Looking for ways to reuse your vegetables? Do you want to know a fun way to make an old vegetable new again? In this article, I will share with you 10 ideas on how to reuse your vegetables in a creative way.
It’s not just about reducing food waste it’s about reusing your vegetables in a variety of ways to make a delicious meal that everyone will enjoy.
Vegetables are one of the most consumed in the home due to their highly nutritious content and easy method of cooking. You can reuse your vegetables if you know some of the tips I will share with you here.
Without much ado, let me show you how you can reuse our vegetables maximally.
1. Make a Broth or Soup
When you are done cooking your vegetables the next important thing you should do is to clean up your kitchen. In doing so, you do have to separate your vegetable pieces from other dirt. The piles of the leftover can be used in making another round of broth or soup.
Mixed with other spices and seasonings, you can recreate a tasty meal from the picked scraps of vegetables. Make sure you boil it well and simmer it in water for some minutes with salt and pepper to make it delicious. The cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and other pieces you do trash can be recycled into another great dish when you neatly picked them up, wash them, and cook them to your satisfactory taste.
SEE: Mistakes to Avoid When Cooking Frozen Vegetables
2. Make Smoothie
Do you know that you can also make your smoothies from scraps of your vegetables? In fact, it has so many nutritional benefits many people are not aware of.
Probably you just got some fruits for your salad and you have peeled them all around. To maximize these scraps, you have to gather them into a bowl for rewashing. Get your blender set and pour the vegetable scraps into the blender.
Watch how the scraps you picked turn into a glorious taste of the smoothie. If you wish to, you could add some other ingredients apart from fruit such as honey into the mixture. It depends on how much you like the combination.
3. Use Carrots to Make Pesto
To make pesto, the usual recipe is to use basil or parsley. But did you know you could use a carrot to do so? Some of the ingredients to include when preparing it are; 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 clove of garlic, mint leaves, walnut, olive oil, salt, and pepper. There you go, in a few minutes of preparation, you have pesto ready to be served.
SEE: Is Broccoli Man-Made?
4. Make your own sugar flavor
With your very own vegetables, you can make sugar flavors right there in your home. However, this sugar should not be for sale – only for your and your family’s consumption. To make sugar flavors at home from your vegetables, the cinnamon sticks you left can do this magic for you.
The cinnamon sticks need to be dried for approximately five to six hours after you have cleaned them thoroughly. Make sure it is good-looking to the eye. When this is done, the granulated sugar (if you have some at home) should be poured into another container that can take both the cinnamon sticks and the sugar.
Leave the cinnamon in the sugar for as long as one to two weeks to allow the flavor to become permanent. Subsequently, you can buy more sugar and pour it into the container. You will be amazed at the flavor you get whenever you use the sugar.
5. Shredded Miso soup
Trust you didn’t know that the tasty miso soup can be garnished with scraps of vegetables you got after cooking. You can try it out. Just make sure you wash the leftover vegetable properly before shredding it into the soup. It tastes really nice.
SEE: What to Use When You Can’t Get Any Escarole
6. Courgette soufflé omelet
The exploration continues with the making of a soufflé omelet. It is a perfect midweek meal to be included in your meal schedule or timetable. It contains about 250 calories. You have to cook the vegetables before you cook the eggs. Ingredients to add to this dish include salt, pepper, cheese, zucchini, green shallot, capsicum (the red one), and oil.
How can you prepare a Vegetable soufflé omelet?
- The first you need to do is to boil the potato to a tender texture
- Cook your zucchini and shallot in a pan well heated with oil.
- Make your egg yolk and beat well with a mixture of salt and pepper.
- Now pour some of the eggs into the hot pan. Cook it for about 5 minutes.
- This is the stag your vegetable scrap comes in. Wash properly and spray into the dish in the pan. Add some cheese.
You are set to have your desired omelet. And take note that this serving can go with some prepared salad.
SEE: Is Zucchini Squash The Same As Zucchini?
7. Chips from vegetable peels are delicious
What an interesting thing you found out. Shredded carrots and potatoes are still great for chips. You can spice them up with salt and your cinnamon sugar (if you wish to). Seasonings like onion powder, garlic, and brown sugar can also be used.
Do not mistakenly pick up the potato scraps with the peels – the peels are harmful to you. Only the fresh parts of the potatoes are good for the job. The same rule goes for the carrot. This is why organic foods are recommended. Read more on why you should eat organic foods.
SEE: Substitutes For Dill That Taste Just as Delicious
8. Grow the vegetables
Some vegetables can still be grown after they have been chopped off from the source. As a cook with this knowledge, what you have to do is make sure you put it into use. Reuse your vegetables by planting them in your garden. Watch them grow and see how much you save when you do not go to the store to get that same vegetable.
Some of the vegetables you can grow again are garlic, onion, fennel, and lemongrass to mention a few. You have to also wash them when you are ready to plant them. If you do not have a garden, remember you can easily improvise a garden by getting an unused bowl or grocery jar, pouring some soil into it, and there you go. A little garden that will do the job for you.
SEE: Easiest Ways to Reuse Your Grocery Jars
9. Roasts
Here, you can try out this experiment on your vegetables alone without any extra mixture – vegetables alone. Pick all scraps, wash them patiently, and mash. To do this perfectly, you have to make sure you include only vegetables that cook within the same time.
You do want to put a carrot or potato with a mushroom or tomatoes that uses the lesser time to cook. So only match similar cooking time vegetables to have the best meal and process.
SEE: The Easiest Ways To Grill Your Foods During The Summer
10. Ever heard of lettuce stalk salad dressing?
Another thing you can do with your vegetable peels is make lettuce stalk salad dressing. Start by mixing together lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper until it has a creamy consistency, and then add in any herbs or spices that you like (e.g., rosemary or thyme). Then chop up some lettuce stalks into small pieces and toss with your dressing until everything is well coated.
SEE: Why Are There Bugs In Your Lettuce?
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you freeze your vegetables so they don’t go bad?
Generally, freezing is not good for vegetables. If you have to preserve your vegetables, put them in the refrigerator.
Can you mash vegetables?
Yes, you can mash your vegetables especially if you want to reuse them for roasts.
Can you use kale and lettuce in the same recipe?
You can but be sure to choose one that best fits your recipe
SEE: Are Grapes A Fruit Or Vegetable?
Conclusion
Eat more vegetables. Not just because they taste good and make you feel even better, but also because there are numerous ways of reusing vegetable matter that can help you create cheaper meals, treat your garden waste productively, and save you money on your grocery bill.
There are literally many ways to reuse your leftover vegetables, and these 10 tips wrap up the list quite nicely. So, are you tired of eating the same old salad for lunch? Take some advice from these tips and find a new way to make it exciting. And remember: don’t be afraid to get creative.
There’s no way you can use every part of your vegetables. The leftovers will be trashed when you do not know how to reuse the vegetable scraps. When you do this, you have lots of benefits involved. From reducing the content of your trash to saving more of your money especially when you replant them in your garden.
If you enjoyed this article, learn how you can turn scraps of your other foods into delicious meals.
Thank you for reading.
