Ideas to reduce food waste
Recently, we asked on the “Chat for Sustainable Skerries” WhatsApp group for food-waste-reducing ideas, and this is what the group came up with!
Watch an Eastern European peeling potatoes and the bare amount of skin comes off. Watch most Irish people do the same and half the potato is hacked off. The answer? A decent potato peeler, not a kitchen knife.
Have a meal planner and work around best before dates.
Make soups from veg that are past their best. Make veg stock from vegetable peelings. Make stock from chicken carcass. Stale bread used to make bread and butter pudding or scrap bread pudding. Make bread and slice while fresh and freeze in slices. Then take out the amount needed. Slice lemons and freeze.
Use leftover meat or veg in curries or stews.
Keep “empty” peanut butter and honey jars. Rinse with hot water and use for stews, curries etc 😋 Similarly: Use the finished peanut butter jar to make peanut satay sauce for noodles (add soy sauce, maple syrup, rice vinegar, ginger , lime juice etc to the jar)
Only buy what you need! Shop with a list, or take a photo of the inside of your fridge and store cupboards before you go to the shops. Have a list ready on the fridge and bring it when shopping.
When making baby foods for weaning, after pureeing , put in ice cube trays and freeze so small amounts can be defrosted at a time.
Clear your fridge once a week before shopping and make a soup of wilted vegetables. Boiling the carcass of a roast chicken is great for the stock of such a soup
Use your freezer more-freeze bread, veg, meat that you won’t get to while they’re fresh.
Use food bag clips (you can get them in IKEA, Flying Tiger, Amazon), they are good for resealing bread, wraps, crackers, biscuits etc.
Ordinary clothes pegs will seal off any bag to preserve freshness. Old bread ( not mouldy) can be crumbed, frozen and used later to ‘top’ a fish, veg or any savoury pie. Keep a few tins of Chickpeas, Cannellini, Mixed or Butter Beans in your cupboard. When you have very little left in the fridge, a tin or two will turn very little into a very good meal. ( I know that the dried variety are more economical, but the canned ones are quick when needed in a hurry!) Chop eating apples that are past their best and cook into savoury dishes.
Make banana bread from over ripe bananas or freeze them for smoothies. Make jam from over ripe fruit.
Store washed lettuce with a wet piece of kitchen roll and it keeps it fresher for longer.
On the topic of bread, chop up and add garlic and herbs and cook in oven for home made croutons. Or make breadcrumbs to use for goujons or home made burgers or meatloaf
Have loads of good storage boxes and jars.
Another suggestion is not to plate up food but let people serve themselves from the centre of the table. Only eat what they want and that means that any leftovers (untouched in serving dishes) can be reused ( put in the fridge) for another meal later or the following day. Another option is to put leftovers in the freezer.
Bring containers when eating out to bring home any leftovers.
Use Rice and Pasta measures … we used to always cook too much of these staples but not anymore 😁
Download the handy guides / PDFs from stopfoodwaste.ie including the seasonal calendar (see their Resources section)
Seek out the reduced food produce in supermarkets – save some money and avoid food waste! Lidl, SuperValu, Tesco and others have seriously improved their ways of dealing with fruit, veg etc that is close to its sell-by date.
And what to do with a glut either in your garden or cheap seasonal offers – e.g. Darina Allen’s Grow Cook Nourish has super tips. Or just google “What to do with too many apples” etc.
Use food-waste apps
Do you have more ideas? Share them with us! Send them to sustskerries@gmail.com and we’ll add them to this list.
Sustainable Skerries 