Cooking & EatingFood waste is easy to avoid. In the book Zero waste cooking for dummies you learn the basics of dealing with this. From using leftovers to buying ugly products and composting: these are the best tips.
1. Only buy what you will use
Simple but effective: when you walk into the supermarket, think carefully about which products you will actually use. Ask yourself questions like: What do I often throw away? What do I need this for? How and when will I use it? If you don’t know the answer to the last question, or you aren’t going to eat it this week, then you don’t need to buy it yet.
2. Use cuttings and leftovers
By using leftovers and occasionally cooking for more days, you can save time and money. You can keep the carcass of a roast chicken and boil it together with the vegetable waste to a stock in a large pan with water. Are you going to eat out? Ask the staff if they can pack the leftovers from your plate to reuse it that way.
You can make sugared citrus peels from lemon peels, and you can whip up the liquid from a can of chickpeas for a whiskey sour. That way you can get a zero wastemake mocktail or cocktail. You can flavor a sauce or soup with the brine from a jar of pickles.
3. Buy ugly products
Supermarkets often have a corner with discounted products where the ‘ugly’ or imperfect products are located. By buying these products you prevent food waste and you also save money.
4. Read the instructions for appliances and set up your fridge and freezer properly
The manual or instruction of your refrigerator or freezer often contains good tips, so read them carefully. Some products are habitually kept in the pantry, but they last longer in the fridge. Many frozen products can be stored for six months (or longer), so you can always freeze them until you have time to prepare them.
Check your fridge weekly: push out the foods that need to be used first and put the products with the shortest date on top. Take a look at the ingredients you have in the fridge and think about what you can make with them today or tomorrow. Make room in the refrigerator where you keep products that need to be used quickly and check your products regularly for spoilage.
5. Create a composting strategy
By composting your food waste you have less waste and you give your garden a boost. Fruit and vegetable waste and coffee grounds from the kitchen are ‘green’, just like grass. Brown material includes eggshells, cardboard, newspapers, twigs or autumn leaves. Putting a bucket on the counter or near your trash can makes it easier to think about composting.
6. Grow your food again
You can regrow different products so that you can eat them again. Think of an avocado pit, a potato with runners, (spring) onion, leek and garlic. You can also germinate celery and carrots, parsnips and beetroot will also grow again. You can put the bottom of a lettuce in water to let the leaves grow again, or put it in the soil when the roots are big enough.
7. Create your own herb garden
Making your own fresh herbs saves you money, and you only need to use what you need. You can maintain a herb garden, but you can also do it on the windowsill. Parsley and mint are easy to grow, basil needs a little more care. Buy a small plant from the garden center and read the instructions on the label carefully. Or buy a herb garden kit, it already contains everything you need.
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