Eat Well And Eat Cheap: The Humble Guisado
Eggplant, chicken, and tomato guisado
It’s different every time. Sometimes Rosa makes it by design. At other times, it serves as a means to use up leftovers before they go bad. It’s the humble guisado, a traditional Mexican dish made from a combination of meat and vegetables.
I’ve written about the importance of using a variety of saving strategies to reduce the cost of food. But saving money on groceries does little good without an easy way to prepare and enjoy that food. The guisado offers a simple way to prepare delicious meals from scratch.
Guisados are versatile
Rosa fixes one to two guisados each week, because it is such a versatile dish. A guidsado can be used as a filling for tacos or burritos or as a topping for tostadas. It can serve as a main dish accompanied by rice or beans or rice and beans. Guisados make delicious leftovers.
Guidados can be made from any combination of meat and vegetables. It is a great way to use up leftovers and fresh vegetables that have been languishing in the refrigerator before they go bad. See a vegetable on sale that you don’t know how to prepare, such as eggplant? No problem. Add it to a guisado. You can’t go wrong. In fact, that is just what Rosa did last week. The guisado in the photo is made with an eggplant we bought on sale.
Meat is expensive, but a little meat goes a long way when used in a guisado.
Guisados are easy to prepare
You don’t have to be a great cook to make a delicious guisado. It’s simple.
- In a skillet, sauté chopped onion and chopped garlic in a bit of olive oil.
- Add some meat of your choice (poultry, pork, beef, sausage, hotdogs, tofu, etc.) and fry it up with the onion and garlic.
- Add vegetables. Any vegetable, fresh, frozen, or canned, or combination of vegetables will due. Experiment!
- Optional: Add any kind of cooked bean or pasta.
- Cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are cooked through.
