In-between seasons and making do with less produce

During the peak of most seasons, the supply of produce is relatively large here. But there are some periods in which that's not necessarily the case. Those are usually the gaps in between two seasons, such as between spring and summer. But right now, it's a bit similar. Last week, all of the vendors at the market sold more or less the same: onions, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes. A few vendors sold the remnants of summer produce- such as aubergine, which were clearly not looking that good anymore, and at very high prices. Fortunately, there were also a few vendors that sold pumpkins for a good price. As the market here is Mondays and Tuesdays, another time to go to the market went by, but this time they sold even less. There wasn't really a point in buying anything, as we still had onions and a huge pumpkin at home, as well as some potatoes and bell peppers. So we're just making do with what we have. 

As we build our meals around vegetables usually, rather than meat, one can imagine how important they are for people like us. But without as much produce, I clearly needed to get more creative with what I would be cooking that week. In the past, I used to panic a bit in these kind of situations, but I've been trying to cope with these minor problems (which is what they are, in the end) to look at it as a challenge rather than an issue. We're certainly not starving, we just have to make do with just a bit less than the usual. And that is OK. As we clearly can't just eat however, whenever what we want right now, we need to be get creative and just try to combine whatever there is. This is also a good moment to clear out the fridge/freezer of leftovers. This is what we were doing already for the past weeks and it just continues. You'd be amazed how many things there actually are in the freezer that are somehow usable. As a bonus, you'll create much more freezer space! 

We don't really buy tinned foods, simply due to the fact that they're just so expensive. If that wasn't the case and we would have lots of tinned veg in the cupboards, we'd certainly be using that. We only have two tins of mushrooms still waiting to be used. Other than tinned foods, what I do a lot in periods like these is to make a lot of legume based meals. Dried legumes are my go-to ingredients when we don't have a lot of vegetables. They're as nutritious -or even more nutritious- and just so versatile. This week, I made large batch of bissara (Moroccan broad bean dip, which can also be made without peas), which we had twice. Today we'll have rice with fried onion, bell pepper and eggs. Since we have quite a lot of onions, I try to use them a lot, and for some reason, this very simple dish happens to be one of my family's favourites! We also had Tunisian pasta once, which is traditionally made without any vegetables. Usually I make a salad as a side, but since there wasn't anything "salady" I made some onion pakora - south Asian chickpea flour based fritters. It was a big hit and since I made it without meat anyway, nutrition wise a good choice as a side. 

This is kind of how I try to still make tasty meals in periods of less produce. A bit of "freezer shopping", clearing out the fridge, and a lot of dry goods. We'll be fine. Yes, it won't be always as nutritional denken as it is in the peak of season, I must admit, but it's not terribly unhealthy either. Hopefully the first autumn/winter produce will appear in the markets in a few weeks!