By Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD
Depending on the weather where you live, you may still have remnants of seasonal produce, in the backyard or available in the supermarket. This provides the opportunity to do some root-to-stem cooking, maximizing produce use and minimizing waste, as well as enjoying seasonal produce prior to the winter growing break.
It’s wonderful how many plant food parts are very useable, as well as tasty! For example:
Broccoli and cauliflower stalks can be peeled and chopped, used in place of cabbage for “slaws,” as well as added to salads, cooked rice or grains, or soups.
Carrot tops, well-cleaned, can be used in place of fresh parsley. If you are sautéing, keep the pan hot and throw in carrots tops to create a crisp garnish. Add carrot tops to fresh green salads, potato or pasta salad, or chopped into cracked grain salads (such as tabbouleh).
Carrot tops, beet greens, and radish leaves have lots of nutrients, and flavor! Use carrot greens in salsas, sauté beet greens in olive oil with garlic or add radish leaves where you would like a peppery flavor, such as in pesto, fresh salads, or soups.
If you use leeks in a recipe, keep the dark green tops. Steam or microwave them to tenderize, and then add to soups (how about French leek soup, rather than onion soup), sauté with a small amount of oil, sesame seeds, and walnuts or peanuts or stir-fry with celery and mushrooms and serve over vegetable rice (see below).
The “ribs” from chard or kale can be roasted, seasoned, and chopped, and use to top pizza or focaccia and left whole and served in place of crackers to use with dips.
Leave the skin on root vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips to retain the most nutrition, as much of the nutrient content is found just under the skin. Scrubbing well can replace peeling. If you do need to peel baking potatoes, wash them well and then roast the peels in the oven, or on the grill, until crisp, and serve as a snack (in place of chips), or use instead of croutons.
Celery is a “use every part” vegetable. The celery “heart” and leaves add flavor to salads, rice, and grains and even make a salad on their own, combined with grapes and apples.
Homemade soup is easy to prepare if you have a savory stock available. Save onion pieces (not the skins), mushroom stems, celery leaves, corn cobs, cauliflower stalks, fennel leaves, the woody ends of large asparagus stalks, over large, stringy fresh green beans (snap off the ends), and carrot tops and carrot scraps in the freezer. When you are ready, place your collection in a large pot and cover with water; a chef’s ratio is one pound of vegetables (about 2 cups) to a quart of water (about 4 cups), but that is up to you. Allow to simmer for at least an hour, if not longer, remove from the stove, strain, and store in the refrigerator or freezer. Use stock where you would usually use water, for cooking rice, pasta, grains, beans, or rice or in veggie smoothies or to reconstitute soup mixes, and of course, to create fast homemade soups.
Create a “green sauce,” your version of pesto, with carrot tops, beet greens, radish leaves, chard, spinach, or other greens, added to a blender with or without walnuts or pine nuts, a drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic, and nutritional yeast. Use with pasta, rice, grains, lentils, or cooked mushrooms, to top pizza, or as a sauce for wraps.
Consider making vegetable “rice” (veggies transformed into a rice shape). Jicama, daikon radish, cauliflower, broccoli stalks, beets, winter squash, rutabagas, and sweet potatoes can be large diced and then, using a food processor or food mill, processed to resemble rice. These can then be cooked, and served as an alternative to rice.