Frugal Secret Ingredients

One of the surprises for me leaving corporate life is that I enjoy cooking.  Before, when I worked 12-14 hour days, meals usually consisted of take out from a restaurant, or picking up a roasted chicken from the deli.  These days, I enjoy reading cookbooks, trying new recipes and trying to learn more about various cuisines, especially those that are naturally healthy.  As I mentioned in my post, My Modern Frugal Kitchen.  I keep a lid on costs by learning to waste less, focusing on healthy, low cost ingredients, and finding creative uses for leftovers.

One other step that I take to try to make meals special is to incorporate a few secret ingredients that make seemingly ordinary dishes a bit special.  Although secret ingredients can take the form of expensive, exotic items that are hard to find, there are also a range of ingredients that are now available at most grocery stores and reasonably priced.  Here are some of my favorites:

Ginger — I put grated fresh ginger in marinades for chicken and also in fruit dishes like apple ginger coleslaw.  I also like ginger in mango ginger smoothies.

Lemon zest or occasionally lime zest – I use a regular fine grater to grate the the peel from the lemon, only taking the outer yellow part.  The zest imparts a lemony taste without the tang.  I use lemon zest in fish marinades, sauteed spinach; and lime zest in yogurt sauce.

Chipotle chilis — these canned chilis can be found inexpensively in the Mexican food section and are increasingly appearing in regular grocery stores.  I puree a chili for chipotle sweet potatoes and for a special chipotle hummus.

White balsamic vinegar — vinegar can usually be found relatively inexpensively and can help to reduce the salt in a dish.  White balsamic vinegar is great for orange coleslaw and for sweet and sour red cabbage.

Sriracha chili sauce — we like spicy foods in our house, so I keep a number of chili sauces around.  Sriracha (Thai style) chili sauce is one of my favorite for incorporating in dishes such as spicy rice and Thai spicy turkey.  When I make salmon cakes or crab cakes, I create a quick dipping sauce of 4 parts mayonnaise and 1 part sriracha.

The key to this secret ingredients is that a small amount goes a long way and they work for me.

see the call for suggestions and giveaway running until May 9th

see more suggestions at Works for Me Wednesday