Solid Waste & Recycling Newsletter

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Solid Waste & Recycling Newsletter 

Reinventing Recipes with Scraps in Mind

Want to stretch your food budget this summer and reduce your household's wasted food? Ask yourself this question - do I really use the most of my food before I throw it away? Although parts of fruits and vegetables like broccoli stalks, chard stems, and carrot tops are included in the price we pay at the register, they are traditionally thought of as scraps meant to be discarded in the garbage or compost bin (if available). However, many of these seldom-eaten scraps are actually perfectly safe to eat and can be made into delicious dishes with a little thinking outside of the box!

If you want to re-purpose your scraps and use more of the food you purchase, use these tips to help you get started.

Potato PeelsTip #1. Think of the produce you cook with the most - broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. - and look up some recipes that make use of all the different parts of those foods. Keep in mind that although using the parts of a fruit or vegetable might not be ideal for what you're making right now, it can easily be part of another dish later on in the week.

For example, after peeling potatoes to make mashed potatoes, you can save the peels to make crispy, roasted potato peels for a snack during the week.

Tip #2. Plan how you will save scraps for later use. For example, some scraps, like the pulp left behind after juicing, can be saved in the freeze for later use. Others, like seeds and peels, are best re-purposed as soon as possible.

Tip #3. To make sure you don't forget about any scraps Broccoli soupyou saved to re-purpose and use later, label the scraps with the food name, what you want to use them for, the date you saved them, and the date by which you want to use them. For example, saving broccoli stems for cheddar broccoli soup.

 

This might sound cheesy, but these recipes are grate!

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Is there a topic you'd like to learn more about or a public event or workshop related to recycling (organics, textiles, traditional recyclables, etc.) you'd like the greater community to know more about? E-mail us at: organicrecycling@dec.ny.gov.