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food waste recipes

TOP RECIPES TO TACKLE FOOD WASTE

TOP RECIPES TO TACKLE FOOD WASTE

Ingenious recipes that make use of the unwanted bits you’d usually throw away…

In the UK, we waste 9.5 million tonnes of food each year. Globally, 1/3 of all food produced is wasted and this is seriously harming our climate. 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions are a result of food waste. In comparison, the aviation industry accounts for 6%.

We can all make a big difference with some simple changes. Too Good To Go, an app to help stop food waste, has come up with some great ideas to use ingredients you might normally throw away such as banana peel, potato skin, cauliflower leaves and broccoli stalks.

Read on for Thomasina Miers’ recipe for cauliflower leaf salad. And an idea for broccoli stalk pesto.

CAULIFLOWER LEAF SALAD by THOMASINA MIERS

For the salad

40g buckwheat

60g raisins

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium cauliflower, including tender leaves

80g black olives, pitted and chopped

1 large orange, peeled and segmented

2 carrots, coarsely grated

large handful each of dill, parsley and mint leaves, finely chopped

3 tsp za’atar

For the dressing

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp soft light brown sugar

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

120ml olive oil

Toast the buckwheat in a dry frying pan until crunchy but not burnt, then set aside. In the same pan, toast the cumin seeds for the dressing and then grind in a spice grinder or by hand with a pestle and mortar. Set aside. Fry the raisins in the olive oil over a medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes until plumped up and round.

Thinly slice across the cauliflower and then chop the slices into small pieces. Put the cauliflower into a salad bowl with the remaining salad ingredients, including the toasted buckwheat and fried raisins.

Mix the dressing ingredients together, season generously with salt and pepper and pour into the salad. Toss together and serve.

BROCCOLI STALK PESTO

Large handful herbs – think basil, parsley or coriander

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 broccoli stalk, roughly chopped

35g nuts – think pine nuts, almonds, pistachio or cashew

50g parmesan cheese, grated

Salt

Olive oil

In a food processor, pulse broccoli pieces until they’re broken up into a pieces the size of corn kernels. Add herbs, garlic, nuts and cheese, and pulse into a thick paste is formed. Add small amounts of salt until you reach a taste you like, then take the same approach with olive oil until you reach your preferred consistency.