Tag Archives: food

Using dried vegetables

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Solar Drier

View of the Solar Drier

The year 2020 has been a challenge for everyone everywhere. We escaped to the cortijo on 13th March 2020, just before the first COVID lockdowns were introduced in Spain, and we’ve been here ever since. For the first time in 10 years, we haven’t had volunteers to help us and there’s just been the two of us. We’ve continued to plant and grow things and had a good year in terms of vegetables and fruit, but this year we wanted to see if we could be more self-sufficient throughout the winter months. And so we started drying things. At first, we used the electric dryer but then John developed a much more efficient solar drier and chopped or sliced aubergines, butternut squashes, green peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, etc. would dry in 24 hours. There is more information about the solar drier on this page.

Dried Food

Dried Food

My mission at the moment is to find tasty and delicious recipes to make with the dried vegetables. I’ll include the successful recipes in blog posts below.

COURGETTES

Courgettes seem to work best in dishes if they are placed in boiling water for 2-3 hours beforehand. They can then be incorporated into a recipe and cooked for around 30-40 minutes so that they are soft.

Here are some recipes using dried courgettes:

dried courgette and tomatoDried courgette, potato and ham in a tomato sauce 

 

Mexican meal: Tortilla wraps and beans

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mexican3INGREDIENTS:
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large red pepper, cut into thin strips
2 400g jars kideny beans
3 cloves garlice, finely chopped
150ml vegetable stock
chilli powder
sweet paprika
coriander
cumin
salt and pepper

mexican21 iceberg lettuce
salt

1 carton natural yoghurt
1 carton Greek yoghurt
squeeze lemon juice
salt

tortilla wraps

mexican1Heat some olive oil in a deep-sided frying pan and fry the onion gently until soft. Add the garlic and fry for another couple of minutes. Add the red pepper and fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the spices and stir well.

Pour in the tomatoes and fry for another minute or so. Add the kidney beans and heat through. Pour over the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.

Cover and simmer for 10 minutes and then remove the lid to evaporate excess liquid.

Leave to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the other dishes.

Finely shred the lettuce and sprinkle with salt.

Mix the yoghurt in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the lemon juice.

Heat a frying pan over a low flame. Warm the tortilla wraps through on both side. Transfer to a plate and cover with a cloth to keep warm.