One of my tenets of feeding my family is that nothing goes to waste and you can always make something out of nothing. Over-ripe fruit and veggies passing their prime are frozen for future use. This vegetable base is one that I first made when my vegetable drawer held seven onions and little else. I now use versions of it for Indian food and cooking legumes. Like everything I make, it is never the same twice.

This one started with 3 diced yellow onions, 3 blanched and peeled tomatoes, 1/4 cup sliced fresh ginger, a diced butternut squash and 1/2 can of light coconut milk. You can add a couple of teaspoons of curry, coriander, red pepper flakes or pretty much anything you want. I put it all together in a copper pot, lid on, and leave it in the oven at around 300 for 2-3 hours. I added a bag of red lentils and 4 cups of vegetable broth and cooked it over medium low heat on the stove top for about an hour.

One of my life hacks is that I'll clean out the fridge while I'm cooking dinner. I made this while I was cooking another meal by throwing an extra pot on the stove and filling it with the stuff from the fridge that needed to be used.