In the past few decades, there has been a rising concern about the health and future of the planet. People around the world have started adapting to a sustainable lifestyle by eliminating single-use plastic and being mindful of water usage. However, cooking and eating are some of life’s greatest pleasures and they aren’t without any problems. The amount of waste created during food preparation is one of the ecosystem's greatest issues. All over the world around 40% of food is wasted during post-harvest and processing stages. Sustainability starts from the kitchen and one of the most creative solutions to food waste is the concept of Zero Waste Cooking.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” - Robert Swan
What is Zero Waste Cooking?
Zero Waste cooking means leaving no waste behind while cooking a meal. It is a style of cooking that focuses on utilising all parts of the food. This approach is not about limiting the types of food you eat, but rather being resourceful and creative with what you have. It involves finding different ways to use leftover vegetables, fruits, grains, and other ingredients to make new dishes.
It doesn’t necessarily mean using every part in one particular dish but finding an alternative use for edible parts of the food that we would usually throw away. With a bit of extra consideration, these ingredient parts can be repurposed in ways you may not have considered, almost as if kitchen waste doesn't exist. From leftover and wilting herbs to leaves of root vegetables, there are hundreds of ways of bringing out the best out of every ingredient without wasting a single thing.
How to use Leftover Green in Zero Waste Cooking
Whether you're purchasing root vegetables from the market or cultivating them in your garden, carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, and all other root vegetables come with a cluster of leaves attached. Once washed clean, these leaves can be used in many ways. They are excellent raw in salad bowls or mixed into homemade kimchi. Greens can also be sautéed or used in stir-fries, offering a good alternative to spinach in recipes. If the leaves are slightly past their prime and beginning to wilt, they can be blended into a juice or smoothie, or incorporated into pesto sauce. Carrot leaves, celery leaves, and wilted parsley are wonderful additions for enhancing the flavour of green sauces, soups, and risottos. Leftover herb leaves like fennel can be used to flavour stocks or infused into vodka for creative cocktails on the weekend.
Stems from Swiss Chard, Kale, and Arugula
For most salad greens like Swiss Chard, Kale, and Arugula, the leaves are typically separated from the fibrous stems. However, these stems can also be chopped and incorporated into stir-fries, pasta dishes, pureed for soups, smoothies, and juices or thinly sliced into strips for use in salads or slaws. The firm stems of broccoli, cauliflower, or fennel are ideal for grilling or roasting as a flavourful side dish.
Creative Use of Fruit and Vegetable Peels
A lot of fruits and vegetables are peeled before use, such as carrots, potatoes, cucumber, garlic, onion, watermelon, apples, peaches, and many more. However, many of these peels are edible, making peeling unnecessary. Whether for texture, appearance, or preference, the peels are often treated as scraps and thrown away.
Instead of throwing them away, these peels can be repurposed in many creative ways. Onions and garlic are known to have more flavour in their outer layers, particularly in the skin or peel. However, their papery skin is not especially good to eat on its own. but they can be dehydrated and crushed to be used in spice mixes or seasoning or added to stocks to enhance the flavour.
For vegetables like potatoes and carrots, the peels can be used in salads or baked into crisps as a snack. Cucumber peels are great when chopped for yoghurt dips like tzatziki.
Fruit peels like apples, pears and peaches can be dehydrated as a snack or crushed with salt to make fruit salts. The peels can also be added to vinegar or oil for flavoured condiments, or to infused alcohols like Vodka or Rom with fruity flavours. Peels of tough fruits like watermelon can be grated to use in salads and slaw or cooked for a long time with sugar and spices to soften them up for a dessert or preserve.
Reusing Scraps for a sustainable way of cooking
If you don’t feel like using up the peels or leaves of the vegetables every single time, you can keep them in an airtight container in the freezer. Once the container is full, you can use the scraps for making stock. And once you’ve used your ingredients as far as they will go, instead of tossing them into a garbage bin, start composting. All the non-edible parts, such as eggshells, used coffee grounds, and tea leaves, can be composted. This compost can then be utilized in the home garden or donated to the community.
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