What food did you throw away this week? Perhaps you tossed a citrus peel or garlic scapes? If you are like most South Africans, you probably didn’t think twice about it.
Food wastage is a huge problem in most households. Fortunately, you can do something about it.
You can take steps to reduce food waste and increase healthy eating along the way. This can positively affect your family and the planet.
Four foods that can easily be saved from the compost and repurposed for new uses that will make you (and your wallet) glad you did not throw them away:
Citrus peel
Don’t toss out the rind after squeezing lemon juice over fish. Lemon rind is great for garnishing dishes and kicking up the flavour. There are also nutritional benefits in the zest.
Blend the zest into vinaigrette or marinade, toss a piece of peel into smoothies, grate the peel and sprinkle it on green beans, blend it into yoghurt or cottage cheese, stir it into oatmeal, cereal or muffin batter or add to coffee or tea.
Don’t stop with lemons: use oranges, lime and grapefruit for some acidity and flavour, with no added calories.
Chicken bones
If you are cutting up or deboning a whole chicken, save the bones to make stock. You can also save the bones from rotisserie or roast chicken to make a deeper-flavoured brown stock.
In either case, you can throw the bones into the freezer until you accumulate enough to make a batch and have time to make stock.
Garlic scapes
If you love garlic, you should try its delicious partner in crime, garlic scape. Garlic scapes are the young stalks that emerge from garlic bulbs just after the first leaves have started to form.
They can be used as a milder substitute for garlic in some recipes, chopped up and added into a frittata or blended with herbs into a delicious pesto.
The possibilities are endless with this versatile stalk.
Pineapple core
Once you hit the core when cutting into a pineapple, don’t throw it in the garbage. You can use pineapple core for all kinds of recipes, and there are a lot of vitamins and minerals in it.
Nutrition experts say pineapple contains bromelain, a protein-digesting enzyme. It has anti-inflammatory properties, can reduce nasal and sinus inflammation and can mitigate arthritis and muscle pain.
To use pineapple core, chop and add to fruit salad, slaw, chutney or salsa or blend into smoothies. Cut into cubes and freeze for later use or simply add to water, tea and even sangria to increase flavour.
You can also dice it into small pieces and add it to stir-fry, sauté in olive oil, add to Greek yoghurt for savoury desserts or use it as a seafood marinade.