Don’t let your leftovers go to waste. According to the nonprofit ReFED, about a quarter of all food products are wasted nationally. Life Kit spoke with chefs who shared clever storage techniques and cooking tips to help you make the most of your food scraps.
🍽️ Start with a mindset shift. Consider cooking with leftovers as a creative and experimental exercise rather than a guilt-driven one.
🍽️ Develop a collection of flexible, go-to recipes that can use up a variety of ingredients. For example, if you have leftover rice, you can cook it with other ingredients, such as rotisserie chicken and older vegetables, to make fried rice.
🍽️ Save yourself the guessing game of wondering what is in your fridge by labeling and dating your leftovers.
🍽️ Never throw away herb stems, as they still have the same herby flavor as the leaves. If you blend them with a clove of garlic and olive oil, you can create a base sauce. You can do the same thing with vegetables like broccoli to make soups.
For additional guidance on creative ways to use your leftover odds and ends, listen to this episode of NPR's Life Kit. Subscribe to the Life Kit newsletter for expert advice on love, money, relationships and more. |