, you may want to let the broth cool and become jellied, which makes it easy to skim off the fat. You can also store some of the broth in the fridge or freezer for another use.
Return the broth to the stock pot or a large pot. Add the rice, carrots, celery, onions, salt and pepper. Simmer until rice and vegetables are cooked to your preferred doneness. Taste and adjust seasoning (we taste our soup continually because it’s so good).
Serve soup hot with nutty, whole grain bread.
“This recipe truly is an heirloom in our family. Being a thrifty Scot, my grannie never wasted one speck of a turkey after a special occasion dinner. This is how she and my mother taught me how to use the entire bird. As in many recipes that have been passed down, ingredients don’t have exact measurements but rather are estimated and tasted for flavour.
“When I make this soup my family just can’t get enough and it’s always appreciated on a Winnipeg winter day. The aroma that hit your nostrils as you entered from the cold was most welcoming and comforting. You knew you were home.”
— Barb Howie
Moujadara (M’jadara)
250 ml (1 cup) whole brown lentils (don’t use split lentils)
190 ml (3/4 cup) rice
190 ml (3/4 cup) olive oil or other neutral tasting oil
2 large onions, peeled, halved and sliced into thin crescents
625 ml (2 1/2 cups) water, plus more for soaking
1 tbsp (15 ml) salt
Black pepper, to taste
10 ml (2 tsp) cumin
1 bay leaf
2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) allspice, optional
Rinse lentils and let soak for 15 to 30 minutes.
Rinse rice until the water runs clear, set aside.
Add the oil to a pot and fry the onions, stirring frequently, over medium heat until crispy, about 15 to 20 minutes. Scoop the crispy onions onto a paper towel-lined plate, reserving the oil.
Drain lentils and add to the pot with the reserved oil. Cover the lentils with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.
Add to the pot rinsed rice, salt, pepper, bay leaf, cumin and allspice, if using. Cover and cook over low until rice is done, 20 minutes or longer if using brown rice.
Remove from the heat and fluff the mixture with a fork.
Serve with crispy onions.
Note: This is traditionally eaten with Greek yogurt or labneh, but tzatziki would also work. Possible additional sides include a tomato and cucumber or green salad with vinaigrette dressing or a variety of pickled vegetables. Acidic and sour flavours go well with this dish.
“Lentils and rice is a peasant dish from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. There are different versions, all dependent upon taste and what is available. Together, the lentils and rice form a complete protein, enhanced by adding yogurt to the dish. It is a frugal and filling one-pot dish. When I make it and eat it, I remember my grandmother cooking this dish for her family, and how much we enjoyed it. The word moujadara means ‘pockmarked,’ which is what the dish looks like with the lentils.”
— Zana Lutfiyya
Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.
Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Related Articles
Expand those Easter baskets
