Jill Lightner Photography by Shannon DouglasRecipes and Tips for Rethinking Food Waste at HomeScraps PeelsandStemsDON’T THROW THAT OUT!What’s the impact of the food you eat? How about the food you waste? You may think those extra broccoli stems can’t change the world, but what if you knew that we each waste more than 18 pounds of food per month? With new ways to use everything from turkey bones and bruised apples to restaurant leftovers, and recipes for Kitchen Sink Muffins, Roasted Cauliflower Leaves, Coconut-Lime Gin Fizz, and more, this accessible and engaging guide willinspire you to re-think what you toss. Food journalist Jill Lightner has written for and edited a range of food publications,most recently Taste magazine, published by the largest member-owned food co-op in theUnited States. Shannon Douglas’s photos have appeared in more than thirty cookbooks.“[A]n inspirational, modern day, ‘waste not, want not’ manifesto . . . It’s genius and shouldbecome the tool for defining how well we canfeed ourselves, not our landfills.” —Tracey Ryder, Co-founder, Edible Communities“Enlightening, absorbing, and inspiring, this is amust-have addition to every kitchen bookshelf.”—Elissa Altman, author of Poor Man’s Feast“I thought I knew enough about reducing food waste, but Scraps, Peels, and Stems showed me how much more I could do—and inspiredme to actually do it.” —Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Lifeand Delancey“Jill Lightner’s wonderfully thorough and thoughtful book will give you the resources you need to start winning your own fight against waste . . . ”—Ben Simon, Founder and CEO, Imperfect ProduceLightnerScraps, Peels, and Stems> 70+ recipes to get you started> Meal planning> Grocery shopping and food prep strategies> Money-saving tips> Portioning to avoid leftovers> Dining-out tactics > Storage tips—including whatexpiration dates really mean> Composting and recycling tips> “Key Steps”: three levels of action forevery topic—figure out what’s easyand doable for your lifestyle$22.95 U.S.Food / Cooking / SustainabilityScrapsPeelsStems_Cover_JG.indd 16/7/18 12:32 PMcaptionScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 65/21/18 2:55 PMCONTENTS Recipes 8Introduction | What Food Waste Means 11 | A Note about the Recipes 19 PART 1: AT HOME 21 Chapter 1 | Meal Planning 23Chapter 2 | Shopping 41Chapter 3 | Storing 77Chapter 4 | Cooking and Eating 115Chapter 5 | Leftovers 159Chapter 6 | Gardening 193 PART 2: OUT IN THE WORLD 213Chapter 7 | Food Service: Five-Star Garbage and "All You Can Eat" 215Chapter 8 | Grocery Stores: From Food Market to Food Bank 225Chapter 9 | Farms, Ranches, and Fisheries: Beyond Embracing the Ugly 231Chapter 10 | Waste Management: Helping Households Save Money 239Resource Guide 245Acknowledgments 249Index 250ScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 75/21/18 2:55 PM8RecipesRECIPESBREAKFASTAquafaba Waffles 155Bacon Fat Roasted Potatoes 184Breakfast Hash 181Kitchen Sink Muffins 67Omelet in a Hole 179Savory French Toast with Fried Eggs 172Savory Shredded Vegetable Pancakes 140Sweet Shredded Carrot or Apple Pancakes 139Use-It-Up Granola 66SNACKSAquafaba Gingerbread Loaf 156Crispy Roasted Potato Peels 131Fruit Leather 99Pickled Eggs 111Obatza 170Roasted Pumpkin Seeds 186 LUNCH AND DINNERBacon Fried Rice 32Basic Meatballs 30Cassoulet 118Chili 128Cholent 122Feta-Brined Lamb Kebabs 153Grilled Pork Blade Steaks 53Gumbo 120Lamb Neck Stew with Bacon and Onion 55Lettuces with Peas and Mint 102Mozzarella-Brined Pork Chops 153Mujaddara 124Palak ka Saag 137Pan-Fried Salmon Cakes 59Pork Skirt Steak with Grilled Avocados 54Pot au Feu 55Roasted Cauliflower Leaves 132Salmon Collar Chowder 62Shakshuka 126Spaghetti with Crumbs 175Tuna Melts 59ScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 85/21/18 2:55 PMRecipes9DESSERT Apple Butter Bars 49Brown Betty 174Buttermilk Loaf Cake 150Cookie Crumb or Cereal Pie Crust 190Fruit and Jam Trifle 163Meringue Cookies 165Roasted Berries 96PANTRYApple Pie Spice 70Candied Citrus Peel 144Chili Powder 72Corncob Broth 178DIY Apple Scrap Vinegar 86DIY Vinegar 84Italian Seasoning 71Parmesan Broth 169Pumpkin Pie Spice 70Shrimp Shell Stock 61Slow-Cooker Applesauce 47Spiced Apple Butter 47Sun-Dried Tomatoes 98Taco Seasoning 72Thanksgiving Turkey Stock 187Turkey Fat Roux 189Za’atar 72PICKLES AND CONDIMENTSChermoula 108Chimichurri 108Cilantro Chutney 109Gremolata 109Mixed Berry Freezer Jam 96Persillade 107Pesto 107Quick-Pickled Onions 134Quick-Pickled Stems 135DRINKSCiderkin 50Citrus-Infused Vodka 142Coconut-Lime Gin Fizz 167Juicer-Free Apple Juice 50ScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 95/21/18 2:55 PMScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 105/21/18 2:55 PM11 INTRODUCTION WHAT FOOD WASTE MEANSThe topic of food waste can be found in every sort of media, from viral videos and television documentaries to your local paper’s Sunday supplement. Nobody likes it. Everybody with disposable income does it. And most of us underestimate our personal contributions to the problem. A statistic from the 2017 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report on American food waste sums it up nicely and is sure to entertain math nerds and those with an overdeveloped appreciation of irony: over 73 percent of those surveyed think they waste less food than the average American. (At best, 23 percent of them are wrong.) I started paying attention to food-waste statistics in 2010 and confess that at some point my interest went slightly overboard: I decided to weigh all my food scraps for an entire month and blog about it for the magazine I was editing at the time. Since the City of Seattle began its curbside compost collection program in 2005, I was already used to separating my food scraps, and my husband was used to me doing these sorts of oddball experiments, so he was willing to help. (He also performs his own and refers to his collection of handwritten recipes as a “lab book.”) < Roots, stems, and leaves all have a part to play.ScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 115/21/18 2:55 PMScraps, Peels, and Stems12I started on May 1, which happens to be when our neighborhood farmers market gets rolling for the year and our diet gets tremendously seasonal. We didn’t make any intentional changes to our daily eating habits, and I weighed everything, including my daily tea leaves (once they dried out), eggshells, coffee grounds, even those little strings you pull off from snap peas. I didn’t bother to think about the differences between types of food waste—edible food that goes uneaten, like elderly leftovers or wilted lettuce, versus those inedible scraps like eggshells. We were in town for the entire month, and while there was a lot of variation from week to week, our total averaged out to be one pound of food into the compost bin per week for our two-person household, including one week where I made beef stock and the leftover bones weighed three and a half pounds. The national average is substantially higher, estimated at close to twenty pounds per month per person, for a total of 218 pounds per year.While I was relieved that we tossed so much less than the national average, it also showed me quite bluntly that some foods have a higher percentage of waste than others. Those fresh snap peas? The strings and stems weigh almost nothing, so as long as we ate everything we bought, we could pat ourselves on the back and munch them down quite smugly. The daily banana peel certainly added up, and in fact my husband has since replaced that banana with a daily seasonal fruit, so the waste no longer amounts to quite the same. The biggest source of food-waste frustration that month was my asparagus habit. I prefer the stalk-snapping method of asparagus preparation rather than the less wasteful knife-trimming method (my favorite way to eat it is grilled, with plenty of salt, and I loathe those chewy ends you get from trimming rather than snapping), so, for every two pounds of asparagus I bought, I composted one. Ouch. Sure, there are recipes for making soup from the tough ends, and I’ve tried a suggestion on one website that recommended that I peel the stalks and use three cups of oil to deep-fry the peelings. But the soups I’ve made solely from the tough ends weren’t good, and using that much oil to conserve a few ounces of asparagus peel didn’t reduce waste—it traded a small amount of green scraps for a larger amount of frying oil that had such a strong lingering flavor I wasn’t able to reuse it. You may be able to live happily without asparagus, but I am not. And frankly, the United States is still at the level of food-waste awareness where we don’t have to sacrifice our favorite foods, or virtuously gnaw our way through their stringy ends, in order greatly reduce what we throw away. When these more inherently ScrapsPeelStems_Pages_JG.indd 125/21/18 2:55 PMNext >