I believe the best Italian sub near you is at…

If you change your mind and want pizza instead, I can also tell you the best pizza near you.

What makes a great Italian sub?

As long as it’s delicious, there is no wrong way to make an Italian sub. But, having eating many, many Italian subs in my life I believe the following items are what make a truly great sandwich.

Freshly cut, high quality cold cuts

The best Italian subs use cold cuts that are sliced to order. After cold cuts are sliced, they dry out and lose flavor. I’ve had bad subs where the only problem is tasteless cold cuts. So disappointing!

It takes a lot of time to slice cold cuts just for one sandwich, so many shops slice ahead of time. Ideally, the cold cuts are sliced the same day. Most supermarkets slice to order at their deli counter, which is why you can get a surprisingly good sandwich from there!

There is a full list of common cold cuts in my Italian Sub Recipe.

Great bread

The bread is almost as important as the cold cuts. The ideal bread for an Italian sub is a roll that has a slightly crisp crust and tender inside. You want enough crust to hold up to wet toppings like dressing and tomatoes. But, if the crust is too chewy it will cause your fillings to squirt out when you take a bite.

French bread works well. Baguettes are a little too firm, but also work if that’s all you have.

Great dressing

The best dressing for an Italian sub is some combination of vinegar and oil. The vinegar provides a sour kick that cuts through the richness of the cold cuts. My favorite is an Italian dressing. Here is a recipe for my homemade sub dressing.

Mustard is also a great dressing because it also contains vinegar. I usually avoid mayonnaise because the cold cuts have enough fat, but it can help provide moisture if you have mostly dry ingredients.

Great toppings

Toppings can make or break a sandwich. I look for toppings that bring texture as well as taste. For example, pepperoncini bring a tart, slightly spicy flavor, but also a great crunch. My favorites are:

• Pepperoncini – Tart and spicy with a nice crunch. Best sliced thinly.
• Raw onions – Aromatic and sharp with a nice crunch. Best sliced super thin.
• Roasted red peppers – Sweet and juicy.

More Suggestions Near You

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If you have a pot of soup on the stove RIGHT NOW and don’t have time to read the whole post, just do this:

• Turn the stove on high to bring the soup to a simmer
• In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup flour with 1 cup of cold water until smooth
• Add about 2 tablespoons of the flour mix to your soup while stirring
• Wait until it comes back to a simmer to see if it’s thick enough
• Repeat until it’s the right thickness.

(If your soup is clear, use cornstarch instead of flour)

Now that your crisis is averted, keep reading to learn about all the ways you can thicken soup.

Is there a single best way to thicken a soup?

Not really. The best method depends on the type of soup you’re trying to thicken. But, if I had to pick one method that works for the most types of soups it would be modified food starch. Modified food starch is one of the most versatile thickeners you can find. It sounds a bit sciency, but it’s usually just a form of corn or wheat starch. If you start reading the labels of foods you buy, you’ll see modified food starch mentioned on many of them.

Modified food starch works well because it is highly stable at extreme hot and cold temperatures. It thickens instantly. It won’t make clear foods cloudy. It’s also really inexpensive. You can buy it online easily. Here is my favorite brand on Amazon.

Common methods to thicken soup

Alternative methods to thicken soup

Method	Best for	How to use
beans	Beans add thickness without any fat. Good for soups that already have beans like chili and ham and bean.	Blend some cooked beans with liquid from the soup. Add to the soup and repeat until desired thickness. We have a full post on this technique.
potatoes, potato flakes	Cream of broccoli or asparagus, or chowders. Good for soups that already contain potatoes.	Blend cooked leftover potatoes with liquid from the soup. Add to the soup and repeat until desired thickness. Potato flakes can be added directly to the soup.
cauliflower	Creamy, low carb soups. This will thicken creamy soups but still keep the carb count low	Blend cooked cauliflower WELL with liquid from the soup. Add to the soup and repeat until desired thickness. See our Cream of Asparagus recipe for an example.
bread, breadcrumbs	Rustic soups like Spanish sopa de ajo or Italian minestrone. Thickening can take longer than other methods.	Add breadcrumbs directly to soup and simmer for 15 minutes, or until thickened. Bread can be blended with liquid from the soup and added back to the pot.
rice	Peruvian aguadito de pollo, chicken and rice. Good for soups that already contain rice. Best when you only want a small amount of thickness	Blend cooked rice with liquid from the soup. Add to the soup and repeat until desired thickness.
lentils	Lentil soups or stews. Will add heartiness to a vegetable soup.	Blend soup with a stick blender or remove some lentils and liquid to a blender and add back to soup. Repeat to desired thickness.
masa	Chili and tortilla soup. Best for hearty soups with a Latin flavor.	Whisk masa into simmering soup. Add in batches and wait until it comes to a simmer to determine whether you need to add more. You can also use the masa to make homemade corn tortillas! Available on Amazon

Exotic methods to thicken soup

Method	Best For	How to use
xanthan gum	Gazpacho or fruit soups. Great for cold soups since it does not require heat to reach full thickening power.	A little xanthan gum goes a long way, so start with a tiny amount. Too much can also result in a slimy texture. Mix with an equal part oil to and stir until smooth. Add to soup with a whisk. Let sit for 5min to thicken. Available on Amazon (Buy a small amount as it will last a LONG time.)
modified food starch	Any soup that is already cooked that you don’t want to bring to a boil.	Modified food starch is corn starch that has been treated so that it does not need to be heated to reach full thickening power. Sometimes called “clear gel”. Whisk into soup and wait 5min to see if you need more. Available on Amazon.
agar agar	Clear, cold soups.	Agar agar is often used as a vegan substitute for gelatin. Most commonly used for making gummy bears! It can get super thick and stays clear. Available on Amazon (Buy a small amount as it will last a LONG time.)

Texture and flavor enhancers

The following ingredients are commonly added to soups to enhance the flavor or texture. These won’t thicken your soup, but can turn something basic into a masterpiece.

• Cream provides richness to soups that already have a milk base. Good for chowders and cream of something soups.
• Gelatin provides the “lip smacking” characteristics of soups based on meat bones. It has no taste on it’s own. It is great for meaty soups when your broth is a bit thin, but already full of flavor. Gelatin does thicken cold dishes like jello, but when hot it’s completely liquid.
• Butter provides richness and buttery flavor. Butter makes just about everything better (except your health!)
• Coconut milk/cream provides a tropical flavor common to Southeast Asian recipes and richness. Great for curries.
• MSG boosts the savory flavors in any food. MSG naturally occurs in meat, cheese, tomatoes and other super delicious foods. It is all natural and most of the MSG in the US is made from corn.

FAQ

Related Articles

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Cauliflower Leek Soup

The post How to thicken ANY soup, the complete guide appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

The easiest substitute for giardiniera is to drain and coarsely chop any sour pickled vegetables such as sport peppers, pepperoncini, jalapenos and/or pickles. Then add a small amount of dried oregano and olive oil. The result will give you the sour, spicy and herby notes of giardiniera.

I just ran out of giardiniera and need a quick substitute

If you need a giardiniera in the next hour, you can make a quick giardiniera using nearly any pickled vegetables. There are other vegetables that work as well. Sour pickled vegetables work the best. I would stay away from any pickled vegetables that are very sweet such as sweet pickles.

Here are some pre-pickled vegetables that I found work really well:

• Pepperoncinis
• Sport peppers
• Pickled jalapeno peppers
• Pickled roasted bell peppers
• Jarred artichoke hearts
• Canned mushrooms
• Olives, pitted
• Capers

To make the substitute giardiniera, chop your combination of vegetables in order to end up with about 1 cup total. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tsp of dried oregano. You probably don’t need to add any salt. It will get better as it sits, but you can use it immediately.

I don’t have any giardiniera and have never tried it

Most supermarkets carry at least one or two brands of giardiniera. It should be in the same section as the pickles. If you’re outside the midwest your options may be limited to national brands, which are ok, but not as good as the local brands.

Fortunately, there are a ton of giardiniera options available on Amazon. Here are a few awesome options:

I don’t like giardiniera

If you don’t like the sour kick of giardiniera, you might like New Orleans-style olive salad. It’s a key ingredient in a muffaletta sandwich and brings a ton of flavor but is much less sour than giardiniera. The most well-known olive salad is made by Central Grocery in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The line to buy a muffaletta or olive salad sometimes goes out the door and down the block!

Central Grocery’s olive salad is also available on Amazon

Print

Giardiniera Substitute

Here is a quick way to make something close to a giardiniera to liven up your sandwich.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword giardiniera

Ingredients

• 1 cup Pickled vegetables, like jalapeno peppers, sport peppers, pepperoncini, artichokes, sweet peppers or any other sour pickled vegetables
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano

Instructions

• Chop pickled vegetables into 1/2" pieces.
• Add olive oil and oregano. Mix well and let sit for an hour.
• Pile on your hotdog, sandwich or anywhere else you need a big kick of flavor

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Al pastor is NOT the same as carne adobada. Al pastor refers to pork that has been marinated and then cooked on a vertical spit called a trompo. Adobada is marinated with similar ingredients but commonly cooked on a grill or braised on the stove. Both are equally delicious, though.

Al Pastor

You can easily recognize Al pastor from the street carts and restaurants that serve it. Pork leg and/or shoulder meat is marinated in red chiles, vinegar, oregano and other spices and piled high onto a vertical spit called a trompo. The meat chars as it rotates and is then shaved off for tacos. It’s common to have a pineapple at the top of the spit and to add bits of pineapple to the al pastor tacos.

Oregano and achiote are the main spiced used, but other common spices include cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg.

There are some areas of northern Mexico that refer to al pastor as carne adobada, such as in Baja California.

Adobada

Adobada means “marinated” in Spanish but generally refers to a specific marinade of red chiles, vinegar, oregano and spices. This is very similar to the al pastor marinade, and in some cases could be identical. The main difference is the cooking method, which can vary from grilling to braising. Most adobada recipes are for cooking at home.

The most popular adobada recipes use pork shoulder because of it’s high fat content. For grilling, use thinly sliced pork. For a braise, chunks are common. Toast chiles such as guajillo and ancho and soak in hot water until soft before blending with vinegar and oregano to a fine paste. Rub the paste all over the meat and allow to marinade for several hours. Then grill the meat over charcoal or simmer in a pot on the stove.

Serve adobada as tacos or with a side of corn tortillas. Rice and beans would be a great accompaniment.

Here is my simple but delicious recipe for Carne Adobada, using pork shoulder and a standard backyard grill. This made amazing tacos!

The post Is al pastor the same as adobada? appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

Formula cooking is the idea that behind every recipe there is a formula.  The formula dictates what kinds of things go into a recipe and roughly what’s done with them.  That formula might be the same for literally hundreds or thousands of similar recipes but with each combination of specific ingredients yields something unique.  The easiest way to illustrate is with an example.

Here is a recipe for Macaroni and cheese:

• 1lb elbow macaroni, cooked al dente
• 8oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2cup milk
• 2T flour
• 1t salt
• 1cup seasoned bread crumbs

Mix first 5 ingredients and pour into a small baking dish.  Cover with bread crumbs and bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

This is a simple recipe but specifies exactly what goes into the dish and in what order.  Here is a formula for Macaroni and cheese:

• Some kind of pasta
• Some kind of cheese
• Some kind of sauce
• Some kind of seasoning
• Some kind of topping

Mix in some order and heat until all ingredients are cooked.

With this formula, you can create a practically unlimited number of dishes that could be called macaroni and cheese but are distinctly different from the first recipe.  You already do this when you happen to be out of cheddar cheese and substitute monterey jack instead.  Now, think about every part of a recipe being replaceable and your now using formula cooking.  This flexibility will allow you to create your own variation that might be:

• Healthier
• More suited to the tastes of your family
• Easier to prepare
• More interesting
• Better matched to another dish that this will accompany
• Best of all… Less expensive to make!

Now let’s say that I’m planning to make a Cajun meatloaf for dinner tonight.  The meatloaf is already in the oven and I need to make a quick side dish.  There are some chopped vegetables left from making the meatloaf.  I have some left over rotelli pasta that’s already cooked and some mild cheddar I got on sale because my family doesn’t like sharp cheddar.  Why not make a Cajun macaroni and cheese to go with the Cajun meatloaf?  Here’s what I come up with.

Cajun Stove top Mac & Cheese

• 1lb Rotelli pasta, cooked (pasta)
• 6oz mild cheddar, grated (cheese)
• 2T flour (sauce)
• 2T butter (sauce)
• 1/2 cup milk (sauce)
• 1/2 cup onions, chopped (seasoning)
• 1/4 cup bell pepper, chopped (seasoning)
• 1/4 cup celery, chopped (seasoning)
• 1/4 cup andouille sausage, diced (seasoning)
• 2t Cajun seasoning salt (seasoning)
• 5 dashes Tabasco (seasoning)
• 1/2 cup stale goldfish crackers, crushed

Cook the butter and flour over medium heat in a large sauce pan until the flour turns lightly brown.  Add the onions, bell pepper and celery and cook about 5 minutes or until soft.  Add the andouille and seasoning salt.  Add the cheese and milk and stir until it forms a sauce.  Add the pasta and tabasco.  Turn off the heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes for it to thicken.  Sprinkle with the crushed crackers.  Serve with Cajun meatloaf!

I’ve never made the above recipe, but bet it would be good!  It’s just an example to show how when you use the formula you can come up with something completely different that you can be pretty certain will still be recognizable, and probably delicious.  Next time you’re looking at a recipe, see if you can figure out the formula.  If you do that, I bet you’ll immediatly come up with ideas to make your own version that’s probably even better!

The post The frugal formula appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

The article offered up some great general tips for making frugal food choices.  I’ve summarized them here.  A link to the full article is below:

1. Choose less expensive cuts of meat like whole chicken and whole pork loin
2. Add grains and legumes to stretch out a meal
3. Go vegetarian a few times a week
4. Stick with simpler recipes and avoid buying spices that you won’t use again
5. Cut down on food waste by freezing and cooking leftovers into new recipes

The full article has a lot more detail along with some frugal recipes at the end.

The post Old recipes back in style appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

I used to avoid buying fresh herbs because even though they were cheap, I still felt bad about throwing away half a bunch.   To fix this, I came up with lots of ways to use up fresh herbs so I can enjoy them regularly without feeling guilty.  Below are some of my favorite ways to use up fresh curly or flat-leaf parsley.

• Sprinkle on everything! Parsley has a strong flavor that holds it’s own against heavy meats and strong spices.  I love parsley chopped and added to meaty soups and stews.  I sprinkle it on everything from chicken and dumplings to sauted squash.  I usually chop about 1/3 of the bunch and store it in a container in the fridge (for up to a week) so it’s ready to use at a moments notice.
• Add to leafy salads! Fresh parsley goes great in salads.  You can chop it and add it directly with the lettuce or try blending it with your salad dressing.  Either way it adds a very nice flavor.
• Add to picnic salads! Add fresh parsley to tuna, chicken, potato and macaroni salads to turn them into something amazing.  Use your regular recipe but add just enough at the end to leave some small bits of green.  It’s also delicious in cole slaw.
• Pesto! Fresh parsley can be added to traditional pesto along with, or instead of, basil.  You can also make your own pesto variations.  Instead of the traditional basil and pine nuts with olive oil, try parsley and walnuts with walnut oil.
• Parsleyed vegetables! Fried potatoes are made even better with some fresh parsley added near the end.  This works for many kinds of sauteed and fried vegetables.
• Blend with olive oil! Try blending fresh parsley with olive oil and then drizzling over grilled or sauted vegetables.
• Chimichurri! This traditional Argentinian marinade and sauce for grilled meat is full of flavor.  Serve this on the side with your next barbeque.  For a real South American barbeque, baste the meat with nothing but salt water while grilling.  You won’t believe the flavor!
• Freeze it! If there’s any left after all the above, chop it and freeze it.  It won’t be as good for sprinkling on just before serving, but will still add great flavor when added near the end and stirred into a dish.

I hope these ideas inspire you to pick up a bunch of fresh parsley on your next trip to the market.  Let us know if you have an idea of your own to share!

The post What to do with fresh parsley appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

It’s no surprise that we crave sugar.  Our bodies still have built-in mechanisms that helped our ancestors survive regular cycles of feast and famine.  Those mechanisms now tell us to shovel in the sugar.  When we do, our brains reward us with a release of beta endorphins, which makes us feel good.  We then crave that good feeling sugar gives us and the cycle repeats.  The craving-reward cycle turns into an addiction, not unlike smoking or alcohol abuse.

You can break this sugar cycle, but not overnight.  Simply swapping out fruit for Oreos is likely to cause rebellion in your household.  Done gradually, reducing your family’s consumption of sugar using the tips below can get your kids to reach for fruit and healthy snacks without them even noticing.

Read food labels.  Mayonnaise has added sugar.  Ewwww… Why?!?!?!  There is sugar in a lot more food items than you may realize.  Reading labels will help you know what foods are adding to your family’s sugar consumption.  Look for things like sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, etc…   Consider cutting down on those foods or making them yourself so you can control the ingredients.

Make more things from scratch– especially food items that normally contain a lot of sugar, like cookies, cereal, granola and other treats and desserts.  Making thses items from scratch help you control exactly what’s in the foods your family eats.

Reduce the amount of sugar in recipes.  If a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar and you cut that down to 3/4, in most cases, no one will even notice.  There are ways to make EVERYTHING with less sugar that will still make your family smile.  Slowly cutting down on the amount of sugar and sweetener will get your family’s taste buds reset so items with less sugar will taste just as sweet.

Use healthy sugar substitutes. Natural substitutes like fruit juice, stevia and agave can be used along with or combined with sugar to create treats that are amazingly delicious without adding tons of sugar OR chemical sweeteners.

Substitute healthy treats. Once your family starts getting used to foods that are less sweet, fruit will taste much better.  Try combining fruit with your treats to get your family used to eating fruit again.

When you’ve cut down on your family’s sugar consumption you’ll be rewarded by knowing you’re helping them be their best and live long, healthy lives.

The post How to cut down on sugar appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

You may have figured out that I’m a little obsessed with healthy ingredients.  I like to make substitutions like brown rice for white, whole wheat flour for white and agave for sugar.  The following bread recipe is no exception, but the techniques work equally well with white flour with only slight variations to the amount of water added.

If you remember from part 2, the secrets to good bread are:

• A wet dough
• TIme
• Balancing the amount of yeast

I’m going to use all three of these techniques in the following recipe:

Whole Wheat Bread

Using 100% whole wheat flour in bread making can be a little tricky.  It has a lower percentage of glutin and the wheat bran tends to puncture the bubbles.  These two factors can result in a dense, heavy loaf.  To help this, I’ve added a little extra wheat gluten.  I’ve also added some brown rice flour because I’ve heard it helps to make a crisper crust.  We’ll see!

• 3 cups 100% whole wheat flour + 1 cup for use later (photo 1)
• 1/4 cup wheat gluten
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4t yeast active dry yeast (photo 2)
• 1t salt
• water

Day 1 (remember that time is one of the secrets?)

Mix 3 cups of the whole wheat flour with the gluten and rice flour.  Add the yeast and salt and blend well.  Add enough water to make a wet dough somewhere between regular bread dough and cake batter.  If you’re using whole wheat flour it will probably take about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of water.  Just add water slowly until you end up with the right consistency.  I use a Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment (photo 3).  You want a dough too wet for the dough hook to do anything.  Scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl, spray the top with some non-stick spray and cover with a towel (photo 4).  Let rest somewhere until tomorrow.  I keep it in the oven.

Day 2 (or about 12 hours later)

Your dough should be even looser than before and more than double in size (photo 5+6).  At this point you want to gently knead in enough flour so the dough will hold a loaf shape but still be very soft.  Add a good 1/2 cup of flour to your work area and pour out the dough onto the flour (photo 7).  Fold the dough over onto itself until you’ve added enough flour for it to stay together in a round loaf (photo 8).  Dust the top well and cover with a towel to let rise for another couple of hours.

After a couple of hours you’ll have something roughly double in size (photo 9).  Preheat the oven to 450F.  If you have a cast iron enamed or ceramic dutch oven, put that in the oven to preheat.  Baking a loaf in one of these pots has many advantages.  Check out the NY Times article on this.  My dutch oven is a little big so I’m going to end up with a flatter loaf, but still just as tasty.  Once the pot is heated thoroughly, carefully turn the dough out into the pot and cover (photo 10).  Bake covered for 30 min.  After 30 min remove the lid and bake another 15-30 min until done.  It should have a hollow sound when thumped (photo 11+12).

Let the finished loaf cool thoroughly on a wire rack or stove grate.  My loaf was still pretty dense, but incredibly tasty (photo 13).  The crust was thin and crisp.  The interior was incredibly moist and chewy with irregular air pockets.  Swapping some of the whole wheat flour with white flour would have helped.  I love the idea of using whole wheat with nothing removed so I will probably keep making it this way.

I hope your loaf turns out as good!  In the next part, I’m going to take an existing recipe and modify it to use these bread baking secrets.  If you have a suggestion for a recipe to start with, post a comment.  Maybe I’ll use your recipe!

The post The perfect loaf of bread (part 3) appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

To thicken soup using beans, remove a small portion of cooked beans from the soup (or from a new can of beans) and just enough liquid to blend it smooth in a blender or food processor. Add smooth beans back to the soup. Repeat until the soup is the desired thickness.

Besides beans, I have also used cauliflower to thicken a soup. There are so many ways to thicken soups that I wrote a full post on all the different ways to thicken a soup.

I came up with the idea to thicken soup using beans while I was making a recipe of pork chops and pan sauce.  I sometimes make a vegetable ragout using white beans and the sauce never needs any additional thickening.  The beans add a luscious thickness that makes the sauce come together perfectly.  For the pork chop recipe I didn’t want any beans in the sauce. But I still wanted the same silky texture as the ragout.  I always keep cans of refried beans around so figured that might work.

Refried beans to thicken soup!

Refried beans do have some whole beans in them so I smashed them with a spoon until they were nearly completely smooth.  A few tablespoons of beans added into the sauce rewarded me. I got exactly what I was looking for- a rich, creamy sauce without adding fat or starch.  I did need to cook the sauce a few minutes for the beans to fully incorporate into the sauce.

In addition to adding a silky texture to a sauce or stew, beans add welcome fiber that is lacking in nearly everyone’s diet.  Fiber helps keep your insides moving and reduces cholesterol.  Some people complain of gas caused by beans, but that only happens with people that don’t get enough fiber already.  If you eat beans regularly, the gas problems will go away and you’ll have a very well-functioning gastrointestinal tract.

As I type this, it occurred to me that I can grind dry beans as an instant thickener similar to Wondra flour.  I’ll definitely try this in the future and post about the experience.

The post Using beans to thicken soup appeared first on Frugal Cooking.