Vegetable Peels

Soozy_B

Hi there!

Apologies in advance if this topic has been covered before.....

I am concerned with the amount of veg peelings that I seem to discard I am getting my hands on a composter for the garden - but wonder if there is anything I can do meal wise with them?

It's mainly carrot and potato peelings - sometimes parsnips (we do eat more veg than this, but we are a slave to frozen veg for convenience)

Can these be put into stews? Curries?

Thanks in advance for your tips!

GreyQueen

Soozy_B wrote: »

Hi there!

Apologies in advance if this topic has been covered before.....

I am concerned with the amount of veg peelings that I seem to discard I am getting my hands on a composter for the garden - but wonder if there is anything I can do meal wise with them?

It's mainly carrot and potato peelings - sometimes parsnips (we do eat more veg than this, but we are a slave to frozen veg for convenience)

Can these be put into stews? Curries?

Thanks in advance for your tips!

Potato peels are perfectly edible, so you could do as I do and just give 'em a quick scrub and then steam them. Carrots can be treated likewise. Depending on the age of the parsnip, you could also do the same, but some homegrown ones might be a bit hoary with age and benefit from peeling.

Some parts of veg are perfectly edible, just less commonly eaten. I was just retrieving something from my freezer and I have some bagged up diced broccoli stalks in there, which will be added to a soup or casserole. It's perfectly good stuff.

With some cabbages, the outer leaves are quite thick and have prominent central ribs on the leaves. Takes about three seconds to sever the rib from the green bit, and then it can be sliced up small to cook in the same pan as the cabbage (I steam all veg inc spuds).

With a few adjustments, you can dramatically reduce the amount of veg waste you create. HTH.

trailingspouse

I always cook potatoes with the skin on.

I wonder if carrot/parsnip skins etc could go into stock to make soup? I've never tried it, but provided they were well scrubbed I don't see why you couldn't.

CapricornLass

I often add my vegetable peelings to a chicken carcas when making chicken stock. I'm not just limited to carrots and parsnips, I add onion skins (the glossy brown skins, not the dried out husks on the outside), mushroom peelings and stalks, and celery leaves too. I've never added potato skins though, and I don't add anything from the cabbage family, mainly because I dont like the taste it gives to the stock.

The other thing is that I don't add the cooked peelings to the compost heap - they always go down my waste disposal unit.

LameWolf

I don't peel root veggies at all, just give 'em a wash and a scrub, top'n'tail if needed, trim off any little tiny wiry roots sprouting from (mainly) parsnips, gouge out any manky bits, potato eyes etc, and off we go! It's all good, edible stuff, why go to the bother of peeling it and chucking the peel in the compost?

SamsReturn

I think the only peelings i throw in the bin are from Oranges and Bananas, nearly all veges are only washed, if they can't be eaten as they are, they go in the SC next time i'm making soup.

katkin

I used to add all my veg peelings to a bag in the freezer to make stock. Unfortunately I found the stock once I'd simmered it with bay etc not that nice. I much prefer meat / poultry based stocks for flavour.

Now I try to wash, scrub veggies and use up as much as I can of things like broccoli stalks to keep the waste down. Our council give us food waste bins so they can pick it up and compost it.

caronc

I peel very thinly or not at all and either compost or "food bin" the waste (like Katkin my council recycles food waste). I consider this a necessary waste and do use broccolli stalks, cabbage ribs etc. as a matter of course. Even when you go back in time there was some stuff that was recognised as not usable and went to make pig swill, compost and unless you buy pre-prepared peeled veggies (not very MSE) a little waste is going to be inevitable. Waste to me is not using up or just not "fancying" stuff

TravellingAbuela

https://homefarmer.co.uk/potato-peel-soup, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Potato Peel Soup? I don't suppose it would harm it if you threw in a few carrot peelings as well.

peachyprice

I use my trimmings to make vegetable stock for gravies and risottos.

Parsnips I never peel, just top ans tail, the ends then go in the stock pot, same with carrots.

whiteguineapig

i don't peel carrots either