Cooking with Scraps

Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals

by Lindsay-Jean Hard

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Before I start the review, I just wanted to mention that I received a digital copy of this book before it’s publication day for the purpose of reviewing it.
Because of that I did not receive the final draft and is rather a copy to serve as a tool for reviewers.

Since I didn’t have the final draft of this book, I am not aware if any formatting problems are still in the book. The copy I received had a poor layout and was hard to read. I’m aware that this could have been resolved before the final publication of this book, but I still wanted to mention that I had encountered that problem with my copy.

As far as the content, the book is great! With 80 recipes to choose from, there is so much variety that it makes this book a nice resource to have at home.

Description by the Publisher:

“Here’s how to put those seeds, stems, tops, rinds to good use for more delicious (and more frugal) cooking: Carrot greens—bright, fresh, and packed with flavor—make a zesty pesto. Water from canned beans behaves just like egg whites, perfect for vegan mayonnaise that even non-vegans will love. And serve broccoli stems olive-oil poached on lemony ricotta toast. It’s pure food genius, all the while critically reducing waste one dish at a time.

“I love this book because the recipes matter…show[ing] us how to utilize the whole plant, to the betterment of our palate, our pocketbook, and our place.” —Eugenia Bone, author of The Kitchen Ecosystem 

“Packed with smart, approachable recipes for beautiful food made with ingredients that you used to throw in the compost bin!” —Cara Mangini, author of The Vegetable Butcher “

 

Personally, I love that idea of no-waste. Or at least as little as possible, so I was very excited to read this book.
In all honesty, the content book did not disappoint me, it even has a recipe for banana peel cake. BANANA PEEL!! That was definitely something I have always thrown away without even thinking twice. And now I have learned that they can be used to make a cake, I was completely surprised.

I am not new to the concept of using fruit peels, but I have to admit that banana peels where never under my radar as an ingredient for anything. I have used lemon and orange peels to give flavor to many recipes, but this is something completely new to me.

Another nice recipe is the “Pumpkin gut scones”. Previously I would have roasted the pumpkin seeds, but now I have another way to reuse the inside of the pumpkin. And I just love to have a variety of options to choose from.

This book contains so many creative ways to reuse food scraps, that even if you don’t like all of them, I’m sure you will find something that will be to your taste and will fill your needs based on the ingredients you already use.

I’m surprised that the author didn’t rounded up the recipe count to 100, as it is so close already, and that would have made for a great number. Can you imagine? 100 ways to cook with scraps.
But 80 ways is still plenty, so I’m not complaining at all, just sharing my thoughts.

With these many possibilities to choose from, this will be a very useful reference and guide to help you use your ingredients to their maximum potential. So many ideas to try, and so many experiments that are born of those recipes, which already gave me the inspiration to try my own approach to this wonderful concept of utilizing the scraps.

I would even go beyond and utilize it with other cooking books, and my weekly meal planning for best results. Think of recipes that use the ingredients that are mentioned in this one, and have a rounded plan to use scraps and not scraps.

In conclusion, I believe this book is a great addition to anyone’s recipe book collection. I would definitely recommend it to friends and family.

If you wish to get yourself a copy you can find it here:

Cooking with Scraps

Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals

 

Cooking with scraps book review

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