What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

[Tylluan Penry]

Turnips/swedes. Great roasted in with roast potatoes and sprinkled with herbs and sea salt. Carrots are good like that too.

Bread - makes stuffing, bread cake, bread pudding.

Milk that's gone off - curd cheese. Add a bit of salt to it and hang up in a muslin bag until all the liquid has dripped out (yes, I really do this!) and then add fresh chopped chives.
My son-in-law makes panaar like this but adds lemon juice instead of salt.

[Rae'ya]

Limes... lime curd! Though curd is not exactly a beginners recipe. Also... margaritas! Or anything Thai. Or Mexican. I would basically kill for a surplus of fresh limes... four of my favourite food groups use limes... citrus desserts, margaritas, Thai and Mexican. Yum yum yum.

Turnips are only really good for soup. If it's actually a swede (aka routabaga) then boiled and mashed as a substitute for mashed potato is good. As a general rule turnips have white flesh while swedes have yellow flesh. I think you can also roast em up for neeps and tatties but we'll have to confirm that with someone Irish!

Beetroot doesn't last long in this house. Roast it in a different pan was the first thing I thought of! Mum boils, slices then preserves her extra beets in vinegar for year-round access to salad and burger ready beetroot.

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Oh and Cos lettuce... feed it to your ducks? That's what would happen in my house. Jemima and Baby Duck would appreciate it FAR more than anyone else under my roof!

[anunitu]

In all this,we see Russia destroying food.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015...sanctions.html

And this happening while locusts are in southern Russia.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/europe...locust-swarms/

I think Putin may have slipped off the freaking toast completely.

[Jembru]

I just thought I'd swing by with an update of how all this food waste avoidance is going (with some requests at the end).

I'm still sometimes leaving it too long to use up fresh produce, especially with salad, but I'm much more conscious of what I throw out, and it really encourages me to use everything up. I buy bags of mixed leaves now, rather than various whole lettuces. It costs a little more, but if half my lettuces would just end up in the bin, I'd just be throwing money away anyway. Yet these bags of leaves don't seem to last as long, so I'm still finding that they're going mushy before I've finished the bag. The guilt kills me each time too.

Today I had 2 near misses (and one ends in quite a gross story, yet illustrates how much this food waste issue has touched me). I eat kiwifruit before bed because it's apparently good for sleep (actually, as this guy explains, it most likely isn't anything specific to just kiwifruit, but as one of my favourite varieties of fruit, and the fact I need to eat them for the omega I figured why not), and the one I picked out this morning felt a bit squishy and looked past its best. I don't like dry kiwis, so it ended up staying on my bedside cabinet, uneaten. When I got up tonight, I went to throw it in the bin, but just as I was about to let go, my conscience told me to at least cut it open. I did so, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it! Tasted just fine too.

Then an hour later, I needed to make my evening meal. I had some ready mixed stir-fry vegetables that were about a week past their sell-by, so I thought I'd use that up. It was starting to go bad; you know, that smell of onion as its starting to turn to mush. Some of the carrots were a bit dry and pale, and the leaves of the bean spouts were definitely on the browner side of green. Still, I thought I'd get it cooked and see how it turns out. I threw the rest in the bin, figuring it won't last another night.

It turned out to be one of the tastiest stir fries I've made in a while! So, erm.. this is when it gets gross... I decided to take the bag out of the bin >.<" It was sealed though! I rinsed the bag under the hot tap and then carefully cut it open so the contents didn't touch the outside, then transferred the smelly, slightly gooey mixture to a fresh bag! Don't judge me!!

Anyway, does anyone know what I can do with satsumas that are dry inside? Sometimes the local shop sells pretty poor quality ones that are dry from the day you get them home. JP especially won't eat them like this, and I prefer not to. Is there anything they're good for at this point?

Also, is there anything fancy I can do with runner beans besides just chopping and boiling or roasting them? I got a huge bag out of my dad's garden and JP won't eat them in case he's allergic (garden peas make his tongue and lips swell so he's nervous of any green legume). I make roast veg maybe twice a week, but as I'm the only one who'll eat it, I've still got loads left and they'll go off soon. I'd especially like to try making them into something I can snack on if that's possible?

[faye_cat]

Jembru, I don't have any recipes, but have you considered getting a sealer? We have something similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/Seal-a-Meal-FS...ler+food+saver and we use it all the time. It takes a bit of prep time, but we'll go to the grocery store and then come back and prep the food. For the lettuce, we'll wash it, sometimes premix items like cheese or what not, and then seal it and put it in the fridge. We'll also prep apples (wash and cut) and seal. We'll freeze the meats in this bag and not the store packaging, because it always seemed to go bad if we did.

[kalynraye]

Jem with your satsumas make marmalade!!!!! Slice those bad boys up peel and all and in a pot add white wine and sugar (make a simple syrup) and through those bad boys in and cook till they are broken down. Cool and through in a jar.

With your runner beans why don't you add them to your stir fry? Or pickle them. KP loves picked beans and I've got a recipe if your interested.

[Tylluan Penry]

If carrots seem a bit dry, add a small spoonful of sugar to the water when you boil them, and serve with a knob of butter (again a small one) and some chopped basil. Magic!

To liven up boiled potatoes, add some mint to the water when you boil them.

[Jembru]

Wow, great ideas! And yes please Kalynraye, I love pickles so I'm very much interested in your recipe if it's not too much trouble.

[kalynraye]

Good lord I should proof read before I submit... well forgive my mind because it was wondering, and I've put the wrong word in. Oh well, Jem I will get that recipe for, I'll have to dig but I'll have it for you no later then tomorrow!!

[Rae'ya]

I just thought I'd swing by with an update of how all this food waste avoidance is going (with some requests at the end).

I'm still sometimes leaving it too long to use up fresh produce, especially with salad, but I'm much more conscious of what I throw out, and it really encourages me to use everything up. I buy bags of mixed leaves now, rather than various whole lettuces. It costs a little more, but if half my lettuces would just end up in the bin, I'd just be throwing money away anyway. Yet these bags of leaves don't seem to last as long, so I'm still finding that they're going mushy before I've finished the bag. The guilt kills me each time too.

Today I had 2 near misses (and one ends in quite a gross story, yet illustrates how much this food waste issue has touched me). I eat kiwifruit before bed because it's apparently good for sleep (actually, as this guy explains, it most likely isn't anything specific to just kiwifruit, but as one of my favourite varieties of fruit, and the fact I need to eat them for the omega I figured why not), and the one I picked out this morning felt a bit squishy and looked past its best. I don't like dry kiwis, so it ended up staying on my bedside cabinet, uneaten. When I got up tonight, I went to throw it in the bin, but just as I was about to let go, my conscience told me to at least cut it open. I did so, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it! Tasted just fine too.

Then an hour later, I needed to make my evening meal. I had some ready mixed stir-fry vegetables that were about a week past their sell-by, so I thought I'd use that up. It was starting to go bad; you know, that smell of onion as its starting to turn to mush. Some of the carrots were a bit dry and pale, and the leaves of the bean spouts were definitely on the browner side of green. Still, I thought I'd get it cooked and see how it turns out. I threw the rest in the bin, figuring it won't last another night.

It turned out to be one of the tastiest stir fries I've made in a while! So, erm.. this is when it gets gross... I decided to take the bag out of the bin >.<" It was sealed though! I rinsed the bag under the hot tap and then carefully cut it open so the contents didn't touch the outside, then transferred the smelly, slightly gooey mixture to a fresh bag! Don't judge me!!

Anyway, does anyone know what I can do with satsumas that are dry inside? Sometimes the local shop sells pretty poor quality ones that are dry from the day you get them home. JP especially won't eat them like this, and I prefer not to. Is there anything they're good for at this point?

Also, is there anything fancy I can do with runner beans besides just chopping and boiling or roasting them? I got a huge bag out of my dad's garden and JP won't eat them in case he's allergic (garden peas make his tongue and lips swell so he's nervous of any green legume). I make roast veg maybe twice a week, but as I'm the only one who'll eat it, I've still got loads left and they'll go off soon. I'd especially like to try making them into something I can snack on if that's possible?

Transfer your mixed salad leaves into a vegetable container in the fridge... they last WAAAY longer than if left in the bag. In the bag I swear they go slimy in 3-4 days, but in a veg container they last like 2 weeks.

On that note, vegetable containers are AWESOME. I never leave veg in their bags, but have a number of Tupperware brand FridgeMates to put veg in. They easily last 2-3 times longer and it means I can use the whole fridge instead of just the crisper drawer (I actually keep condiments in the crisper drwaer lol). Just tip out the water that collects in the bottom of the container once a week.

Kiwis... DON'T throw the softies away! They are still good, just a bit mushy.

Beans... chop 'em up, blanch and freeze. I don't have any recipes but I know they keep well in the freezer for a little whilr. They are much nicer fresh but at least it'll save the extras being chucked in the bin.