How can we have a zero waste cooking and kitchen ?

Many ideas and initiatives in recent years, but the reduction of waste always starts from us: from the shopping, but also from the way of cooking and the use of the refrigerator. Let’s start the year with good intentions.

So here are some ideas for small steps to reduce waste and recipes to make with food leftovers, creative and exquisite ideas, which allow you to make the most of all the ingredients you have at home, reducing waste .

Shopping:

The action against food waste starts with the planning of purchases. Try to limit excessive purchases

Choose even ”ugly” fruits and vegetables: don’t be fooled by strange shapes or dents, You can use for example, very ripe fruit or not ripe enough to create jams or drinks .

For instance green tomatoes jam(recipe here)

Or you can choose to prepare your own stock Bouillon cubes(recipe here)with the”ugliest”vegetables you got.

Season: If you have the opportunity, favor the purchase of seasonal fruit and vegetables directly from the producer. Not being subject to long transport times and several passages, it offers greater guarantees of freshness and durability. In this way you support local food producers and also fight pollution

Choose to eat the most abundant and least popular fish such as mackerel or herring, to keep fish populations afloat

Kitchen:

When cooking, always pay attention to the quantities. The excesses often lead to having to manage leftovers that with difficulty we remember to consume in the following days. But you can reuse leftovers.

Use leftovers and food scraps such as potato peels, wilted salad, leftover rice, dry bread, spinach stalks, curdled milk, fish heads.Let’s have a Frittata(recipe here)

Easy salted Meringues(recipe here)

Leftovers: If you can’t eat everything from a meal, don’t throw it away! Use it as ingredients for another meal or freeze it and consume it at another time.

I remember our mother called the leftovers “beaux restes”, for a family habit and so it was for us sisters. When we wanted to say that at dinner we would eat simple dishes, it was natural to say that she would prepare “beaux restes” but using the name in French our friends always thought that it would be a special dish.

Chocolate Cake with old bread (recipe here)

Refrigerator:

When you store your groceries in the fridge, highlight older products, so as to avoid forgetting about them and making them expire. Always store everything in special containers

Pantry:

The moth or what we commonly call “flour butterfly” is able to pierce normal plastic packaging used for food packaging. Just store these products in rigid glass containers and keep the pantry clean.

Freezer:

Many food products can be frozen without any particular problems to prolong the duration of consumption and maintain freshness.

Freeze fresh produce, bread and leftovers already portioned if you don’t have a chance to eat them before they go bad

Breadcrumbs(recipe here)

Use less water:

Reducing food waste consequently also reduces water waste. There are also many small daily actions, which help the cause of excessive water consumption, such as: reuse the water obtained after washing the vegetables or to cook the pasta,for instance to water the plants.As it is a good idea to collect the water from the clothes dryer.

In the family we have different tastes for pasta shapes but we cook all of them in the same pot.

Expiration date:

Pay attention to the meaning of the labels regarding the deadlines: “use by” means that the food is suitable for consumption until and no later than the day indicated, while the words “best before…” indicates the date until which the product retains its specific qualities. In this case, the food is suitable for consumption even after the day indicated.

Check egg freshness(suggestion here)