Best Way to Use Vegetable Scraps Can Save Money, Reduce Waste

The most effective way to use vegetable scraps is revealed by an expert, saying the clever way both save money and lessen waste.

The amount of food that Americans waste is vastly underestimated.

Even though it might not seem significant, throwing away leftover food as well as kitchen scraps increases greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a study done by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 76% of respondents think they waste less food than the typical American.

According to a study done by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 76% of respondents think they waste less food than the typical American.

Bowl of Vegetable Scraps

This is why Melissa Breyer, a Treehugger correspondent, keeps a bowl in the freezer where she puts her vegetable scraps.

Breyer and her household make every effort to consume everything they take home, but occasionally food becomes too soft and wilted in the refrigerator.

She typically cooks vegetables with the peels still on, but occasionally things get peeled or have ends and bits she can't use.

After placing everything in a glass freezer bowl, she prepares vegetable stock.

Frequently, the bowl will also contain carrot greens, leek tops, broccoli bottoms, herb stems, and mushroom pieces.

Almost everything is fair game, but she has discovered that beets, cabbage, and other bitter vegetables can also be overpowering.

She is cautious around foods that contain a lot of starch, like potatoes, as they can cause the stuck to become slightly gooey.

Even so, she had extra sweet potato skins with lots of flesh in the bowl above because she actually preferred the thicker stock it produced.

In the end, she obtains a product that tastes significantly better than store-bought stock; it eliminates the need for using virgin produce; and it makes use of food that would have been wasted otherwise.

It can be used to prepare numerous dishes, including soup, risotto, rice, pilaf, and vegetable stews.

The vegetable stock can be used for a quick dinner or kept in the fridge for up to a week or it can be frozen for about three months by covering it in a glass jar.

Additionally, it can occasionally be frozen using ice cube trays for recipes that call for smaller quantities, Treehugger reported.

Other Vegetable Scrap Uses

Meanwhile, BBC GoodFood said that there are many other ways of using vegetable scraps other than using them for vegetable stock.

For example, slightly old and bent fruit and vegetables can make good bread and cakes.

Some vegetables can make good pastes and alternative ingredients, such as a carrot's top for pesto instead of basil.

Some fruits and vegetables can be made into alternative meat like banana peels to bacon strip substitutes and jackfruit into pulled pork alternatives.

Orange peels can be made into marmalade and candied citrus peels. Other fruit peels can be used to flavor vinegar.

However, the food network reminds readers to make sure the peels do not have wax before using them.