What can I do with all my veggie scraps?
If you cut off the stalks and skins of your vegetables, you might wonder what to do with those scraps. Or maybe you often cook too many veggies and end up with lots of leftovers after dinner.
You can do many other things with your vegetable scraps instead of simply throwing them in the trash. You can reduce food waste and be more environmentally friendly by choosing to use or compost your veggie scraps.
Here are some great things you can do with your vegetable scraps and leftovers.
Cook Them for Dinner the Next Day
Instead of throwing away your veggies, reuse them in your dinner today. Throw them into a pan with some olive oil and sauté them for a tasty side dish, or combine them with some chicken or tofu slices and create a healthy stir-fry.
Use them to make soup or stock
Another great way to reuse vegetable scraps is to make soups and stocks. To make stock, add them to a large stockpot, pour in water, bring to a boil, and then simmer for about an hour. One tip: do not use cruciferous vegetables as they will make your stock bitter.
Consider adding herbs and spices to add extra flavor to your soups and broths. If you are not using your stock right away you can freeze it for up to three months.
Make Crispy Veggie Sticks
If you’re looking for a healthy snack to take to work or to enjoy when you’re relaxing in front of the TV, you can use your leftover veggies to create crispy vegetable sticks.
Cut the veggies, add a light layer of olive oil or honey and roast them in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes until they become dry and crispy. Alternatively, you can use an air fryer if you have one.
Compost Them
If you decide that you can’t reuse your veggie scraps, you can compost them. Happily, you can compost pretty much any vegetable.
By throwing them into the compost, you’re enabling the vegetables to naturally decompose and produce beneficial materials for the microorganisms within the compost. Composting also deposits key nutrients into soils, which enables plants to thrive.