Ball Square’s Neighborhood Produce is Tufts’ best-kept secret. A block away from 574 Boston Ave., Neighborhood Produce somehow has exactly what you need for a week of meals. To allow you to repeat my grocery shopping process for the week, I’ve documented my approach.
We begin with what’s already in the fridge and at risk of going bad. Besides the pantry and fridge staples, I have:
- Mint
- 2 blocks of tofu
- Tempeh
- Chorizo seitan
- 1 avocado
- Several limes
- Corn tortillas
- Red bell pepper (already a little soft)
- Several pickled vegetables
Looks like I am doing some form of tacos again this week. This will use up the seitan (a wheat-based protein), avocado, lime and tortillas. I might grab a red onion to make sautéed onions and peppers. Because the bell pepper is not crunchy enough to dip in hummus, this feels like the best way to use it up. This will likely sum to three meals and it may stretch further if I make a can of black beans.
My house ran out of cumin. One of the bonuses of attending a low-waste grocery store (you know, besides the environmental ones) is affordable, fresh spices. I first experienced this while studying abroad — I didn’t want to buy several jars of spices for the three months I was in London, so I purchased cumin by the tablespoon. At a traditional grocery store, you have no idea how long the spices sit on the shelves. But at a zero-waste shop, the spices are fresher and more fragrant. Don’t believe me? Spend a dollar on a jar’s worth of the most fragrant cumin you’ve ever smelled.
Now I consider what recipes I’ve been thinking about this week:
I’ve been craving a meal of roasted vegetables and rice for my lunches. In the past, I’ve made this with tofu (and poof! This recipe is now vegan). I have gochujang, a Korean red chili paste, at home (from an escapade with Eric Kim’s Gochujang Caramel Cookies), so I’m only adding squash (butternut), radishes and scallions to the list. This will (hopefully) come out to four meals.
- Rice Paper Rolls
I have some rice paper I need to use up (purchased last spring, but also sold at Neighborhood Produce). I’ll bake some tofu (maybe the tempeh instead?) in a soy sauce marinade. To the rice paper, I’ll add sliced cucumber, carrots, mint, some of my pickled radishes and a lot of tofu, and dip the rolls in soy sauce, peanut butter, chili oil, sesame oil and rice vinegar. This will hopefully cover another three meals.
The final grocery list is as follows:
- Red onion
- Squash
- Radishes
- Scallions
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Tofu
To account for little treats and impulse purchases, we added:
- Kombucha
- 2 lemons (for morning tea)
- More tortillas (just in case)
- A crunchy red pepper (for the rice paper rolls)
- Just Egg (for breakfasts and chocolate chip cookie recipe experimentation — stay tuned)
