Any vegetable gardener has experienced firsthand how much plant matter winds up in the compost. And most produce-loving home cooks, whether they compost or not, know that a lot of the food they bring home winds up in the form of peels and trimmings that never make it to the table.
But some of us get really excited to eat this overlooked stuff, and we’re talking way beyond throwing broccoli stems in a stir-fry. There’s a growing desire to curb our own food waste at home, fueled both by frugality and mindfulness. If you invest the time in making a food plant thrive, you’re invested in it emotionally; you want to eat as much of it as possible.
If you love looking at familiar ingredients in new ways, discovering different uses for what usually lands in the trash or rubbish heap is a tiny thrill and inspiring challenge—you’ll find unexpected flavors and textures that make you rethink the common, blasé produce we all take for granted. Here’s a big handful of tasty and exciting ways to consume those neglected plant parts, intercepting them before they become compost.
Carrot Tops
Carrot top pesto had been having a moment the past few years, and now it’s burning up Pinterest. And why shouldn’t it? Use the lacy green fronds of carrots as you would basil leaves to make emerald-hued pesto. Chef April Bloomfield calls this kind of approach “top to tail vegetable cooking” (which is a lot more cuddly-sounding than the traditional cheffy term for this kind of behavior, “good utilization of product”). Here’s a recipe for carrot top pesto from her most recent cookbook, A Girl and her Greens.
The Stems of Kale, Mustard, & Collard Greens
Most any leafy brassica’s stem is edible, but it’s tough. So many recipes call for stemming cooking greens and discarding the stems, but if I’m feeling ambitious, I set the stems aside, trim off their bottoms, and slice the rest thinly crosswise. Their flesh is slightly sweeter than their leafy parts, and they add an appealing, confetti-like visual element to cooked greens. I add the chopped-up stems to the pan shortly before adding the leafy greens themselves.
And, to be honest, sometimes I skip the stems and pitch them—either because I’m feeling lazy, or because it’s just not a good fit for the recipe. But I love knowing the option’s always there.
Lettuce Cores
This is my very favorite secret tasty plant part of all time. I first found out about it from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, where Jacques Pepin wrote, “Whenever I make a salad with head lettuce, such as Boston or romaine, I cut out the core—the center of the stem, where the leaves join—slice it very thin, and add those pieces to the salad.” The cores have a bitter flavor reminiscent of chicory or Belgian endive, and a resilient crunch that adds an intriguing element to regular tossed salads. Cut off and discard the oxidized base of the core, and trim off any scraggly ends of leaves if they’ve got grit or dirt embedded in them. Then go to town, though since the cores can pack a punch, do as Jacques advises and slice them thinly. He goes on to say that you can cook the cores as you would a vegetable, though unless you are coring many heads of lettuce at once—as they would at a restaurant—it probably makes the most sense to stick to the raw option.
Radish Greens
Danguole Lekaviciute
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