The Great Refrigerator Clean-up - Everything but the Kitchen Sink

So last night I was trying to figure out what to do with all the vegetables I had left in my fridge since we'll be doing a shopping soon, and I HATE having leftover veggies because I want to make sure none are old and moldy before putting new stuff in.

So - cue in the Great Refrigerator Clean-up!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
Leftover drippings from pork roast
1/2 diced cucumber
3 diced tomatoes
2 cups chopped celery
1 bag bean sprouts
1 diced onion
Freshly ground sea salt and black peppercorns
1/2 cup pure pumpkin (the pureed stuff you find in a can)
Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

First I put in the butter and drippings, then added the onion and pumpkin and started sauteeing. Once the onion was softened a bit, I added the celery, and tomatoes, and then put the entire bag of bean sprouts over it all. I ground up the salt and pepper to put all over it, and just let it sautee like that on medium heat for about 20 minutes or so. When it was almost ready, I put about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and mixed it in. Once plated, I garnished with more parmesan.

I was worried that it wouldn't taste good, but once I got going, it was actually REALLY good! The sauce from the butter, and drippings thickened up with the addition of the pumpkin, and all of the vegetables just complimented everything else. My husband told me it tasted like an Asian dish, and I had to agree - it almost tasted like something you'd find in an egg roll...just a bit more involved.

Having this again for lunch today, and because I packed so much onto my plate last night, I also have an extra serving in my freezer for another day.

I think what did the trick to make this so good was the combination of the pumpkin making the sauce, and the bean sprouts to give it that needed crunch (we aren't huge celery fans, and yes they do crunch as well, but not as nicely as the bean sprouts).