From cabbage leaves to apple shells to caulifloweres – these parts of fruit and vegetables are often regarded as inedible and end up in the trash. In fact, many of these food residues are edible and can be prepared tasty with little effort. You can serve as a delicious side dish, the basis for pestos and smoothies or even as candy.
Around 6.3 million tons of food are thrown away in Germany at home – this corresponds to around two thirds of the food waste created in Germany. Fruit and vegetables end up in the trash particularly frequently. According to the Federal Statistical Office, they make up around 35 percent of the thrown away food. This does not only include poor fruit and vegetables. Many parts of the plant are also cut off and thrown away because they are considered inedible: shells, stems and leaves of different types of vegetables, for example. Most of these supposed waste can be used.
Not everything can be used
For so-called food upcycling-the processing of leftovers for new dishes-plants from ecological or its own cultivation should best be used. If the processed vegetable parts are usually not eaten, for example many leaves and green growth, they are not checked for pollutants. That is why bowls and leaves of organic vegetables are healthier: they contain significantly less nitrate than such from conventional cultivation and also hardly any pesticide residues.
Even with biogem jumps, not all parts can always be used: drives, leaves and green areas of nightshade plants such as potatoes, tomatoes or eggplants are not edible. They contain the toxic solanine that can cause headaches and nausea. You should also keep your fingers from rhubarb leaves. The oxalic acid in the leaves increases the risk of urinary stones. Green beans and elderberries are also poisonous in raw state – they contain phasin or sambunigrine. In order to neutralize them, beans and elderberries have to be heated before eating, then they are harmless.
Edible vegetable bowls and blocks
Many vegetable parts that are normally removed can simply be eaten: With carrots, kohlrabi, beetroot, paramedics or radish, it is enough to wash them thoroughly before eating instead of peeling them. You don’t have to throw away the stalk of cauliflower and broccoli. Small, woody places to cut out is enough, it can already be cooked.
If you peel older parsnips or radishes, crispy vegetable chips can be prepared from the bowls. To do this, cut them into thin slices or strips and roast them with a little olive or rapeseed oil and spices.
Cabbage blocks, on the other hand, can be processed otherwise well: they can be crushed for soups or sauces into a fine puree. Salad constrictions can also be pureed for further processing together with some leaves. This mixture can either serve as a good basis for different smoothies or as a salad dressing. For the latter, only some vinegar, oil and spices have to be added.
Spice the dishes with leaves and stems
The edible leaves of vegetables such as kohlrabi, beetroot, carrots, fennel or celery can be easily used as steamed side dishes or raw in salads. Because of their strong taste, seller diebles also offer the opportunity to use them chopped as spice for soups. They can even be freezed and kept as a supply.
In addition, the leaves and stems from radishes, radish, kohlrabi or broccoli result in delicious green pestos. They only have to be mixed with seeds, seeds or nuts as well as grated hard cheese and an oil of choice.
Continue to use fruit bowls
Fruit shells and pieces can also be processed: in summer simply pour in cold water for “infused water”, in winter for tea with boiling water instead. However, it is also important that the fruit is unsprayed. If you have a Raspel at home, you can also crush the shells and use it as a dough added when baking. But the Obstraspeln is not only good for muffins or cakes – porridge, yogurt or pudding can also get a fruity taste with them.
Further sweets can be made from lemon shells: You first cook them with hot water to remove the bitter substances. Then add about the same weight to sugar and cook the whole thing for another hour until the lemon peel is glassy. Dried, they then result in delicious candied fruit pieces.
New trend, old way of life
Even if food upcycling has only become popular under the aspect of sustainable lifestyle for several years: the idea is not new. To cook vegetable remains as a soup and to waste as little as possible was the norm in the past. Appropriate many recipes have now been rediscovered or newly set up and can be found online for almost any food residue.