Use it up
Recipes to Use Up Vegetables: Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup
The best recipe to use up vegetables before they go bad is a pot of soup. Throw in whatever's wilting and simmer — flexible, cheap, and freezer-friendly.
- TIME
- 40 min
- SERVES
- 6
- ENERGY
- 180 cal
When half the crisper drawer is on the edge, don’t cook six separate things — make soup. A pot of clean-out-the-fridge soup is the most forgiving recipe there is to use up vegetables before they go bad, and it turns a random collection of sad-looking produce into six warm, freezable bowls.
There’s really only one technique to remember: add vegetables in order of how long they take to cook. Hard roots like carrot and potato go in early; soft, quick things like zucchini, tomatoes, and leafy greens go in near the end. Do that and everything finishes tender at the same time instead of some being raw and some falling apart.
From there it’s endlessly flexible. A can of beans or a handful of pasta makes it a full dinner; a squeeze of lemon at the end wakes the whole pot up. And the scraps you’d normally bin — onion skins, carrot ends, herb stems — can simmer into the very stock you build it on.
From fridge to table
How to make it
- 01
Warm the oil in a large pot and soften the onion and garlic for 3–4 minutes.
- 02
Add the firmer vegetables first (carrot, celery, potato) and cook 5 minutes, stirring.
- 03
Pour in the stock and herbs, bring to a simmer, and cook 15 minutes until the hard veg is nearly tender.
- 04
Add quick-cooking veg (zucchini, greens, tomatoes) and any beans or pasta, and simmer 8–10 minutes more.
- 05
Season well, brighten with lemon or vinegar, and serve. Blend it smooth if you prefer.
