8 Recipes That Turn Peels, Stems, and Scraps into Free Flavour
Prepping all the ingredients in a recipe may leave you with scraps. Many of these peels and stems actually hold enough flavour to stand on their own against other dishes.
Here are 8 tried-and-true recipes that help you make the most of these ingredients.
1. Classic Vegetable Broth
Keep your broccoli stems, carrot skins, bean stalks and other veggie scraps together. You can freeze them while collecting as many as you can. At the end of the week, dump everything into a hot pot and simmer it for around 30 to 40 minutes for the best results. Add garlic, olive oil, water and salt into the mix.
2. Candied Orange Peels
Eating the fruit peels can help you boost your daily intake while utilising your scraps. Try candying your orange peels in sugar and water to give them a sweeter taste and crunchier texture. This is great for school lunch. It also creates a simple syrup you can use for coffee and tea.
3. Fried Potato Peels
Some recipes require fully skinning potatoes. Thankfully, you can use those skins to create extra crisps. Thanks to their thinness, they only take about five minutes of frying to get golden brown. Make sure you keep a close eye on them, drain the excess oil afterwards and coat in garlic butter for more flavour.
4. Feijoa Crumble
A mature feijoa plant can create up to 30 kilos of fruit, with some wasted and rotting. Take advantage of the volume of produce and make a crumble that would rival the best apple pies. You can even add almonds and other nuts to change the texture.
5. Bread Pudding
There’s something so addictive about bread pudding, and it’s perfect for Kiwis who want to use up their day-old slices. Plus, more than 29 million loaves of bread go uneaten annually in NZ, so you’re helping cut down on food waste. Simply slice your bread into cubes and drizzle with melted butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and eggs, and bake until golden and ready to serve.
6. Beet Green Pesto
While pesto is known to be the green sauce, there are actually many variations of it. Beet greens —- which refer to the long stems attached to the bottom — may not be as popular as basil or parsley pesto. However, it also offers plenty of flavour when blended with nuts, garlic cloves and olive oil.
7. Chickpea Mayonnaise
Chickpea mayonnaise centres around aquafaba, also known as the liquid leftover from chickpea cans. Emulsify it with sunflower or avocado oil, apple cider vinegar and brown rice syrup. Mustard powder and sea salt help alter the flavour.
8. Silverbeet Stem Fingers
Silverbeet stems can be breaded the same way as fish fingers or fritters. Coat them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs before frying to make it as crisp as possible. You can also save a stem and regrow them for future supplies.
Ngā mihi Beth Rush, food editor at Body+Mind as well as a columnist at sites like Tasting Table, Guilty Eats, and The Food Institute. Her work centers around traveling and sampling global cuisines sustainably. She’s a huge proponent of food justice, sustainable agriculture, and plant-based diets as ways to reduce our carbon footprints.