I am trying to throw away nothing and fail pretty much every week at something but I am doing a whole lot better than before and won’t give up!
I do ‘ve a compost bin on my terrace so I ‘ve not thrown any fruit, veg scraps or used tea in the bin for a year. There is always room for improvement so I am trying to use up all of the fruit and veg scraps as well. It requires a bit of creativity and mostly getting clever in the freezer. Often you don’t have enough scraps to make a quiche that week but store your uncooked veg scraps in the freezer and when you got enough, you make a quiche, casserole, soup, frittata, pesto, fritters, jam, preserves, scones or cake.
Check out the powder of celery leaves I made and use to flavour sauces and sprinkle on casseroles and pasta HERE
ROOT TO STALK COOKING – my dad was a pioneer in this as a 2 Michelin star chef he used every last bit of the veg and fruit. and this 40 years ago! Basically use every part of the veg, what you would discard for a recipe; use in a soup, quiche, fritter, frittata or preserve.
DON NOT USE – rhubarb leaves, apple pits, and any stone fruit pits like plum and mango.
Check out some more tips here:
- Use cheese rind from Parmesan cheese to flavour stock and soups.
- Freeze blackened bananas for smoothie or when you ve time to make banana bread.
- Leftover vegetables like a celery stick, 1/4 onion, kale? just throw it in a jar in the freezer, ready for the next soup or stock.
- Make croutons or breadcrumbs from stale bread. Or have French toast!
- Saute your vegetable tops of carrots, beets and kohlrabi, they are yummy!
- Roast your pumpkin and squash seeds in the oven sprinkled with some lovely spices, they are a great snack.
- Preserve citrus peels in salt, or simple dry them in the oven and ground down to a delicious powder to flavour fish and salads. Or make marmalade.
- Dice broccoli and cauliflower stems in small cubes and saute them. Top with a fried egg and you got a super breakfast.
- Don’t peel onions, just add skin and all to the soup and remove before eating.
- Any limp root vegetables, slice and dice and add them to a vegetable tart.
- Use the liquid from tinned chickpeas to make vegan dishes like vegan mayonnaise.
- Soggy spinach? Blitz into pesto or stuff a ravioli with ricotta cheese.
- Make a lemon curd tart with soft lemons with the juice and zest.
- Use sightly dehydrated mushrooms in risotto and make arancini from leftover risotto.
- Turn soft fruit into home made jam.
- Leftover steamed rice, turn it into chicken fried rice.
- Fry clean potato skins and enjoy.
- Use the chicken carcass to make chicken stock.
- Apple skins and cores are great to make homemade apple jelly from.
- Safe the corn cobs to make a broth.
- Toss radish tops into your soups, quiches and pesto.
- Pickle kale stems and watermelon rinds. Use the pickle juice to flavour a vinaigrette.
- Left over parsley? Blanch and blitz, add to mash potatoes, pesto or pasta sauce.
- Add to your meatloaf leftover veg like carrots, turnips and peppers.
- Use leek greens not only in soup but slice them thinly and saute them or add to stir fry, vegetable quiche or casserole.
Written and photographed by Sandra Slawinski without commercial deals.
