6 easy ways to use up your veggie scraps

Many people trim off parts of vegetables before using them in a variety of cuisines. Everything from squash ends to carrot peelings to vegetable leaves might end up as food waste. You end up with a lot of waste when you meal-plan for a week: the root ends of onions, along with their sliced tops and discarded skins; the tip and tail of a carrot, along with its peelings; the white root ends of celery. The greatest part of a carrot, like many other roots and tubers, is its skin; the root end of onion is just as tasty as its middle; and although garlic cloves, skin and all, are customary in other cuisines, such as Thai cuisine, to incorporate garlic cloves, skin and all, in fragrant pastes.

Using every last scrap of your leftover veggies is definitely worth the effort. You’ll be astonished by what vegetable leftovers can achieve with a little additional effort and culinary creativity. The only reason someone could regard the stuff left on their cutting board as waste is either ignorant about how to utilize it or convenience; it’s much easier to toss that stuff in the trash than find out how to use it for another, more appetizing use.

Make a broth out of them

If you establish a habit of storing any vegetable scraps you create in a ziptop freezer bag in the freezer, you’ll have more than enough to make a decent amount of stock in a couple of weeks, and they will keep for as long it takes until you have the time and leisure to make a pot of stock. It’s usually a good idea to keep broth on hand for a variety of recipes. There are several applications for broth, ranging from vegetable soups and stews to noodle soups. That is why utilizing leftover vegetable scraps to create broth is such an excellent way to repurpose food that would otherwise go to waste.

Save the peeling, leaves, and stalks of your veggies to make wonderful veggie stock. Keep your vegetable scraps in the freezer as you gather them until you have at least a gallon of vegetables. To add flavor, you can also add aromatics like garlic or a bay leaf. Simmer onion skins and ends, tomato cores, carrot tops, celery leaves, and other vegetables in a pan of cold water with a bay leaf and a few black peppercorns. Cook for 30 minutes with the broth. Depending on how soon you want to consume the broth, strain it through a strainer and store it in the fridge or freezer. dressings. As the publication explains, a vegetable broth made from scraps will not thicken on its own, and it is best compared to store-bought stock.

It’s best to think of these stocks as a compliment, not a substitute, for more precisely made stocks; they’re, in fact, a replacement for inferior store-bought stocks built with items you’d toss away anyway, a means to get the most out of what you’re already buying.

Transform fruit scarps into fruit vinegar 

Fruit-scrap vinegar takes minutes to make and lasts for years; they also age nicely, much like fine wine. They’re fantastic for sprinkling on chips, stirring into vinaigrette, or even sipping as a shrub. You may ferment all of your fruit leftovers to produce a mixed vinegar, or you can experiment by fermenting only one or two fruits at a time to observe how it influences the flavor.

Begin by collecting fruit leftovers. Bruised fruit, cores, skins, and berry tops may all be salvaged to produce a delightful fruit vinegar. Collect old or undesired whole fruit and scraps in the freezer until you have enough to produce a batch of fruity-flavored vinegar.

Use a non-metallic vessel and non-metallic equipment wherever feasible, as metal may react with the acid and impede the fermentation process. Once produced, store the vinegar in sterile and sealed narrow-necked bottles, filling them all the way to the top to eliminate any oxygen and therefore make it last longer. If you wish to age the vinegar after it’s been bottled, keep it in a dark closet for six months or more, and it will deepen in flavor and develop a certain viscosity. You may make this vinegar with one type of fruit or a combination of fruits. It’s great in vinaigrettes, marinades, sauces, and even cocktails.

Bake yummy vegetable chips

Cooking vegetable chips is another simple method to use up vegetable scraps or leftovers. From carrot stems and potato peels to broccoli leafy greens and more, you can quickly bake, broil, or fry the leftovers into crisp veggie chips. Usually, these trimmings are composted, but they may be turned into a wonderfully crispy snack. This approach will not only minimize food waste but will also give you a healthy snack that will satisfy your craving for crunch. So, whether you’re preparing carrot cake, onion soup,, or mashed sweet potatoes, keep the trim—even onion-cut ends will be fine.

You can always use a deep-walled pot or an air fryer to cook homemade vegetable chips on the stovetop.  To bake your vegetable leftovers into a tasty snack, just slice them into thin chips, mix them with oil and spices, then spread the chips out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Once prepared, bake the chips in a 400-degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes on each side. Checking on a frequent basis to ensure that the vegetable peels are golden brown and do not burn. Remove from the oven and season with extra salt, nutritional yeast, or whatever else your heart wants before allowing to cool fully. Serve with your preferred dip or sauce.

Get creative in the kitchen

Herb stems often have a deeper flavor than the leaves, so finely cut them and utilize them in your meals. Coriander roots and stalks are frequently coarsely diced and utilized in Thai pastes, while the leaves are utilized to finish the meal, like in this Thai green curry paste. Cauliflower leaves can be cooked in cauli cheese. To get the most out of a cauliflower or broccoli head, cut slices rather than snapping florets. 

You don’t have to discard the leaves of vegetables with leafy green tips, such as carrots, radishes, and celery, among others. Instead, they can be combined with other greens like spinach, arugula, and endive. While the leaves may be used in prepared foods that call for steamed or sautéed greens, tossing them into salads or other dishes with fresh vegetables.

If your vegetables are very bendy and difficult to grate, either chop them in a food processor or cut them into chunks and immerse them in very cold water for 30 minutes to stiffen them up.  The nicest aspect about utilizing vegetable greens in salads, wraps, or sandwiches is how little work they require. You just need to include them in whatever you are making. Of course, whether you’re making pesto, smoothies, hummus, or green juice, you can use the leftovers in those recipes as well. Tomato tops, carrot and onion peels, and broccoli or cauliflower stems are all delicious additions to a flavorful pasta sauce. 

Grow them into new veggies

If you have enough vegetables left over, you can really start new plants. Many veggies may be regrown from the small fragments that you would typically throw away. Some of them may be simply regrown in a glass of water. Others will ultimately need to be transferred to land. Even the huge seed in some fruits and vegetables, such as avocados, may be utilized to sprout roots and regenerate the produce. However, this is a process that will require time and work. However, if you don’t want to or simply cannot use your vegetable scraps for another purpose, this is an excellent option to try to rejuvenate what’s left.

To start growing fresh veggies from leftovers, first cut the end of the produce. This helps the vegetable to absorb new water and begin to regrow roots and new growth. After trimming the veggie, just immerse it in fresh water and place it somewhere with plenty of natural light. The veggie should develop over time, but make sure to change the water when it becomes hazy.

When beets, carrots, turnips, and other root vegetables are put in water, they sprout green shoots, and it is these leafy tops that we eat. Certain entire veggies may be totally regrown. Celery, for example, will regenerate into complete stalks if properly cared for. Boc Choy, Romaine lettuce, green onions, fennel, and leeks will all regenerate to full size.

Compost them to nourish your garden

For ecologically conscious kitchens, composting kitchen trash is nothing new, but it may be for some home cooks. Composting is the process of turning your vegetable leftovers into a solution for your garden soil. It utilizes all of the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients found in veggies to improve the soil and provide for your plants. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can contribute your compost to a neighboring garden or a friend. The classic biodegradable foods are vegetables and fruits. Compost them in any shape, including scraps and peels, raw or cooked, and even rotting.

Composting veggies is simply the process of letting organic materials, such as vegetable leftovers, degrade. Those previously abandoned vegetable scraps, fruit peels, paper, leaves, nutshells, and other organic things will decompose over time and into loose, peat-like humus that offers nutrients to developing plants and improves the soil’s capacity to regulate water. Combine high-nitrogen items like vegetables and grass clippings with high-carbon foods like shredded leaves to obtain the ideal balance that swiftly transforms your “trash” into “black gold.”

There are several approaches to getting started with composting. Keeping an airtight container in your kitchen is a simple step. As you peel potatoes or cut the tops off other vegetables, place them in the canister rather than in the garbage. Empty the container onto your backyard compost pile once a week. Your backyard compost pile may be tailored to your specific needs.