Approximately one-third of food is wasted globally each year. Are you also a contributor to food waste, whether it’s kitchen scraps or unused ingredients thrown away?

When cooking, many seemingly inedible fruit and vegetable peels are actually nutritious and versatile, and with a little ingenuity, they can be transformed into delicious dishes.

Common Food Waste Behaviors in Cooking

The root cause is that families often discard edible ingredients due to a lack of familiarity with ingredients and storage methods, as well as a failure to manage usage. Or they simply buy ingredients that look attractive. Each decision can significantly impact the fate of an ingredient, and you can make a difference!

Through the concept of “zero food waste,” regular cooks can learn to maximize the benefits of ingredients. Being more mindful when cooking not only reduces food waste but also prevents water pollution and carbon emissions caused by waste disposal.

Making the most of every ingredient from start to finish is a great way to save money for those who shop carefully and budget every meal!

Don’t throw away the peels and stems of fruits and vegetables?

Why should you keep the peels and stems?

The peels actually contain valuable nutrients! They contain dietary fiber, vitamins C and E, water, and even more unique nutrients. Eating them with the skin and flesh provides a more complete absorption.

This is especially true for vegetables like radishes and cabbage stems. The peels of carrots still contain vitamin A and carotene, essential nutrients for maintaining vision and mucous membranes. Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and cauliflower contain various anti-inflammatory compounds and indole-3-carbinol in their stems, making it a shame to throw them away.

Common fruits and vegetables that are peeled include radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, and potatoes. Some people peel and discard tomato and apple skins because they dislike the texture. Furthermore, the stems of vegetables like cabbage and cauliflower are tough, so a lot of them end up being thrown away!

Save these parts.

Use the following three culinary tricks to fully utilize the ingredients.

Tip 1: Mince, blend, and knead into ground meat and dough.

Recommended recipes: Meat-filled ground meat dishes, vegetable pancakes.

Mincing and stewing or blending vegetable peels and stems can avoid the tough texture and offer more versatile uses. For minced meat dishes, finely chop carrot peels and cauliflower stems and mix them into the ground meat for a crunchy texture.

Spread the ground meat paste on the inside of shiitake mushrooms and stew them in tomato sauce or braised sauce to soften the ingredients and adjust the texture.

Mincing, blending, and mixing into pasta dishes is another option. In batter pancakes, noodles, or bread, the peels will be invisible once mixed in. Naturally pigmented carrot peels and purple cabbage stem juice can add a beautiful color to the batter and add a nutritional boost.

Second Tip: Is there room for meat bones and vegetable peels? Let’s make soup.

For soups, large bones are key to enhancing the broth’s sweetness. However, using vegetable and fruit peels, pork, chicken, fish bones, or shrimp shells can actually enhance the broth’s smoothness and delicate flavor. The nutrients in the peels are released during the slow cooking process, further enriching the broth.

Suitable ingredients for simmering include onion peels, carrot peels, various vegetable stems, apple peels, and pineapple peels. These unexpected ingredients can impart a refreshing sweetness to the broth and are a must-try.

Recommended recipes: Sweet Beef Soup, Fruit Iced Tea

Sweet and refreshing beef broth can be sweetened by using ingredients like onions, carrots, celery, and ginger. Don’t just use the flesh and discard the peels when making soup. If you’re harvesting peels for other dishes, or if you’re preparing chicken drumsticks, leave the bones in the broth. Strain the simmered broth and use it to brew thinly sliced ​​beef, creating a delicious and balanced dish.

Making fruit peels into juice or iced tea is easy. Pineapple and apple peels, which are common in summer, are perfect for this purpose.

Wash and chop the peels into small pieces. Boil the pineapple and apple juice in boiling water, adjust the sweetness, and cool. Add diced fruit or agarwood for a refreshing summer tea.

You can also melt agar and make a jelly. Blending grape peels, apple peels, mango peels, pineapple stems, and other fruits and vegetables into juice can provide antioxidant anthocyanins, vitamin C, and quercetin. Mango peels contain carotene, which adds nutritional value and ensures complete utilization.

Tip 3: Treat dented fruits and vegetables with care.

What should you do if you encounter “ugly fruits and vegetables” that don’t look so appealing? Actually, dents or poorly shaped fruits and vegetables don’t affect their nutritional value. Simply dice them and cook them in a stir-fry or stew, obscuring their original appearance. They’ll still be delicious.

Recommended recipes: Tomato Stew with Meat and Vegetables, Korean Potatoes

Dice dented potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, or less firm eggplants and beans and stew them to your liking. Adding ugly diced tomatoes to a curry adds a touch of acidity and a stimulating flavor.

For Italian vegetables stewed in tomato sauce, sauté the diced vegetables until fragrant, add Italian spices like basil and bay leaves, and then add a suitable amount of broth and simmer until tender. Don’t worry about imperfect fruits and vegetables; just focus on the flavors that will leave you wanting more.

It’s that simple! With just three simple recipes, you can fully utilize all your ingredients, avoid waste, and save money.