7 Vegetables You Can Regrow From Scraps

Are you looking for methods to reduce waste in the kitchen? Many grocery store veggies and herbs may regenerate easily in water or soil. Fresh greens may be grown inside on a window sill, or you can get a head start on your herb and vegetable garden by regrowing kitchen scraps.

There are various reasons to cultivate your own vegetables. To begin with, it keeps food out of the garbage or compost, hence reducing food waste. It also saves you money because you are essentially getting free vegetables. It’s also entertaining! It’s fascinating to watch the pieces that would have gone into the compost regrow into something new and edible. It’s a simple, free method to interact with, enjoy nature at home and cultivate a small indoor garden.

Beets

Beets add color to everything from roasted root vegetables to chips and borsht. While many of us are familiar with the vivid pink, bulbous roots, we are less familiar with the greens. They can be utilized in the same way as Swiss chard or other dark green leafy veggie tips. They may be eaten raw in salads, but they taste best when sautéed or minced into stews and soups.

Place a beet in a shallow tray of water after removing the top. Beet greens will begin to develop and can be used in salads. For a longer harvest, place the beet top in the soil. This approach works with a variety of vegetables and herbs!

Fill the dish with just enough water to cover the cut end of the beet top. Wait a few days and you’ll notice fresh leaves sprouting. Change your water periodically to avoid rot. Maintain a steady water level with the top curve of the beet cutting, though not to the new stem edge. You’ll get fresh beet greens to chop in about a week. Depending on the state of your cutting, you could even get a second harvest.

Garlic

Garlic cultivation is simple. To grow a complete head of garlic, all you need is a single clove. It’s fine to use a sprouting clove, a clove with roots, or a typical clove. But you can’t just go out and purchase garlic and expect it to develop into garlic heads.

Garlic sprouts do not require soil to develop. A shallow dish or glass, as well as water, are required to start sprouts. Place the garlic on the container’s side. If the garlic slips into the water sideways, prop it up again. Bright green sprouts will appear in only a few days. Allow them to develop to the desired height before chopping them off. More shoots will surface soon.

Once the garlic has sprouted, it will continue to generate shoots for some time. However, in order to truly grow, it will require some nutrients. Plant each clove twice its length deep in potting soil. Allow shoots to develop while keeping the soil wet. The plant will produce additional garlic bulbs over time. The shoots should be allowed to remain on the plant in order to photosynthesize and stimulate bulb development. When scapes appear, they may be harvested and consumed.

Carrots

Carrots, like beets, are root vegetables. You may employ the same techniques. Carrot top greens taste similar to parsley. They are abundant in potassium and vitamin K and are quite healthy. You may now have an infinite supply of carrot tops by just immersing them in water and watching them regenerate. If you want to develop carrot tops, start with carrots that still have part of their greens attached. Make a clean slice at the top of the carrot, leaving about a quarter inch of skin below the stems. You may also utilize the greens that were on the carrots when you purchased them, but try to keep about an inch of the stems remaining.

Place the carrots cut-side down in a flat, shallow container filled with just a little water to get them to root. Make sure the carrot tops aren’t submerged in water, otherwise they’ll rot. Set the container in a shaded but generally warm location (indoors or outdoors, but away from any locations where rats or scavengers could assemble) and add water as needed to keep the cut sides submerged. Shoots will ultimately emerge from the crowns. When they are ready, place the tops in the soil, taking care not to cover the stalks. To taste, harvest the greens.

Green onions

Green onions, also known as scallions or spring onions, come with a root end that must be removed before utilizing the green stalks and narrow white bulb in recipes. Did you realize, however, that you may stimulate those root ends to sprout new green onions? The first tip is to select green onions with healthy roots, as the more roots each sprig has, the faster and easier it will sprout. So you should select the onion bunch with the thickest roots! Each sprig of green onions should have 1′′ to 2′′ of stem connected to the roots, measured from the base where the roots begin. This will be more than enough for the green onions to regrow.

Fill a small clean jar halfway with water. Fill the jar halfway with the trimmings. Keep them upright so that the roots are buried in the water and the very tops of the stems are above water. Snip off what you need when the shoots are four or five inches long, cutting the leaves all the way to the ground; the onions will continue to grow from the cut end. If you don’t chop the greens down to the ground, the plant will grow much larger than the green onions you buy at the shop. If they flower, the tasty flowers can be used in salads.

Lettuce 

To begin, cut the leaves off the stem, keeping approximately two inches of the base intact. You could get the best results using a 2-inch base, but a shorter piece would work if that’s all you have. You may also use lettuce that comes in a plastic dome-topped container with the roots still connected to the base. Maintain those as well! If you’re going to throw it away anyhow, it never hurts to attempt regrowing even short pieces less than one inch tall. Fill the remaining stem with 1/2 to 1 inch of water in a bowl or plate.

The size of the container into which you place your stem is optional, but I like one with shallow edges. Place the bowl on a window sill to catch some sunlight! Every 1 to 2 days, change the water in the bowl. The lettuce sucked up the water every day for the first two days, and I had to replenish the bowl. Almost soon, the new shoot will begin to grow. Every time you checked back, it seemed to have grown a bit more. Some lettuce bases will develop more quickly than others, while others may not grow at all.

Celery

To give celery a second chance to continue its life circle, all you need is a celery heart, a cup of water, and a little sunshine. Cut the bottom of your celery bunch approximately two inches up from the root using a clean, sharp knife. The basil plate is in the bottom half of your celery heart, where all of the celery stalks gather together. Before placing your celery heart in a bowl of water, insert toothpicks about two inches above the basil plate. Fill a small glass dish or jar halfway with celery. Fill with enough water to submerge an inch of the root end. Place the bowl or jar where it can get good natural light for several hours a day. Change the water every couple of days, making sure the celery root end is always submerged. 

Fill with enough water to cover the root end by an inch. Place the bowl or jar somewhere where it will get plenty of natural light throughout the day. Every couple of days, change the water and make sure the celery root end is continually immersed. After a few days, tiny leaves should emerge from the very center of the top. Small stalks and leaves, as well as microscopic roots, may emerge around the base in approximately a week. The chopped stalks surrounding the outside base may begin to deteriorate and become brown. However, if you keep the celery in water for too long, the outside stalks may decay, so it’s better to put it in a container before that happens. Plant the celery in potting soil or immediately into your garden when the new roots are about 1 inch long.

Lemon Grass

Lemongrass, a common ingredient in Thai cuisine, is an excellent addition to marinades, stir-fries, spice rubs, and curry pastes. To begin, remove the stiff, uppermost leaves where they begin to split apart. Simply make a new cut across the top of the stalks  Getting rid of dead leaves merely makes things neater, because they’ll fall off and get slimy anyhow. Try not to scrape the woody outer layers that make up the stem since new leaves will sprout from within these layers. Fill a jar or vase with a few inches of water and place the stalks in it. Place the jar in a bright spot, such as a south-facing windowsill, and then… simply wait. Change the water twice a week (or whenever it becomes hazy), and you should see fresh leaves sprouting from the top within a week. 

Plant the stalks in a container or garden once the stems have developed robust root development (preferably in an area that receives lots of sun). Because lemongrass has to be kept warm all year, grow the stalks in a container that can be brought indoors during the winter. Harvest lemongrass when it reaches a height of one foot; just snip off what you need, being cautious not to uproot the plant.