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

cooking-mama

My teenage daughter was helping me prep veg for dinner,I asked her to quarter some mushrooms,but was horrified to see her cut the stalks off first then discard them,she only quartered the tops!!!...apparantly this was how she was shown to prep mushrooms in home economics at school.!..needles to say,she now knows to slice /quarter/ chop the whole mushroom...stalks n all.

Talking about shops chopping bits off..I hate "trimmed leeks",we love the green stem part best in here,helps colour the soup too...and our guinea pig goes mad for celery leaves,i have to hunt out packs with leaves for him(i only use celery in soup basis,dont realy like it)

rachbc

wormeries are a good way to compost in a small area.

I did got through a period of saving carrot peels/ onion skins for stock but freezer is too full!

ceridwen

Well - onion skins I would have some of personally - but I never have things like carrot peel, potato skins, etc in my house anyway. I just use a vegetable brush on things like potatoes and carrots to wash them and then use them with their skins on.

I still recall years back helping to prepare a meal in a commune I was staying in for a few days. I helpfully peeled the potatoes and one of the people was horrified at me wasting food like that and grabbed them and threw in a frying pan and sauted them as sorta "chips". I hadnt even known potato skin was edible at that point :rotfl::rotfl:(ie having never been fed jacket potatoes by my mother whilst growing up). I started viewing food "through different eyes" at that point....:)

rachbc

I do keep the peel on for chips/ wedges but not for mash!

Have just remembered that slightly past there best wrinkly root veg can be revived by soaking in cold water for a while - have done this with both parsnips and carrots

ceridwen

rachbc wrote: »

I do keep the peel on for chips/ wedges but not for mash!

I would personally - 'cos its only me eating it and I'm not going to chuck those skins to keep it purty just for myself. Having said that - I very rarely have mashed potato. I'm much more likely to have it as jacket potato/potato wedges/sliced and steamed in my steamer (with the skin on).

foxgloves

I always include an onion skin or two when making chicken stock as we were taught at school that this makes it a good colour (I had a very old-style cookery teacher!) Hugh Fernley Whittingstall has a recipe for what if I remember rightly is called something like 'Compost bin jelly' or similar, which is made from apple peelings, citrus skins, etc. Green leek tops definitely go in soups or stocks here.....spring onion greens go into stir fries, outer savoy cabbage leaves are blanched & used for making stuffed cabbage leaves in a nice spicy sauce or finely shredded to make sag greens for curry. Other vegetabley scraps go off down the bottom of the garden for the Wigglers to turn into compost or staright onto the compost bins.

Kiwisaver_2

meritaten wrote: »

I didnt realise beetroot leaves were edible!

Lots of those bags of fancy or baby leaf salads have beetroot leaves in them.

PipneyJane

In the States, Broccoli stalks get shredded and used in "Broccoli slaw".

Personally, I've been known to slice them into discs and add them to stews. They tend to disolve if added early enough. Also, if I'm planning to make Broccoli and Stilton Soup, I'll save the stalk from an earlier head of broccoli and include that in the recipe along with the stalk of the one I'm using for the soup. (Does that sentence make sense? Reads rather clumsily to me.)

I rend the fat from chicken/poultry and use it for cooking. As well as the fat I cut off and remove before cooking, I'll use the fat drained off the bird during roasting and the fat skimmed off the stock that I make. It just gets saved in a bag in the freezer until I can be bothered to process it all. Not sure I can post hyperlinks yet. If so, here's a link to a blog post I wrote years ago explaining my methodology.

(Food Nazis please note: it's the total quantity of fat you consume that is bad for you/fattening. I eat very little added fat so one quarter of one tablespoon of rendered chicken fat (my usual recipe cooking quantity) will not swing my cholesterol one way or the other.)

Frugalista

Hi PipneyJane and welcome :hello:

You might want to edit your post and remove the link to your blog (very good - I've saved it ) before it gets reported and removed, as links to personal blogs are not allowed on MSE. You can show it in your profile as your homepage - sorry I don't know how you do that though.

Have saved a few of your recipes and hope you continue to post .

Reverbe

I now use the tops of spring onions.. bit like chives tbh and now wonder why i ever threw them away..

Theres also spud peelings but I never peel them lol

Bramble is it wise to give dogs dairy???