It’s no secret that food waste is one of the biggest problems in the world. Did you know that $31 billion worth of food was wasted in Canada last year? It’s not only your own money that you’re throwing into the trash, but also the accumulative effort and cost of energy, labour, infrastructure, transport, etc., which altogether exceed an overall cost of $100 billion.

Reducing food waste in our everyday lives is a priority. Last time we showed you how to reuse food scraps for lifestyle purposes; this time, we’re going to give delicious recipe ideas you can make with from food scraps. Prepare to be amazed.

Here are some recipe ideas you need to consider the next time you reach for the compost bin.

1. Make a bone broth or vegetable stock.

Save the bones of whatever you’re roasting–turkey, chicken, duck, or even pork chops–and make yourself a nutritious, delicious bone broth to get through the cold season. We’ve got a great bone broth blog to show you exactly how.

Leftover carrot and potato peels? Celery about to go limpy? Broccoli stems? Make a vegetable stock! Save the scraps in a bag and store it in the freezer to use at a later date when you have enough! To make the broth, cook up the scraps and drain out the remains after your broth is done.

2. Make a creamy soup.

Don’t toss out those rigid kale stems or thick broccoli trunks just yet. Cook them with your usual soup ingredients like carrots, celery, and onion. When they’re soft, blend them up into a creamy concoction. Enjoy your nutritious, fibre-filled soup.

3. Make pesto.

Radish tops and carrot tops can both be added to your vegetable stock, but they make even better pestos! Put it in a blender with some garlic, almonds, parmesan, and olive oil. Blend it until it becomes a paste then add salt and pepper to taste. The most delicious way to use up those root vegetable fronds.

4. Make potato peel chips.

Just like carrot peels, potato peels are perfectly fine to eat as they are. And I personally prefer eating potatoes with the skin attached, but if you’re not a fan, you can make chips out of them! Toss the potato skin in oil, salt, and pepper, and bake for 20 minutes at 450℉ in a preheated oven. Perfectly fresh, crispy, and healthy potato peel chips!

5. Make ice cream out of fruit pits!

Did you know that all those stone fruit pits you throw out can be made into ice cream? The pits have an intense, yet smooth and bitter almond flavour. To make ice cream, you’ll need to save up some pits along with some milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and an ice cream maker! Read more on what you can do with those pits in our stone fruit pits blog.

Have you tried any of these food scrap recipe ideas? We’re committed to reducing food waste, so if you have any creative ways you can reuse food scraps, whether into recipes or lifestyle purposes, please share with us!