Give your vegetables a second life
Initiatives are numerous to fight against food waste. Among the most wasted foods worldwide, fruits are top of the list. Our ideas to act without giving up taste and while adopting a healthy diet and varying the content of your meals.
The surpluses
High harvests at home thanks to the vegetable garden or at local fruits and vegetables farmers? Do not throw anything away: share… and donate! Zucchini often have generous yields and they are ideal for canning: pickles, sterilised jars or even frozen in tupperware or bags (they can be frozen raw and cooked). As for fruits, they are great in jam, compote, coulis, dried or even in rhums. On the practical side, there are websites and renowned addresses online on where to buy surplus. Another good idea for your wallet: at the end of a farmer’s market as much in the countryside as in cities, don’t hesitate to look for unsold items which are often then sold cheaper.
The ugly ones
Resellers know it: standard looking products go first, and ugly fruits and vegetables often have a hard time finding a buyer. In reality, they are not ugly but simply imperfect or uncalibrated! We often find them in organic farming. However, picking fruits and vegetables slightly bent, stained or even tired is an eco-friendly gesture to limit food waste. It’s easy with them as they are great in any traditional or creative recipe: an aged salad cooked with some peas, oven-roasted carrots with some honey and olive oil, potatoes for fries when they start to get old (and fries are life as we know), winter and summer ratatouille… To put it simply: there is such a thing as ugly and tasty.
Leftovers
Another staple moment in the life of fruits and vegetables: cooked leftovers which were not finished on the same day. Recycling applies with great meal ideas for the following days. For instance, pasta or rice salads which are great with cooked vegetables to complete with some raw onion slices, various crudités, chopped herbs, and a nice olive oil sauce. Good new for hummus lovers: the Middle Eastern chickpea puree is delicious with cooked vegetables (beetroots, carrots, squash, peas, spinach…) used on their own or added to legumes: put all the ingredients in a blender, add spices if you want, move into a pretty dish once smooth and pour a drizzle of olive oil at the centre, it’s ready! Also, try pies, soufflés and other bechamel casserole.
Peelings
Finally, peelings are all the leftovers of fruits and vegetables prepared to be eaten: skin, bark, core, seeds, pit, ribs, stems, pods, tops, etc. There are a wide range of possibilities to say the least: carrot or potato peelings crisps, fava bean or pea pods in a soup, tops also in a soup or casserole, pie, or salads, citrus bark candied or dried and reduced to powder, apple core jelly (the best!), melon bark jan or watermelon pickles. Organic products are better for recipes like these to avoid excessive crop protection products. And to multiply ideas against waste follow #waste on Twitter!