5 budget dinner options using local produce
Last week we talked about fashion for peasant food and how the "poor" kitchen has become rich. Culinary delights inspired by village food are fine, but what about when there are a couple of thousand rubles left before your salary or when you have to make purchases in a very average range? In case you want to adequately feed yourself and your loved ones, and the harsh reality limits imagination, we have prepared five recipes for basic budget dishes of varying degrees of complexity. All of them are nutritious and almost entirely made up of locally available foods. The ingredients are simple, but in order for them to unfold as expected, you will have to tinker an hour or two. But at the exit get a delicious dinner at minimal cost. All recipes are designed for 2-3 servings.
Warm salad of seasonal vegetables
Baked pumpkin and beets are great for salads and blend perfectly with soft cheese, but often we forget about it, focusing on pumpkin soups and vinaigrettes. If you have nuts lying around, lightly dry them in a pan and chop them - they will complement the dish.
Cooking:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin, cut it into large oblong slices. Peel the beets and onions and cut into six equal slices. Put the vegetables on a baking sheet, then sprinkle with herbs and lightly sprinkle with olive oil. Grind coriander seeds with salt and black pepper, season the vegetables with a mixture of spices and bake for about 40 minutes. When the vegetables start to caramelize and a golden crust appears on them, remove them from the oven and remove the greens.
Put the vegetables in the salad bowl and let them cool slightly. Mix ingredients for dressing and pour warm vegetables with it. Cut the pomegranate in half and peel, remove the grains and add them to the vegetables. Sprinkle the salad with chopped feta and mix lightly.
White fish soup
There is an incredible variety of fish soup - soon we will share recipes for fish soups from different national cuisines. This fish broth is an easy way to eat basic foods sensibly. Fish fit absolutely any.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Peel vegetables, potatoes, cut into large slices, carrots - strips. Peel and gut the fish and slice them transversely. If using fillets, cut it into large cubes. In the boiling water, send the whole onion, salt to taste, add the pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Then add potatoes and carrots and cook for about 25 minutes. Remove the onion from the soup - it worked its own way, giving the broth taste and smell. Now put the fish in the pot and bring the soup to a boil. Add the bay leaf and chopped greens, season the soup with pepper and keep on the fire for another 5 minutes.
Eggplant Ratatouille
This dish of Provencal cuisine is a lot like Hungarian lecho. The name comes from the words "rata" (food in common parlance) and "touiller" (stirring) and hints at the peasant origin of the food. Eggplants were not included in the original recipe, but now ratatouille without them can not be represented. Tomatoes are better to choose fleshy, without a large number of seeds.
Cooking:
To start, prepare the sauce. Chop the onion, peppers from the seeds and cut into cubes. Remove the peel from the tomato, remove the seeds and finely chop. In olive oil, fry onion until soft, add chopped garlic. As soon as it gives a smell, throw pepper and tomato in the pan. Add a little thyme and bay leaf, salt and simmer on low heat. When the vegetables are softened, the sauce is ready.
Eggplant, zucchini and the remaining tomatoes cut into thin slices. Put a portion of the sauce on a baking sheet, then lay slices of tomatoes, eggplants and zucchini in several layers. Put the baking tray in the oven, heated to 200 degrees, and bake until the top layer of vegetables becomes golden. Mix olive oil, chopped garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper. Spread the mixture evenly over the surface of the dish. Season ratatouille with finely chopped parsley.
Chicken baked with vegetables
It would seem the most boring dish you can imagine. But no: few can bake the perfect chicken, because there are life hacking here too. Feel free to stuff the bird with any fruit you find in the kitchen: the goal is to get sweet and sour juice and a delicate flavor. Apples, plums, pears or quinces are suitable.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Remove the chicken from the refrigerator half an hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 240 degrees. Vegetables do not need to be cleaned - just wash and chop (garlic cloves are also not peeled, but you can crush them slightly). Put the vegetables in a deep pan, sprinkle with olive oil and send to the oven. Grease the chicken too with olive oil and then rub it with salt and pepper. Cut the apples into large slices, and in the lemon make a lot of holes with a thin knife or fork. Stuff the chicken with fruits and herbs and place on a baking sheet on top of the vegetables.
Reduce the temperature in the oven to 200 degrees and bake the dish for 80 minutes. If during cooking vegetables lose moisture too quickly, after 40 minutes of baking, pour some water on them. Remove the finished chicken from the oven, cover with foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes. To divide the bird into portions, remove fruits and herbs from it, make a neat cut between the leg and the breast, and separate the legs one by one.
Cheese Gnocchi with Semolina
Gnocchi are dumplings originally from Italy. They are oval and round, large and small, from semolina, wheat flour, potatoes or polenta, with eggs or without - in general, how many Italians, so many recipes. We offer in all senses a light but close to authentic version of ricotta with semolina. Such gnocchi are very tender, fragrant and sweet to the taste.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Mix lemon zest, basil and ricotta. If you have parmesan, add it. Salt a lot, season with pepper and nutmeg. Pour most of the semolina onto the tray in such a way that an even layer is obtained with a width of about 1 cm. Take one spoonful of cheese mixture. To give the gnocchi the correct shape, you need several times to shift each of one dessert spoon to another.
Put gnocchi on a tray with semolina as you prepare (they should not touch each other). Sprinkle the gnocchi with the remainder of the semolina and leave for 2 hours: during this time they will become strong and will not fall apart during cooking. Throw gnocchi in salted boiling water and cook for 2 minutes, until they begin to float. The dish can be served with a small amount of butter, sprinkled with parmesan and basil.
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