Introduction to Minimizing Food Waste
Minimizing food waste is essential for environmental sustainability and saving money. This chapter introduces the importance of reducing food waste and how repurposing kitchen scraps can contribute to this effort.
Ideas for Repurposing Vegetable Scraps:
Vegetable Broth: Use onion skins, carrot tops, celery ends, and other scraps to make flavorful broth. These can be stored in the freezer until enough has been accumulated for a batch of stock.
Stir-Fry and Soups: Incorporate vegetable ends and trimmings into stir-fries and soups. Wilted vegetables may not be delicious on their own, but cooked into other dishes they can still be delicious.
Purees: Blend leftover greens, herbs, or roasted vegetable scraps into nutritious purees for sauces or spreads. These can be frozen into an ice cube tray and stored in convenient portions for future use.
Ideas for Repurposing Fruit Scraps:
Fruit Infused Water: Use citrus peels or berries to flavor water naturally.
Fruit Vinegars: Create fruit scrap vinegars for salad dressings and marinades.
Compotes and Jams: Cook leftover fruit peels and cores into delicious compotes or jams.
Smoothies: Freeze overripe fruits for later use in smoothies or desserts.
Repurposing Bread and Bakery Scraps
Croutons and Bread Crumbs: Toast stale bread for homemade croutons or bread crumbs. Bread crumbs can be used for anything from binder for meatloaf or meatballs, breading for fried foods, or thickening soups.
Bread Pudding: Use leftover bread to make sweet or savory bread pudding.
Panini or Grilled Cheese: Transform stale bread into delicious sandwiches.
French Toast: Use stale bread for French toast.
Minimizing Food Waste with Meal Planning and Storage Tips:
Batch Cooking: Prepare meals in advance to use ingredients efficiently. Prepping individual components of meals in advance that can be used in multiple meals with different preparations (such as grilled chicken, sliced vegetables, etc.) can prevent meals from becoming boring or routine.
Leftovers: Plan meals that use leftovers creatively. Rotate the oldest leftovers to the front of the refrigerator so leftovers don’t become “out of sight, out of mind.”
Shopping List: Create a shopping list based on planned meals to avoid overbuying.
Explore composting as a last resort for scraps that can't be repurposed in cooking. Fruits and vegetables can be composted using many different methods. Specific methods exist for higher fat and protein foods like meat and dairy.