One of my favorite kitchen short-cuts, particularly for this time of year when I make soups around once a week, is to make my own Mirepoix. Yep, you read that right, this blog is now bilingual- mirepoix {pronounced meer-pwah} is a french term that essentially means a celery, carrot and onion combo. It's the peeling and slicing that makes a lot of recipes time consuming, so by accomplishing this step beforehand, you'll be surprised at just how quickly a recipe can come together!
Around the holidays, these three produce items are generally super cheap. You can even save more money by planting your own carrots if you'd like! Plant them in spring, then water them all summer and harvest them in November. That's what I do! OK, if you don't care to go all June Cleaver on me, then you can buy a huge bag of carrots for about $3.
I don't have a super elaborate technique- I simply wash, peel and slice/dice the veggies, then lay them out on a cookie sheet to freeze. After about a day in the freezer, you can transfer them to a ziplock bag and there you have it- mirepoix for whenever you need it.
You can mix them all up if you'd like. However I sometimes use just onion and celery for a recipe, or just carrots- you get the idea. So I like to leave them separate.
I first used a handy mandoline to slice my carrots. Then I proceeded to nearly cut my finger off and decided mandolines were best left to someone more coordinated than I. A knife works great and I'm proud to report all my digits are still in tact.
I only have 1 lone picture of my process with dicing onions. Apparently I purchased the world's strongest onions and proceeded to clear the house of all 5 remaining individuals within about 10 minutes. Seriously. It got so bad I had to leave the job and take a break. So do yourself a favor- enlist help and get the dicing onions portion done fast.
Enjoy faster meals!
