Soup is a great meal when I'm stuck without a plan, so here's tonight's soup:
This soup is perfect for when I've stocked up on lots of veggies, especially from the sug bet rack, and it's time to use them up. I call it my 2 shekel soup - because I usually use the 2 shekel/kilo vegetables to make it! (But honestly, it's more than 2 shekels, because I buy tomato paste for 4-5 per can, and the ptitim cost me a few shekels, especially if I use non-wheat ones, but it's still an extremely inexpensive dish to make!)
Minestrone Soup (vegan, pareve, GF option)
1-2 T. olive oil
1 onion, diced
1-2 sweet peppers (whatever color), diced
2-3 kishuim, diced
4 carrots, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, chopped
any other vegetables you want - I added eggplant, celery and mushrooms as well, feel free to add whatever works for you!
1 can tomato paste
water
seasonings - salt, pepper, basil, oregano, etc
Optional: 1/2 package of "ptitim" (called "Israeli Couscous" in America) - Today I used the whole spelt ones I picked up on sale last week, but I often just leave them out.
Here's my quick and easy soup method:
Place oil in pot. Add all the chopped/diced vegetables (including the garlic). Turn flame on to medium-high and start cooking the vegetables, stirring frequently (I use a trusty bamboo spoon). When they are softened, add tomato paste, water, and seasonings, and stir well. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, then lower the flame to simmer for about 20 min.
Add the ptitim if using, and continue to simmer for about 10 more minutes.
Soup's done and you're all set for a great meal!
I make this soup about once a week, using up lots of vegetables this way (and then my family EATS those vegetables!), and it's always a hit.
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Today, as I walked past the makolet, I decided to check the sug bet rack again. The last week or so it has not been so great, and today i was greeted by truly rotten pumpkins and eggplants (such overwhelmingly rotten pumpkins, I nearly left).
But I decided to look further, and here is what I found that was worthwhile for me!
I skipped the turnips, my family will NOT touch them (I don't really blame them).
But here's what I got for 11.60NIS:
cucumbers
lemons
kishuim (summer squash)
eggplant
tomatoes
pears
kohlrabi
white cabbage
purple cabbage
an interesting looking citrus fruit
1 bunch of herbs (looks like parsley)
These sug bet rack purchases are really hit or miss! So glad today was a hit!
Please share your favorite finds!
Whenever I find myself near the mini market/makolet, I check the "sug bet" rack to see if there are any worthwhile deals there. It's greatly reduced in price, and if it hasn't been sitting out in the sun for long, it's very often still perfectly usable.
I wish I had taken my camera with me to take a picture and show you what was there today. There was A LOT of stuff, and a man was there loading up his bags when I got there. We chatted a bit about whether it was worthwhile to buy the wilted lettuce, and each of us picked out what we wanted from the racks.
I ended up spending 19.10 NIS, and here's what I got:
A bunch of browning bananas that were still white and firm inside (=happy kids!)
a huge pile of summer squash (kishuim)
a huge pile of kohlrabi
2 scrawny stalks of celery
3 tomatoes
3 chunks of pumpkin
1 bunch of scallions
1 package of alfalfa srouts
1 package of chives
1 package of spinach
There were loads of overripe tomatoes there, that I didn't feel like buying, and also plenty of herbs. I let the other customer buying from the rack grab up all the lettuce, because it was too far gone for me. There were also overripe peppers, and carrots (those must have been sitting out in the sun too long), and some beets.
Anyhow, after I made my purchase, I started lugging my haul home, but I hadn't come prepared for a big haul. Then, about 2 minutes into my 10 minute walk home, my next door neighbor passed me on her "kolno'it" (a kolno'it is an electric golf-cart type of thing, that is very popular around here for people who don't have cars and have limited mobility, or even those with no limitations). Then she did a turn-around and offered to help. She had enough room in her kolno'it for my bags, so she piled them in, and we laughed and said "meet you at the house in a few minutes". It was really so sweet of her to help! Having friendly neighbors is so very nice!
But I was thrilled with my takeaway. I try to get only decent looking stuff from the sug bet rack - if I buy things that I have to trim too much off of, the savings plummet. It's not worth my while to buy second rate lettuce if I will need to throw out half of it, when I can get a huge head of lettuce somewhere else for 4 shekels or less, and not need to toss most of it!
I'm signing off now to go wash some veggies and start my cooking! I'll make some minor variations to the Shabbat menu to accommodate all the things I bought today. I'm also going to prep some of this for the freezer for later use.
Have you found any bargains today?
If ever I needed to cut back on spending, it is RIGHT NOW. See, my washing machine died. It was less than 3 yrs old, and I had not planned to replace it so soon. So we have this sudden unexpected expense of a new washing machine! It is time to sock some money back into savings to cover that "emergency expense".
Anyhow, I always shop pretty frugally, and find myself looking over the sug bet produce pretty frequently, but so far this week I have taken an extra couple of walks past the makolet to see if they'd put anything decent into their sug bet boxes. And they had.
Here's what I found for 2 shekels/kg:
(I actually had already used about 4 red peppers, 15 cucumbers, and 4 kishuim before I remembered to take this picture of my cheap produce)
So we've got carrots, cabbage, red peppers, hot peppers, kishuim, eggplants, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples, pears, melon, apricots (sadly, just 2 of those), and now-mushy bananas for baking, all for 2 shekels/kilo! I think altogether I spent about 25 shekels on my sug bet purchases. I left the rotten potatoes there, and did not bother with the past prime parsley. But I'm sort of kicking myself for not picking up the garlic -- although I've had bad experiences with past prime garlic in the past, so that's why I skipped it.
Have you found any really great deals to share?
