The Clean Out the Fridge Challenge
I loooove a challenge.
The “Clean Out The Fridge Challenge” grew out of a comment by Seana at Tiny White Cottage on a fridge clean out recipe created by Dolly Rubiano at The Kitchen is my Playground . Seana and I both agreed that in similar situation, we often cook at our best. Consequently, Dolly initiated this blogger cook off.
We’ve each created a “clean out” dish and we’re posting simultaneously.
I have a deep need to be creative. I probably could’ve been an artist of some sort if I’d found an inner burning passion, but having missed that boat, I apply my creativity to food. I abhor waste so I’m especially motivated to create deliciousness from ingredients that might otherwise end up discarded.
What’s at stake here is my highly valued reputation as a creative cook.
Partly inspired by Greek souvlaki, part the Mexican taco, I’ve named my dish United Nations Tacos in honour of the tri nation challenge and the disparate mish mash of ingredients I’ve used. I give you, …dada, ……spiced pumpkin tacos with garlic sauce.
My tacos were a super delicious lunch! You’ll find the recipe after the photo gallery.
My fridge ingredients are:
An open packet of white corn tortillas
A wedge of jap pumpkin about 800g
¾ large carrot
½ sweet potato
½ red capsicum
Picked over very tired remains of a bunch of parsley
Some green spring onion tops
Half a packet of pine nuts, about 60g
¼ tub natural yoghurt, about 150mls
½ cut lemon
Small amount rocket
From the pantry I added:
1 heaped teaspoon paprika
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
6 sun dried tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt
Preheat the oven to 180C
Peel and cut the pumpkin into bite sized pieces. Toss the pumpkin in olive oil, then toss in the cumin, paprika, oregano and peppers to coat. Bake for 20 minutes. Add the diced red capsicum and pine nuts and bake for a further 20 minutes. The vegetables should be cooked through and caramelized, the pine nuts toasted.
While the pumpkin is roasting, finely chop the parsley and spring onion tops. Set aside. Cut the dried tomatoes into thin strips. ( I use kitchen scissors to do this )
Make a garlic paste by mincing the cloves with a little sea salt. Stir the garlic into the yoghurt. Thin with a little cold water if necessary. Season with pepper.
After the pumpkin, peppers and pine nuts are done, toss them together with the chopped parsley, spring onions and dried tomato strips and dress with the juice of the lemon. Season to taste with sea salt and chilli flakes.
Warm the corn tortillas according to the manufacturers instructions.
Construct your tacos by filling the tortillas with the spiced pumpkin salad, adding a little rocket and top with some garlic, yoghurt sauce.
Makes enough to fill and sauce 8 X 15cm tortillas.
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14 comments on “The Clean Out the Fridge Challenge”
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Creative Commons Copyright Licence
Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
I continue to love your blog.
There are many things I think we have in common. Creativity is often best achieved with limited resources. I too think my best cooking often comes out of my periodical need to ‘eat-down’ the contents of my fridge & pantry. My mother & only brother are both professional artists & cooking is the way I express my deep need to be creative & to nurture.
Thank you for the connection
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Its a pleasure Donna! Self expression comes in many forms, and fortunately we eat everyday so my creative needs are fulfilled in the kitchen. Blogging has got me writing and photographing regularly too, and the more I do it, the more I love it. The tricky bit is valuing the blog as more than self indulgence.
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Who’d have thought it. I’ve got most of those ingredients in my fridge. No tortillas, though. Well done to you, clever girl.
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You are too kind! The tacos were much more successful than anticipated, I’ll be doing them again.
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Oh, I’d say you passed as creative cook with flying colours!! Beautifully done!
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Thanks, it was a fun challenge!
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This is a wonderful recipe, Sandra! You certainly keep treasures in the fridge. I love garlic sauce. Smart choice! Thanks for joining in the fun!
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Thank you Dolly, it was fun and definitely a challenge!
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I’m going to head out now to the supermarket to buy some taco shells! I have some sweet potatoes that are starting to grow roots. Ha!
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Go for it, and enjoy!
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Oh my! Brilliant! So fresh. I love it! United Nations Taco. I’m going to make these for sure. 🙂 Thank you for the fun!
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Now that I really think about it I realize how truly creative these taco turned out. I can see you are a true master in the kitchen. Using pumpkin and sweet potato for tacos is remarkable.
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Haha, thank you. Imaginative, not authentic!
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