Tell me what's in your fridge and I'll give you a recipe

Time for something different

Image credit: Wellcome Collection public domain

Long-term subscribers may remember an old iteration of this Substack called The Capsule Pantry. TCP was born when I traveled around Europe and became a demon at developing recipes based on basic storecupboard ingredients.

Cooking whilst traveling is no easy feat. But being an ex-supper-club cook and food-obsessed human, I was determined to cook from whatever Airbnb kitchen I had at my disposal. I went as far as carrying around a little box of spices and condiments in my suitcase.

Cooking in Airbnbs with scant ingredients meant getting flexible. It meant using up random bits of food before leaving for our next destination. It meant looking at recipes and adapting them to fit the ingredients I could procure in whatever country I was in.

The Capsule Pantry still exists deep in The Sauce’s recipe archives, and today, I want to revive it with a challenge.

Here’s the deal:

Give me two or three ingredients in your fridge or pantry, and I will give you a recipe based on those ingredients.

It could be some leftovers, an ingredient you need to use up, or something else entirely. Just don’t make it too weird please! Because not even the best chef could make something with chocolate and canned fish.

The recipes will be based on the ingredients you give me plus any from my essential storecupboard list, which is a list of basics you likely already own.

Write your ingredients in the comments section, and I’ll get back to you ASAP (note I’m in Europe and work roughly 9am-5pm).

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I’m experimenting with giving the best value I can to my paid subscribers, so today is a paid subscriber perk. As a free subscriber, you’ll still be able to read the comments, but you will only be able to contribute if you are a paid subscriber ($5 a month or $50 a year). To do that, all you need to do is click the big blue button. You could even be clever and opt for the 7-day free trial:

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To give you an idea about how this works, I’ll go first:

In my fridge, I've got a bag of carrots, half a jar of white beans and a bag of mixed soft herbs.

RECIPE: braised white beans with roasted carrots and zhoug-inspired sauce.

Zhoug is a spicy Middle Eastern condiment made with herbs, spices, garlic and olive oil. Make it in the food processor by whizzing up:

a couple of handfuls of soft herbs - mine were coriander, mint and thyme, one garlic clove, half a rogue green chilli (I'd use chilli flakes if I didn't have fresh), a shake of cumin powder (about 1/4 teaspoon), a pinch of sea salt, a squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 tsp), a slug of olive oil and, because I had it to hand, a teaspoon of tahini. I added a splash of water, whizzed up and added a little more water (1 teaspoon at a time) until I had a thickish green sauce.

Peel and chunk the carrots and roast them in the oven - with a few fennel seeds if I'm feeling fancy - until ready. Mine only took about 20 minutes because I like to pre-boil my carrot chunks which cuts down cooking time.

On a stove, sauté half a finely chopped onion until soft, adding a finely chopped garlic clove for the last couple of minutes. Throw in that half jar of white beans and a splash of chicken stock or water. Simmer for two or three minutes if you want the beans to hold their shape or up to 15 minutes if you want a chunky purée (what I opted for).

Assemble the dish - beans, carrots and zhoug drizzled on top.

I tested this recipe out, and I can confirm it works:

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Your turn. Tell me what you have, and I’ll give you a recipe:

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