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Cooking with fresh produce is a healthy and delicious way to brighten up your meals. But have you ever wondered how to get the most out of your produce? Before you throw out your produce stems, peels, and roots, check out these great ways to use them in tasty recipes.
Scrap to Stock
Make your own vegetable stock at home with ease. All you need is a slow cooker, some veggies scraps, water, and some salt. When chopping veggies for other recipes, add excess trimmings to a resealable bag and store it in your freezer. Once you’ve filled a gallon sized bag with scraps, you’re ready to make your stock.
Half and Half Burgers
Mushrooms are another great vegetable to eat if you’re looking to minimize produce waste. Most recipes instruct you to use both the cap and stem of the mushrooms so that nothing is left behind. They also bring a great savory, umami flavor to your dishes. They are a great complement to beef and are right at home in recipes like these mushroom and beef burgers.
Root-to-Frond Fennel
If you’ve never cooked with fennel before, now is a great time to start. Fennel makes a fantastic addition to your list of no-waste produce to cook with, since the entire plant can be safely eaten. The anise-like flavor is a good way to add more complexity and depth of flavor to your dishes. The fennel bulbs can be roasted with other veggies, while the fronds make a pretty dill-like garnish, like in this sheet pan roasted chicken recipe.
Go Beyond the Floret
While broccoli florets often get all the love and attention, you can eat the entire head, including the thicker bottom stem. The stems may not be popular raw, but once cooked they taste as good as florets. Try them in stir-fries or soups, like this one, for a healthy, budget-friendly meal.
Get Some Skins in the Game
Stop tossing potato skins—they make a tasty no-waste snack or light dinner. If traditional potato skin recipes with bacon and sour cream aren’t for you, try these sausage and pepper stuffed potato skins at your next game day or movie night watch party. You can even make them in advance and reheat them just before your guests arrive.
Don’t Toss Those Greens
Looking to use up those convenient prewashed greens, like kale, swiss chard, and spinach, before they go bad? Here’s a delicious dinner option: kale pesto, which is perfect tossed with pasta and sprinkled with plenty of parmesan. You could easily substitute other greens for the kale, too.
Use Up Your Herbs
If you’ve ever had to buy a whole package of a herb just to use a small amount for a recipe, then you know the struggle of figuring out how to use up the rest. One easy solution is to add them to a simple syrup of sugar and water. These easy flavored syrups are perfect for drinks, mocktails, and fruit salads or drizzled over pound cake. Here we’ve used mint, but other herbs, like thyme, rosemary, and basil are equally delicious.
