by H. Snowborne

Created on: April 17, 2010   Last Updated: May 06, 2010

The key to making cheap and easy vegetarian meals is to keep a pantry stocked with food staples that are versatile, inexpensive, and loaded with flavour.  Whether you're ovo-lacto vegetarian or vegan, or you fall somewhere else in the spectrum of vegetarian diversity, pantry items you can keep on hand help you make fast, delicious, and frugal meals any time you need them. 

Dried beans and pulses that you soak are always more delicious than canned ones, but either option costs little and stores well.  Even canned beans can be soaked in water for a few minutes with some whey or lemon juice to remove their phytates, and though it takes a little extra time this makes the beans easy to digest and much more nutritious than beans that haven't been soaked to remove these ingredients.   As for how to use the bean variety, there are so many types:  black beans, navy beans, lima beans, favas, lentils of all kinds, black-eye-peas, romano, adzuki, and the list goes on.  There are so many recipes from every cuisine to help you use them up in great dishes, everything from  chilis to soups, spreads, salads, and even desserts.  Other dried staples to keep on hand include dried wild mushrooms, dried chili peppers, and dessicated sun-dried tomatoes.  They all keep indefinitely, and they're so easy to use.  You can chop up the reconstituted mushrooms and use them to add intense flavour to soups and marinades for vegetables or tofu.  Filter the water used to soak the mushrooms, and you'll have a liquid with concentrated aromatic flavour that you can use like broth to boost soups, rice, or pasta.  Dessicated sun dried tomatoes cost so little when they're purchased at bulk food stores, and they're also easy to reconstitute with a quick soak in boiling water.  Their intense sweetness will  enrich even the simplest foods, and give risottos, pastas, salads, pizza, and sandwiches an added dimension of aroma, texture, and complexity. Once these dried vegetables are reconstituted, you can use them to make all kinds of simple, fast sauces.  Use the chopped mushrooms mixed with garlic, fresh herbs like Italian parsley or marjoram, good olive oil and freshly grated black pepper to make a spread, a pizza topping, or pasta sauce; the sun dried tomatoes make a great quick pesto that works as a sandwich spread, pasta sauce, broth enhancer, or flavour base to mix into things like pressed yogurt, cream cheese, or tofu. 

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next Page >>