Jerry gave me an idea with his post on the horrifying amount of food waste we are all guilty of.
Have you got any ideas of ways to use up things that we often throw away. For example, stir frying stalks from broccoli or cauliflower, turning everything that's left into a soup before you get your next shop.
Also although I've never done it. Potato peelings drizzled with oil, salt and pepper and roasted, apparently make a delicious snack.
Does anyone else have ideas to share?
Ali 🙂🌱
Hi Ali, I'm glad that you posted this as we've had a few posts along these lines recently, so here's a link to a recent post about how the average UK family throws away £700 of food annually:
healthunlocked.com/healthye....
I eat potatoes in their skins so roasted as a snack they sound delicious like home made crisps.
I've been buying more frozen veg so I can have as big or small portion as I like with no waste no fuss and no preparation time and they're better value than some of these trendy prepared veg packs.
Any veg trimmings go in my compost bin with used tea bags and I forget to eat bananas occasionally and buy less now. I feel guilty wasting food and that makes me more mindful of what I buy.
An interesting concept...we are what we waste...
Jerry 😊
I find bananas keep for quite a while in the top of the fridge. I like mine firm so buy them green and they don't get mushy this way.
Also when I cook broccoli I slice the stalk and cook (usually microwave steaming) with the rest of the vegetable.
Another great addition to soup is the end and rind of a block of parmesan cheese, goes beautifully gooey if cooked for long enough.
Hey thats a great tip maria40 I'll keep my bananas in the fridge from now on.
And I like the sound of your soup with parmesan rind, very resourceful. 😊
I suppose that’s the answer that we all need to be more mindful of what we buy and find out if what we are throwing away could be used if only we knew how to use it.
Hi Ali, that's part of the answer the other is us the consumer telling the big fast food chains and super markets and big food wasters that enough is enough and vote with our protects they'd soon start better wok practices then...
We let it happen and it's time to ask ourselves why?
Are you using non plastic tea bags Jerry. I was horrified to find that most bags have a percentage of plastic which of course then breaks down in the soil into micro plastic and enters the food chain. It is everywhere but I don't want it in my garden. Clipper tea bags are plastic free. Don't know of any other but I now use loose tea and that avoids all the packaging.
Hi Ali,
This is a great post. I always use the stalks from broccoli and cauliflower, they are tasty. You mentioned potato peelings - in Guernsey there is the legendary 'Potato Peel Pie' - although I admit I've never actually made one! Perhaps I should give it a go sometime.
Zest 
I’m going to look up potato peel pie! It’s good you use them. I usually remember after I’ve chucked them away which is terrible!
It looks nice. I think putting potato peel mixed with oil and salt and pepper on top is a great idea. I’m going to try and do that 🌱😁
I've never done it, but I do often leave the skins on potatoes, and eat the whole thing.
Zest
Agoodenough what a useful post, I seldom waste bananas now since someone gave me the tip of wrapping them separately in foil and storing in the fridge, they last ages this way, I reuse the foil and will experiment with oiled cloth to see if that is as good.
Glad it’s useful. I didn’t know that. I have frozen them before and then whizzed them up to make ice cream. So putting them in the fridge wrapped is a good idea 🙂
Yes banana ice cream sounds good too thanks, frozen banana, coconut cream and honey, would that work ? 🙂
I often freeze off-cuts and peelings to make stock. It doesn't use it all, and it still goes in the bin after, but it means we get more out of the scraps before binning them.
We have rabbits, and they eat some off-cuts too.
I don't tend to peek veg to be fair, I don't think it's really necessary unless the skin is tough (e.g. butternut squash)
Reminded me it is time to empty my bag of chicken and turkey bits into the stock pot. Just waiting for it to reach a simmer.😋
That’s a good idea. Peeling contribute to most of the food waste in our house.
Roast butternut squash in its skin is yummy and skins v edible.
I think it’s important to make sure all these skins were eating come from organic veg though.
My butternut squash seedlings planted from the most recent squash I ate are just popping up which makes me very happy 👏
Old fashioned bubble and squeak is great for using up left over cooked veg. 😊
I love that. That’s a good idea. Also frittata is a good way of using cooked vegetables up.
1-Stop peeling your vegs. Carrots, potatoes mostly... it's a waste and the peel contains loads of good things!!! If you do, toss them in a recepie.... soup etc.
2-Stems of herbs are good too! Cut them in tiny bits, like in a pesto... don't put just the leafs!
3-All those scraps can be freezed and used later on... in a broth or in ant other recepie.
4-Learn to preserve. Dehydrating, cooking, freezing, pressure canning and vacuuming.
5-Make proth with chicken bones.
I think not peeling things that don’t need peeling is the thing. Even our muddy carrots could do with just a wash and a scrub. The other thing is to freeze herbs in ice cube trays.
What I also like to do, but this produces a lot, is to dehydrate, celery leafs, carrots peels etc and process them into a powder and sprinkle this in everything!
Great idea Senateur, will slow dehydrate them in the warming part of my cooker. 🙂
Something more helpful:
Freeze partial bottles of wine in ice cubes to use in cooking. Last time I did that, it solved the problem when I found myself with 4 bargain ox cheeks.
Make mayonnaise using whole eggs: it tastes fine, adds some protein, and no egg white spoiling, forgotten in the fridge.
Thanks Contax, I will try a frozen banana in my home made almond milk, I don't like cows milk. Actually it might be good mixed with coconut too, thanks for the tip. 🙂
Hi Ali
What an excellent post. Funnily enough after Hidden 's post I was thinking of using up vegetable peelings for making vegetable stock, I think that's what I may be doing from now on. A very good idea with the potato peelings I have to say.
Alicia
I stopped peeling veg ages ago, I want as many vitamins as I can get and the best are just under the skin. I also use the veg water to make stock and gravy and my husband loves cabbage and spinach water just as a drink. I use roasting bags to cook chicken and then cool the juices, if you then remove the cooled fat you are left with lovely chicken jelly as a soup base to use with the left over chicken.
Anything left over goes in compost but not cooked food, that attracts rats.
We waste very little food in our house. I make cauliflower cheese using the whole thing, not just the florets. We also buy mushrooms when they're cheap, finely slice them and leave them spread out to dry (overnight in summer, 36 hours in winter). Once dry, they can be stored in in freezer bags or clean jars. Rehydrated mushrooms in soup, risotto, etc are much tastier than fresh
That's a really good idea. I've never heard of anyone doing that 😀
Ooh roast banana skins, there’s something I’ve not heard of before. Any good recipes?
Our chickens are grateful for any left overs, and their eggs yummy 😆
Bags of herbs particularly which often only get half used can be chopped up and put in ice cube trays with a tiny bit of water. Just add to stews, casseroles etc.
If I am forced to buy a pot of herbs I repot some of it and then it lasts and lasts. Just dig up a few of them and stick in some compost.
I have hens so not much gets wasted. Left over rice goes in soup, stuffed into peppers or large tomatoes
If my banana get too dark. I made muffin or bread, so it doesn't get waste.
Ooh that does sound tasty 😋
I find broccoli stalks delicious so I eat them raw. Any potentially wasted food goes straight into a soup as you say, or a stir fry or a sort of bubble and squeak or a veggie casserole maybe with a cheese sauce. Nothing else gets wasted really - any leftover meat or small portion of a casserole is either frozen or I have it for lunch the next day or it goes in the soup. I was brought up with the attitude 'waste not, want not' so I don't
There are some homeless shelters or food pantries who will take left over food.
Hi Hidden
I hope you're able to get a smaller oven so you can enjoy those quick crispy potatoes. They sound delicious!
Zest
Sounds a good idea! Like it
I agree. I enjoy cooking, but not from scratch every single meal! I'll do the same though I'm totally uninspired at the moment. 🥴
Hi Hidden
I hope that the George foreman grill with a cavity works out well for you. Really great that your big cast iron casserole dish can provide capacity for 3 good meals at once, that's really great.
Zest
The term "food waste" has two separate meanings, and we are conflating them in this thread.
1) There is the food waste your council deals with. Even if you are fastidious, there will always be some waste, peels bones etc (even if you make stock, you still have nearly the same amount of rubbish left at the end of stock making).
2) Good food, thrown away. A nice analogy of the 20% is leaving a supermarket with 5 bags of food, and dropping one on the way home, and not bothering to pick it up. It's buying good food, putting it in your cupboard and then two weeks later noticing it's past it's use-by date and binning it. Or finding it's rotting in the back of your fridge. Or supermarkets sending bagged lettuce to land fill because it's past the best before date. Or growers feeding perfectly good vegetables to animals because it's a weird shape, or too small or large.
Using up veggie peelings is great, but the real disaster is the second.
Confession: I am guilty of the second. I just threw out 2 leeks because I forgot I bought them. At Christmas I made a pavlova, but mid January I opened a container in my fridge and was blown back by the smell of 8 rotten yolks. Or finding the avocados have ripened and then blackened while I forgot to check them etc etc.
The fix for this is planning and organisation. Only buy things you plan to use. Keep your fridge well organised and clean so you can see what's in there. Review the contents every day or two, so you can use up what is near end of life or move it to the freezer. If you have something non-perishable that you won't use, get it to a food bank while it is still in date. With a few exceptions, ignore dates on food once they are in your home (take note in the store; always buy what is freshest). Don't eat food that looks or smells rotten, no matter what the date says, but if the food looks good, then the date can be ignored. Eggs freshness can be determined by the float method, if you end up with some old ones.
When I order from Ocado, that comes with a list of perishable foods and the dates they expire in order. I pin that to my fridge door, and have no waste because I can see at a glance the spinach needs to be used by tomorrow.
I should make that list manually when I get home from shopping....
🤔 I bet there is an app for that! Ah, there are at least 8 apps for that.
We try to avoid waste and what little we produce goes into the dog or onto the compost bin. This weekend I bought a good sized free range corn fed chicken. We had it roasted on Sunday, yesterday 1/4 of it went into a stir fry with various veg including broccoli, stalks and all. Today I made stock with the carcass, whole carrots, celery stalks (tired ones work fine), almost a bunch of last weeks spring onions herbs etc. Half of the stock went into tonight’s chicken and veg risotto and the remainder will be used to make Greek egg and lemon soup tomorrow. I’m pretty pleased with making around £8 of ingredients do 4 main meals for 2. There will be just a few bones and the cooked onions go into the food waste.
An ideal food day? 
New food ideas
Waste not want not.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
