Use it up! Don't throw it in the bin!

Pocketlady_2

with potato and carrot in a pastie/plate pie?

ceridwen

Just prompted into this by the fact that I've chopped up some butternut squash for part of my dinner tonight and held onto the seeds to roast them up in a little oil and salt at some other point.

So - I've used a lot of what I thought was unusable at one point, ie:

- radish leaves (sauted for a few minutes in olive oil)

- beetroot leaves (steamed for a few minutes and with olive oil and freshly-squeezed lemon juice squeezed over them)

- broccoli stalks (stirfries)

- cauliflower stalks (stirfries)

- milk that has gone slightly "off" - pancakes or scones

Now wonders - is there any I might not have come across?

Anyone else got any foods that they didnt realise they could use and used to throw in the bin?

rachbc

nowt goes in the bin here - it either goes to the chooks or compost making to grow more food next year!

ceridwen

No chickens...no compost...chez ceridwen:(

Reason = total matchbox size garden....so it simply aint possible:(:(....hence my finding ways personally to use up every morsel as far as possible and get my money's worth....

katie89

Slightly past its best veg = soup.

bramble1

The rabbit gets fresh fruit and veg off cuts (except for cucumber, puppy would kill me if i dared give cucumber to the rabbit instead of him!)

Meat/bread/dairy waste feeds the dog

meritaten

many thanks ceridwen - I didnt realise beetroot leaves were edible! I was prepping my last batch of sweet pickled beetroot and found myself looking at the leaves and wondering.............Can you eat them? and the stalks are so pretty too.........can you eat those?
and for the life of my cannot figure out why celery is sold with the leaves cut off! they are so delish in salads - I nearly weep with gratitude if I find some leaves on the inner stalks! ( I just re-read that last sentence - I must get out more!!!)

ceridwen

Well - re beetroot leaves - personally I chop up beetroot leaves (stalks and all) and they go into my electric steamer for several minutes cooking

- and I then dress them with my olive oil and lemon juice.

I admit to having come to the cynical conclusion that if some edible part - like celery leaves, radish leaves, beetroot leaves, outer part of cauliflower, etc, has been cut off that the retailer is trying to hide the fact that they arent as fresh as they could be....

newlywed

I save the tops of carrots for HM stock.

Broccoli stalk gets blitzed and cooked in potato and leek soup - but not too much of it. Same with the very bottom bit of celery (that I used to be too lazy to chop )

Banana skin wrapped round the base and start of the roots of a rose will apparently feed it well.

Hmmm must try harder though...

meritaten

and what about flowers? nasturtiums may look pretty - but they are delicious in salads! Rose petals can be turned into jams or jellies (if you have enough of them) or crystalised. and it was only last year I realised that the Peas I had grown have very tasty shoots! (just track the curly bits back and pick them with just two leaves), they taste just as good as the peas, as a salad!