Three Thrifty Food Substitutions
Originally published at Frugal in the Fruitlands. You can comment here or there.
On my nightstand right now is Be Thrifty: How to Live Better For Less. I can’t say I learned a lot I didn’t already know from this book, but it does have some thought-provoking tips on saving money on food. One suggestion, for example, was to buy spice blends rather than individual spices, with the logic that while a bottle of dried basil might not be useful in many dishes by itself, a bottle of Italian seasoning has a much wider range.
This got me thinking about other money-saving food substitutions-beyond the “add lemon juice to milk to make buttermilk (because you forgot to go to the store)”-type substitutions. While frugality is often about just using what you have on hand rather than buying new, the items below are intended to be used deliberately as replacements for costly grocery items that perish easily.
1. Substitute onions for scallions (green onions). My husband and I have been doing the South Beach diet since January, and this diet is full of recipes calling for three scallions. Scallions are tasty, I’ll give you that. But like fresh herbs, they don’t last very long in the refrigerator, and nothing is more disgusting than an old, slimy scallion.
Onions, meanwhile, can be stored outside your fridge, have a long shelf life, and are much cheaper. There is a flavor difference, certainly-green onions are less sulfurous-but you can minimize the difference by selecting sweet onion varieties, like Vidalia.
Savings: At my supermarket, scallions cost 50 cents for a bunch of 4-6, which is certainly less than a half pound. Sweet onions sell for 89 cents a pound, and yellow onions sell for 55 cents a pound.
2. Substitute celery tops for parsley. Parsley is one of those fresh herbs I just hate buying. I’m enough of a foodie to know it adds a subtle, bitter flavor to certain dishes, but lazy enough to not care. So what does parsley do in my fridge? It rots.
Next time you need parsley for a recipe, try using celery leaves instead. If you’re anything like me, you probably have a bulb of celery in your fridge right now, and you’re probably going to throw those leaves away otherwise.
Savings: If you’re using celery that’s already taking up space in your fridge, this substitution is basically free. Otherwise, you’re substituting something that costs ~$2-3/lb for something that costs ~$30/lb.
3. Substitute liquid smoke for smoked meats. I’ve discovered I love love love liquid smoke for making vegetarian dishes taste “meatier.” It’s especially good at replacing bacon or sausage. The advantage here is that you can use a very small quantity-just a drop is enough to flavor an entire pot of soup.
Savings: A drop of liquid smoke will cost you fractions of a cent, while a serving’s worth of bacon-say, 4 ounces-will cost you about $1.
You can find more ideas at Cook’s Thesaurus-which is also a good place to identify strange vegetables that might show up in your CSA.
Speaking of which, have you signed up for your CSA yet? I just signed up for mine, and one of the pick-up locations was sold out already! Time to start planning!
Have you tried any frugal substitutions? How well have they worked for you?