After dumpstering a ton of cauliflower, potatoes, and tomatoes, I decided to make some Aloo Gobi.

I used:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (seems like a lot, but this recipe makes a ton of food)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tsp hot sauce (like Sriracha)
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3-4 tomatoes (or 2 cans), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp garam masala (I made my own)
• salt

First heat the oil and saute the onions and cumin.

Saute onions until translucent.

Add the turmeric and 1 tsp salt.

Add hot sauce and tomatoes.

Add garlic, potatoes, and cauliflower. Stir well, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

I didn’t have garam masala so I made a janky version using 1/4 tsp of each of the following:

• curry powder
• cumin
• black pepper
• cinnamon

Add the garam masala and stir well. You can eat immediately or let it sit for a while to really soak up the spices.

If you have it, serve with some fresh chopped cilantro on top.

Check it out: Another way to use up dumpstered bagels (or any other bread).

Delicious vegan stuffing with colcannon and a side of totally canned green beans from my moms.

Yeah, girl. This stuff is good. Let’s see if I can remember how I made it. This was supposed to be posted a couple months ago, but then I became a bad mother and started neglecting Trashy Gourmet.

Ingredients:

• lots of old bagels or bread
• celery
• carrots
• mushrooms
• onion (about one cup of each veggie give or take)
• garlic
• veggie broth (I don’t know, 3-5 cups?)
• oil
• s&p

Cut the bagels up real nice like. It seems like we always dumpster quite a few cranberry bagels which I don’t really like. This is a perfect time to get rid of those suckers. Plus, they’re more moist because of the fruit and tend to get moldy faster than the other bagels. Slice and dice the veggies up real nice like too. Bring the veggie broth to a boil and throw in the veggies. If you don’t have broth you could just use some water with a little olive oil, salt, and herbs. Cook for a couple minutes then combine with the bagels in a lightly greased casserole dish. Bake at 400 degrees uncovered for about half an hour depending on how moist or dry you want the stuffing to be.

Sorry about the lame pictures. All I have right now is a camera phone. That isn’t even mine. Some day Trashy will have clear, focused photos with all kinds of megapixels…

Happy Super Belated St. Patty’s Day! I actually started a draft of this post in March. And now it’s May. Awesome!

In honor of the holiday and since I dumpstered a beautiful head of cabbage I made some colcannon. Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish. It’s incredibly economical and simple as well as a tasty way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• potatoes (or leftover mashed potatoes)
• cabbage (or kale)
• soymilk
• margarine
• garlic, minced
• s&p

If you’re not using leftover mashed potatoes then peel (if you want), dice, and boil potatoes until tender. Reserve the water from the potatoes to boil the cabbage with. Quarter the cabbage and slice into about 1″ thick slices. Mash the potatoes with the remaining ingredients while the cabbage boils. Mix in cabbage and adjust seasonings to taste.

You don’t really need exact measurements. Just start small and keep adding until, you know, it tastes good. Like I said, this is a really simple dish and pretty hard to mess up.

Variations:

• Add vegan bacon, sausage, or cheese.
• Roll into balls or make patties and fry. (Add flour if not thick enough.)
• Put fried colcannon on bread or pita with favorite sandwich toppings.
• Add veggie or mock chicken broth and soymilk to make a creamy soup.

Pierogi + Dumplings = Pieroplings!

I still had a ton of dumpstered potatoes and some wonton wrappers in the fridge. And so the pieropling was born.

Ingredients:

• 4 small potatoes, baked
• 1/2 cup sauerkraut
• 2 Tbsp margarine
• 2Tbsp onion, minced
• s&p
• wonton wrappers

Slice potatoes in half and scoop insides into a bowl. Stir in rest of ingredients (except wrappers, of course). Place about a tablespoon of the mixture in a wrapper, wet edges with water, and fold however you desire. You can either boil or steam them. I steamed them for about 10 minutes. You can fry them after this, but I was too lazy. Serve with vegan sour cream or minced onions sauteed in margarine. I ate mine with mustard. I thought ketchup would be a good idea since I eat ketchup on pretty much everything, but I was wrong. It’s pretty gross. Don’t try it, I warned you.

Before being cooked:

After:

After dumpstering a ton of potatoes I wanted to do something other than just mashed, baked, or fried potatoes. What’s a girl to do? Curry!

My intention was to make Masaman Curry, but it turns out I only had a can of Thai red curry paste left. Well, red curry it is! Luckily we acquired about a dozen limes and a few bags of cherry tomatoes. We also dumpstered quite a few bunches of asparagus so I threw that in, but honestly I didn’t like the flavor of the asparagus in this curry. Looked pretty though . . .

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1-2 Tbsp red curry paste (make your own!)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 4-5 potatoes
• 10 or so cherry tomatoes (or 1 large tomato, or 2 roma)
• 2 limes

Peel potatoes and dice into 1 inch cubes. Quarter cherry tomatoes. Heat oil in pan. Add curry paste and stir for 1 minute. Stir in remaining ingredients and squeeze in juice of limes. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water if necessary.

If you have some, I would also add some chopped onion and/or tofu.

Serve on a bed of rice.

Vegan Dumpster Winter Hash

Ingredients:

• baby red potatoes
• squash
• celery
• rehydrated shiitake mushrooms
• kale and/or chard
• s&p
• garlic powder

Chop potatoes, squash, celery, and mushrooms. Saute in oil or margarine until potatoes are slightly browned. Add kale/chard and cover. Simmer on medium-low heat until potatoes are tender. Season to taste with s&p and garlic, or saute fresh minced garlic with the vegetables. I didn’t have any fresh garlic at the time.Sage would be a good herb to season with.

Lots of kale, chard, and stale bread? It’s time for ribollita!

When I was in Florence I wasn’t able to partake of authentic ribolitta because chicken broth is usually used. My friend Molly is an omnivore, however, so she was stoked when she finally got to eat it in Italy. When we got back to the states she made a big batch of vegan ribollita for a potluck I had. So, my lovely little Mollface, this one’s for you!

Vegan Dumpster Ribollita

ingredients:

• celery
• potatoes
• squash
• water/broth
• kale and/or chard
• cannellini beans (white kidney beans)*
• tomato paste*
• stale bread*
• s&p
• garlic powder

Saute celery, potatoes, and squash in olive oil or margarine or whatever you have.

Add water/broth to cover. I used a little mushroom broth that we had left over from when Lynn-evere broke her jaw, and the rest was just water. Add s&p and garlic powder to taste. Rosemary or a bay leaf would also be really good to add.

Bring to a boil and add kale/chard. Cover.

Once wilted, lower heat to a simmer and add beans and tomato paste (about 3 Tbsp).

When the tomato paste is thoroughly mixed in add big chunks of stale bread and stir.

* = not dumpstered