What's in your fridge?ફ્રિજમાં શું છે?
Tap whatever you have at home right now. Dishes you can cook appear below, starting with the ones where you already have everything.
The ingredients that go furthest
Gram flour alone gives you khaman, khandvi, bhajiya and muthiya. Bottle gourd gives handvo, muthiya and dudhi-chana. Leftover rice becomes vagharelli khichdi. And potatoes turn up in almost everything.
Why this page exists
It is Thursday evening. The shopping was done on Monday and what is left is half an onion, two soft tomatoes, a piece of bottle gourd and some curd. No single recipe is covered by that, so the thinking stops and the evening ends in a delivery order, or in the same potato sabzi for the third time. This page works the other way round: instead of starting from a recipe and hunting for ingredients, you tap what is in the house and see what can be made from it, starting with the dishes you have everything for.
How to use it
- Only tap what you have a usable amount of. The last spoonful in the jar does not count as having it, and the results are only as good as the list you give it.
- Remember the shelf as well as the fridge. Besan, rava, sabudana, wheat flour: a lot of Gujarati cooking depends on the cupboard rather than the vegetable basket, and these are the things people forget they own.
- Start from what will spoil first, not from what you feel like eating. If the greens are going limp, tap those first and then see what the page offers.
- Read the dishes that are missing one or two items too. The missing item is often part of the tempering or the garnish, which you can work around; only drop the dish when the missing thing is the main ingredient.
- After shopping, clear the selection and start again. Carrying on with yesterday's taps hides whatever you have just brought home.
How long common Indian vegetables actually keep
Rough figures worth knowing. Fenugreek, spinach and similar greens: about two days in the fridge, wrapped in a cloth. Coriander and mint: up to a week with the stems standing in water. Okra three to four days, brinjal around four, tomatoes four to five days out of the fridge, since cold dulls them. Bottle gourd and cucumber about a week with the cut end covered. Cabbage and carrots ten to fifteen days. Potatoes and onions do not belong in the fridge at all: keep them dark, dry and apart from each other, because together the potatoes sprout sooner.
The ingredients that cover the most dishes
Three things rescue most evenings. Besan gives khaman, khandvi, bhajiya, muthiya, patra and kadhi, and thickens a sabzi in a hurry. Curd or buttermilk gives kadhi, raita, dahi vada, a souring agent for batters and a way to bind dough. Bottle gourd gives handvo, muthiya and a dal-based sabzi. On a day with no vegetables at all, flour, dal and curd will carry a whole meal between them, and all three keep considerably longer than anything green.
Using up vegetables that are on the turn
Soft tomatoes are no good in a salad but better than firm ones in a gravy or a sambhar. Limp fenugreek is not for eating raw, but worked into dough it becomes thepla, muthiya or dhebra. Curd that has gone sour belongs in kadhi or in dough. Leftover rice can be tempered or added to muthiya. There is a limit, though: if something smells off, feels slimy or shows mould, do not try to save it by cutting away the bad part.
Why you keep ending up with half vegetables
Half a bottle gourd and three okra survive in the fridge because the shopping is done by recipe and the cooking is done by day. You buy the amount one dish needs, then on the day that dish was meant for, something else happens. Two things help: shop in smaller amounts more often rather than once a week, and keep one or two vegetables in the house that can wait, so a broken plan does not end up in the bin.
Questions people ask
Do I need to have everything on the list?
No. Tap only the things you actually have. Dishes where you already have every ingredient come first, and the rest follow underneath them. Even two or three selections will return something worth reading, but the more honestly you tap, the more useful the results are going to be.
Why does it ask about flour and besan?
Because a large part of Gujarati cooking stands on flour and pulses rather than on vegetables. Khaman, dhokla, muthiya, thepla and handvo treat vegetables as secondary. On a day when the fridge is bare, the answer usually comes from the cupboard, so the cupboard has to be part of the question.
The vegetable I have is not on the list.
The list sticks to what is commonly in the house. If yours is missing, tap the flours, dal and curd you do have, since many dishes will take a different vegetable without complaint. Otherwise look through the full recipe list and search for the vegetable directly.