Cook More, Waste Less: Zero-Waste Recipes to Use Up Groceries, Tackle Food Scraps, and Transform Leftovers
272
Cook More, Waste Less: Zero-Waste Recipes to Use Up Groceries, Tackle Food Scraps, and Transform Leftovers
272Paperback
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Overview
THE STATS ON FOOD WASTE ARE STAGGERING: currently one-third of all the food produced in the world is thrown away. Going zero-waste with food isn’t some-thing we’ll reach overnight, nor is it a hard and fast rule; but it’s something we should all be moving towards—to help the environment, and our own wallets too!
Cook More, Waste Less uses recipe icons to guide you, and shows you how, for example, to cook a hearty Pot Roast and turn the leftovers into a Savory Pie, and then use the bones to make a stock to freeze for when you next make soup. And, how to make a meal of Simple Roasted Vegetables, then whip up a frittata the next morning, and use any scraps for Stone Soup. If you’ve got some extra rice? Turn it into Fancy Fried Rice with other ingredients in your fridge, or Leftover Rice Pudding for dessert. Fruit going soft? Turn it into Any Way Marmalade, or use banana peels for This Bread is Bananas. Fresh herbs or greens wilting? Put them in a pesto! Christine also includes guides on how to mix and match any array of vegetables, meats, and plant-based proteins for flexible, fast recipe ideas like Pasta Night or Taco Tuesdays.
This definitive cookbook even looks beyond meals to other creative uses for extra foods, like making pet treats, beauty treatments, and home cleaning products, and it features advice from other experts—such as composting tips from Carson Arthur, and food waste solutions from Anna Olson, Bob Blumer, and Todd Perrin.
Cook More, Waste Less is a life-changing cookbook that gives you simple and actionable steps on what you’ll cook next—and what you won’t throw away.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780525610656 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Appetite by Random House |
| Publication date: | 09/07/2021 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Sales rank: | 1,099,067 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
Growing up, I would often see my dad hunched over the kitchen table with a plate of odd bits from the fridge. A little mustard, a few pickled goods, some bread.“Cleaning out the fridge,” he would say. Our Monday meals of Spam and leftover veggie hash patties came from Sunday’s supper, served with ketchup. Was it the healthiest approach? Probably not. But it did make me think about using leftovers,reducing food waste, and eating on a budget from an early age.
As I got older and started cooking and enjoying my time in the kitchen more and more, I turned my obsessive love of cooking into a career. When I first started as a food stylist, I couldn’t believe how much food was thrown away.After securing that perfect burger advertisement or filming a favorite food TV challenge, my colleagues would chuckle as I loaded up my work bins with leftover scraps from shoots to bring home.
I spent weekends pawning off food, which my colleagues didn’t claim, on family and friends, making one too many fruit pies or huge batches of soups with those leftovers. I found it so difficult to throw out food. And so I developed a simple practice of batch cooking week to week, using it as the opportunity to clean out my fridge and freezer, and experiment. And, over the years, my favorite recipes became those that were most adaptable to the ingredients I had kicking around the kitchen. Fancy Fried Rice, for example, combines leftover rice, with whatever bits of this or that I had on hand. Then I can use the leftovers into Packed Peppers the next day. After developing these and more food waste solutions in my own kitchen, I realized there needs to be a book that shares these kinds of practical, everyday solutions for using up the food we typically toss aside. And Cook More, Waste Less was born.
As I have been writing this cookbook, food waste has become an increasingly hot topic, and a global one at that. Globally, 1.3 billion tons of the total food produced is lost before it even reaches the market because of poor farming infrastructures. I don’t even want to tell you how much money that is (spoiler alert: it’s over 1 trillion dollars!). And currently one-third of all the food produced in the world is wasted (while sadly over 800 million people are suffering from malnutrition, 1 in 4 households have encountered food insecurity in the US, while 1 in 8 households have experienced food insecurity in Canada). We all play a part: on average we unwittingly throw away one in every four bags of groceries we buy.
The problem with food waste is multi-fold: when we toss aside perfectly edible food rather than using it, not only are we creating needless waste and negatively impacting the environment by adding more methane into the atmosphere (not to mention, wasting our own valuable dollars), but we are perpetuating the demand for more food to be produced overall; and the more food that is produced, the more detrimental the impact on the environment. Consumer expectations for ever more perfect produce also causes food waste as retailers reject what they don’t thinkthey’ll sell before it even hits shelves. You could write a whole book about global food waste (and yes, there are whole books written on this subject). I’m not here to make you feel guilty. I don’t want to cram facts and food politics down your throat. I know I get overwhelmed by these startling facts. As much as I would love to change food policies and technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of our food systems, it takes a village to make changes and it’s going to take time.
During COVID-19, farmers and food systems have been hit hard, making many of us reflect even more on our own food and consumption habits. Lots more people have chosen to take the time and effort to grow their own food as a result,yet sometimes struggle to use up all the bounty from their garden, facing a different challenge about waste. Along the way I have learned there is only one thing we have immediate, direct control of: our own consumption habits, i.e., how we buy,store, eat, and dispose of our food.
My hope with this cookbook is to show how you can make small changes and work toward minimizing your food waste. Even simple, small shifts in how we buy,cook, and eat food can make a significant difference to the amount of food wast we produce. And if going zero waste feels unattainable, remind yourself regularly,as I do, that it is a goal and not a hard target. Included in these pages are some basic strategies and tools to help you start this zero-waste journey and get you thinking about new ways of planning your meals, and buying and preparing food. The recipes demonstrate creative ideas to use up what is already in your fridge, freezer, and pantry, as well as how to transform leftovers, and how to use the often-overlooked parts of food (from onion skins to banana peels) we might usually throw away.
We won’t solve the world’s problems all at once, and you don’t have to change your life overnight, but we can begin with simple, actionable steps focused on what you’ll eat next—and what you won’t throw away. Whether you are an environmentally or socially conscious eater, someone working with a tight food budget, or just looking for new ideas for what to cook, I hope you enjoy this journey towards zero waste.
—Christine
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I Zero-Waste Kitchen Busics
Zero-Waste Shopping Strategies 6
What to Buy 9
Essential Kitchen Tools 11
Food Storage 101 12
Food Storage Glossary 16
Waste 101 24
How These Recipes Work 28
Mapped-Our Meals 34
Part II Zero-Waste Recipes
Produce
Simple Roasted Vegetables 40
Roasted Vegetable Frittata 41
Root to Tip 42
Crispy Veggie Skins 43
Stem Au Gratin 45
Salad for Days 46
Greek Chickpea Salad 47
Custom Coleslaw 49
Charred Asparagus Niçoise 50
Beet, Fennel, and Radicchio Salad 53
Brussels Fried Hash 55
Croquettes 56
Zero-Waste Herbs 58
Sour Cream and Chive Potato Biscuits 59
Stuffed Pumpkin with Shrimp 61
Perfectly Roasted Pumpkin Seeds 62
Pipian Verde aka Mexican Pumpkin Seed Stew 63
Grand Gnocchi 65
Creamy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese 66
Chunky Squash Raita 68
Chili Yogurt Cornbread 69
Packed Peppers 70
Avocado Boats with Turmeric Aioli 72
Put It in a Pesto 74
Green Beans for Days 75
Tomato Sauce: 3 Ways 77
Stone Soup 79
Glorious Golden Green Soup 80
Marvelous Minestrone 81
Very Celery with(out) Chorizo Soup 82
Vegan Crackling 84
Re-growing Vegetable Scraps 85
Plant-Based Proteins
Terrific Tofu 89
Tofu: 2 Ways 91
All about Legumes 92
Black-Eyed Peas with Kale and Dill 93
Apple Curry Dal 95
Easy Peasy Soup 96
Garlicky Tahini Soup aka Tahinosoupa 97
Armenian Lentil Soup 98
Dips: 3 Ways 100
Aquafaba 102
Plant-Based Milks 105
Fish and Seafood
The Whole Fish 109
Rustic Coconut Fish Stew 110
Bouillobaisse 112
Maritime Seafood Chowder 114
Seafood Scramble 115
Nan's Fish Cakes 117
Neptune's Pasta 119
Fish Dips: 3 Ways 121
Meat and Poultry
Two Roast Chickens 127
Bong Bong Chicken 128
Curried Chicken and Grape Salad 131
Dill Pickle Chicken Tenders 132
Wild Blueberry and Ginger Pulled Chicken Tacos 135
Taco Tuesdays 136
Spicy Vietnamese Cabbage and Duck Coleslaw 137
Ham It Up 138
Perfect Roast Ham 139
Mexican Spiced Pork Tenderloins 140
A Pot of Chili 141
Veggie and Cheese-Stuffed Meatloaf 143
Meatballs 101 144
Quinoa Meatballs 146
Red Thai-Style Curry Flank Steak 147
Pot Roast 149
Beefy Black Lentil Stew 150
Callaloo 153
Pantry-Inspired Staples
Pasta Night 157
Crispy Fried Pasta with Spicy Chorizo 159
The Great Risotto 160
Jambalaya 163
Freestyle Paella 164
Fancy Fried Rice 165
Grain Bowl with Shrimp and Lemon Dill Buttermilk Dressing 166
Fattoush Salad 168
Quinoa Surprise 169
Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce 170
Wrap It Up Fresh Spring Rolls 171
Crispy Rice Crepes 172
Savory Pies: 3 Ways 173
Pizza Dough 178
Pizza Night 179
Pizza Chips 180
I'm Feeling Crackers 181
Breadcrumbs and Croutons 182
Stocks and Condiments
Stock: 4 Ways 187
Parm Broth 191
All-Purpose Brine Spice Mix 192
The Quick Pickle 193
Hawaiian Chili Water 195
1-Minute Mayo 196
Best Tartar Sauce 197
Smashed Strawberry and Maple Barbecue Sauce 197
Banana Peel Chutney 198
Chow Chow 199
Shallot Marmalade 201
Slow Cooker Apple Buffer 202
Moroccan Preserved Lemons 204
Sweeter Stuff
Papaya Pops with Coconut, Avocado, and Lime 209
Popsicles: 3 Ways 210
Endless Ice Cream 211
100% Pure Vanilla Extract 212
CBZ Cake with a De-Lightful Cream Cheese Frosting 215
This Bread Is Bananas 217
Guilt-Free Cookies 219
Bostock 221
Dried Plum Brownies 222
Raspberry Financiers 224
Pie Crust: 3 Ways 226
Pucker Pie 229
Vinegar Pie 230
Coconut Mango Panna Cotta 231
CocoRose Pudding 232
Rugelach 235
Pumpkin Pie Lost Bread Pudding 236
Leftover Rice Pudding 239
Pancakes: 3 Ways 240
Fruit Compote 365 241
This is My Jam 242
Any Way Marmalade 243
Beyond Meals
Teas: 2 Ways 246
Foody Beauty 248
Foods to Keep Your Home Spick and Span 250
For the Pets 251
Resources 254
Bibliography 255
Acknowledgments 256
Index 257