Cooking Substitutions

It's been a while since I posted anything about my recent cooking adventures. Here is some information you may find useful. As I was preparing to make one of my favorite recipes for chicken enchiladas, I found that one of the key ingredients for the filling, sour cream, was not in my fridge! What am I do? Should I pack up my two young children and run to the store for just one ingredient? Should I just forget making the enchiladas and find something different? For years I would always do one of those two things...but it sure is a pain to go to the store for just one thing, or to try and find a new recipe where I have everything I need. I would go through recipe after recipe, deciding I didn't have this or that so it wouldn't work! Well I have discovered an easier way! Substitutions! This can be an intimidating thing for some people, but it definately gets easier with a little practice and a few general rules to follow.

First, ask yourself whether the item missing is one that is crucial to the outcome of your recipe. When you are baking, is the item an egg, baking powder, flour or something else that has to do with the chemical reactions that cause the item to turn out? Or if you are cooking, is it a key ingredient that will make or break the dish, such as my sour cream, which makes up a significant portion of the recipe? If the answer is yes to this question, it is important to really think through what you will do to find a replacement. For baking (or cooking really), there are many websites which list common substitutions. The best one I have found is http://www.foodsubs.com/. This is an amazing website! You can find substitutions for everything from eggs to baking powder! It can definately save the day. For my enchiladas, I found some plain yogurt in my fridge. This has the same tang and similar consistancy to sour cream. Perfect! My family did not even realize anything was different with the enchiladas.

Now, if the item is not crucial to the recipe, such as one of the vegetables in the dish, or a particular spice, it can be easy to just leave it out, or to find something else that will taste just as good! For example, if the recipe for calls for garlic and you don't have any fresh on hand, add a little bit of garlic powder (just keep in mind powdered and dried spices and herbs are a lot more potent than fresh, so add just a little and taste before adding more!). Or, look at my couscous salad recipe in the sidebar, it calls for many veggies. If you don't have kidney beans, for instance, add chickpeas instead (the original recipe actually called for chickpeas, but I like the sweetness of kidney beans better). Or just leave them out! You could even leave out the chicken to make it vegitarian. Things like this are very flexible and may make the dish taste a little different, but will not ruin it. You may even find that you like it better with your new substitution!