It happens to the best of us. Despite careful meal planning, some weeks you just end up with too many veggies in your fridge. We don’t want to leave you with more zucchini that you can’t use or the dreaded FOWP (fear of wasting produce), so we wanted to share some ideas of making the most of what you may have in your fridge right now. Here are 5 veggies that our community reports often having too many of, along with some time-tested ways to use them up so you never have to wonder what to do with too many vegetables again.
Carrots
Sure, carrot cake cookies are always an option, but our top recommendation is to combine your extra carrots with the extra celery and onion you’ve likely got around, roughly chop them, and simmer them in water to make easy vegetable stock. For bonus points (and extra flavor) try roasting the carrots first or adding fun add-ons like a bit of tomato paste, your extra parsley, or your fennel tops. You could also always just pickle them for an easy appetizer or snack.
Cilantro
Extra cilantro is a delicious invitation to make some of the best sauces around. We’re huge fans of cilantro in chimichurri, salsa verde, our zhoug, a spicy Middle Eastern hot sauce. Our favorite recent cilantro discovery has been cilantro mojo sauce, since it’s a perfect dipping sauce for a summer grill
Bok Choy
It’s probably no surprise that stir-fry is our go-to, but if you want to branch out, you should try these 10 ways to cook with bok choy. When in doubt, remember that bok choy is part of the cabbage family, so you can use it similarly to how you’d use broccoli or cabbage to good effect. Bok choy’s flavor is pretty mild, so don’t be shy about spicing it up with garlic, ginger, green onions, or sesame oil!
Zucchini
Sure, baking it into bread or cake is always an option, and a good one if you favor sweets. Our favorite trick for a bumper crop of zucchinis is to shred them and make fritters. This is especially versatile, since you can easily use up other leftover veggies like carrots, broccoli, and kale in fritters, too.
Broccoli
Our go-to way to get through a royal amount of broccoli crowns is this recipe for roasted broccoli with parmesan, basil, and lemon! Don’t forget about the broccoli stems, either, since they’re great in hummus or fritters.
