As food degrades in landfill sites it releases methane gas which contributes to global warming. This is an enormous problem. Over 30% of all food produced globally ends up in the bin. And household food waste accounts for 60% of all food waste, so even small changes in the amount each family throws away can make a big difference. This is one reason we are always advocating for meal planning.
At Kindling restaurant in Brighton, the whole menu is designed around using amazing local produce and minimising food waste. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you do the same at home.
Peel and stalks and leaves
The peel from onions, garlic and shallots can be used to make an amazingly fragrant oil for dressing and cooking with. Simply save all your trimmings in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to fill a large saucepan. To make the oil, cover all the peelings with a neutral-tasting oil such as rapeseed oil and heat over very low heat for 2-3 hours. Allow to cool, then strain and decant into bottles. This oil is lovely for cooking with or as a base for a salad dressing, or as a dip for bread.
A large proportion of green vegetables is often thrown away simply because we don’t think it’s edible or don’t know what to do with them. The green part of a leek still tastes amazing, it simply needs to be well washed and cooked for a bit longer than the paler part. The outer leaves of cauliflower are gorgeous roasted in the oven for 5 minutes at 220C with a little oil and salt, but they’re equally good shredded in a stir fry or added into a cauliflower cheese. The broccoli stalk is deliciously sliced and pickled in a salad.
In the restaurant, all our green trim is saved, thinly sliced, and then turned into a beautiful vivid green soup which we offer to our evening diners as an amuse bouche. The finely chopped greens are sauteed in butter, then cooked out in milk before being blended into a silky-smooth soup that’s chilled over ice. Everything from the outer leaves of cabbage to the trim from broccoli can feature in the soup. It simply depends on what’s on the menu at the time.
Freezer hacks
Some of the most commonly thrown away food items are wrinkled chillis, pieces of mouldy root ginger and citrus fruits that have been zested and become dried out. If you keep all these things in the freezer, you can grate them straight from frozen. This means you can easily portion half a chilli, the zest of half a lime or 1 tablespoon of ginger without the rest going to waste. Once you have what you need simply return the item to the freezer ready to use again next time.
Preserving and fermenting
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If you end up with too much of something there are a lot of different ways you can preserve it for use later in the year. Gluts of fruit and vegetables can be turned into jams and chutneys or pickled. These make excellent presents or additions to a Christmas hamper.Cabbages and root vegetables like carrots and beetroot can be turned into kraut. Thinly slice or grate the vegetables, carefully weigh how much you have and sprinkle in 3% table salt by weight. Set the veg aside for an hour then massage it with the salt until it creates enough liquid to fully cover itself when put in a jar. Pack the vegetables and liquid into a Kilner jar ensuring they are fully submerged, then seal and leave in a cool dark place to ferment foranything from a week to six weeks. It’s a good idea to open the jar once a week and have a taste to see how the flavour is developing. Once it’s reached a taste that you’re happy with, transfer it to the fridge.Softer fruits and vegetables can be fermented in brine (salt dissolved in water). Sweeter fruits such as apples and plums should be fermented in a jar in a 5% salt solution. Less sweet fruits like rhubarb and most vegetables can be fermented in a 3% brine. Simply place the prepared food in the jar, fully submerge in brine and seal the lid. Leave at room temperature for a week to 10 days then transfer to the fridge. As fruits and vegetables ferment, acidsdevelop and gas is produced. For this reason, it’s a good idea to ‘burp’ your jars every few days while they are actively fermenting to avoid explosions!Once fermented, fruits and vegetables will keep for months in the fridge provided they stay in the fermentation liquid. On a dark winter’s day, it’s nice to have a splash of colour from some fermented rhubarb or the zing of a preserved plum to remind you summer is not far away.
Don’t forget the garden
Some items of food waste can make excellent additions to your garden or allotment. In the short video below, you will see how we use the compost formed from all the vegetable peels and cuttings from the kitchen. Crushed eggshells make an excellent slug and snail deterrent around young plants, or they can be dug into the soil to add vital nutrients for seedlings. Coffee grounds can be added to soil to create a nitrogen-rich environment loved by plants such as onions and salad leaves. And of course, anything you really can’t find an edible use for can be used to start a compost heap. Unlike in a landfill site, food decomposing in a compost heap doesn’t produce greenhouse gases so it’s a much better choice than putting food in the bin. At Kindling any veg trim we can’t use is collected and sent back to our local growers to use as compost, creating a closed-loop wherenothing is wasted.In the end, there’s always cake
Overripe fruit and vegetables that have gone a bit soft like carrots and courgettes are perfect for baking. Many other fruits and vegetables can also be pureed or grated and added into sweet loaves, cakes, muffins and cookies. Think banana bread, courgette and lime loaf cake, apple sauce muffins and carrot cake cookies!Cheers to a yummy and very moist carrot cake recipe.ABOUT THE AUTHORSHolly Taylor and Toby Geneen are the founders of Kindling Restaurant in Brighton. Kindling is about more than just the delicious food, it is a community of people: staff, customers and suppliers all sharing and celebrating local produce. Nature writes the menu as the seasons inspire the dishes. Kindling is featured in the Michelin Guide and is a member of the Sustainable Restaurants Association.Web: www. kindlingrestaurant.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/KindlingBrighton @KindlingBrightonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kindlingrestaurant/ @KindlingRestaurantLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kindlingrestaurant
Since I started meal planning years ago we are so much better at not wasting food but you go to prove there is more to learn. I hadn’t thought about the stalks and leaves of vegetables. I must use them in future. Lemons do sometimes go to waste here, I hadn’t thought of freezing them x
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