Here at Lee Greens we hate to see good food go to waste. That’s why we make sure we donate surplus veg to local good causes, helping out others in our community who are in need. No doubt, you feel the same, and this week, following on from the excellent storage tips a couple of weeks ago, we thought we’d give you some ideas for reducing waste even further.
You may be throwing away parts of your vegetables that you don’t want to eat (who wouldn’t?) but in fact sometimes there’s an opportunity to regrow in your own home or garden. Fun and useful!
Vegetables that you can try this with: spring onions, lettuce, leeks, celery and many roots.
If you are cutting off the base of the vegetable (I’m talking spring onion, leek, lettuce, celery or fennel) you can put this in water and wait for it to start sprouting again. Lettuce and spring onion you can use like you did the original vegetable. For the celery, leek and fennel you can start it off indoors but you might need to plant it in the garden for it to mature fully. If you are chopping the top off (beetroots, carrots, parsnips) put them in a shallow dish of water and wait for the green tops to sprout again.
If you wait a bit longer you may get roots that you can then plant out. But the leafy greens can be used as they are.
Once you have some sprouty bits, you might be wondering what you can use them for. Pretty much any of them can replace basil in a pesto. Try different ideas and quantities and see what you like best. Beetroot leaves can be used in salads or stir-fries. Celery leaves are one of the trickier ones but we’ve found a list of ideas here to help you out. For more details on some of these ideas, take a look at this blog.
