Many of us are changing our ways and opting for a more sustainable lifestyle, but are you eating sustainably? Here are our top tips for making the most out of your food! 

1. Trim Less

Beetroot leaves, carrot tops, broccoli stalks all can be re-used with a little imagination. Sauté your beetroot leaves with garlic and chilli and mix with kale, spinach or cavalo nero – delicious. Don’t throw those carrot tops on the compost – recycle them in a homemade pesto for a new lease of life.

2. Be Inventive 

Look in your fridge and see what you can be creative with. Why not create stock with your left-over prawn shells? Mix with fennel and parsley stems and then freeze to go with a risotto. You don’t have to relegate your ripe bananas to the compost, just turn them into breakfast pancakes and use the skin to make banana bread. 

3. Stretch Your Ingredients

See how far you can stretch an ingredient to get the most from it, for example boil mint with new potatoes to give a permeated mintness. Pop that solitary black banana in the freezer and add the next black banana until you have enough to make a banana loaf. Make a coulis with berries, freeze and have it ready for a quick pudding with ice cream and crumbled Amaretti biscuits. Turn opened un-used double cream into butter with a 5-minute shake in a jar.

4. Eat Seasonally and Support Local

Eating locally grown, seasonal fruit and veg means better value, better taste and a better deal for the planet. However, it’s not always as black and white to think that if something isn’t grown here then it isn’t sustainable. Take bananas for example, a sustainable crop transported by ship - whereas asparagus and blueberries imported by air from Peru are not so great on our eco footprint. Where possible try and eat seasonally.

5. Composting is the Final Option

When you have re-purposed, been creative, frozen and generally fully exhausted the life of your fruit and veg the final destination is compost. Compost helps reduce your kitchen waste, keeps organic materials out of landfill and it’s free! Your own compost can then extend the life of some of your herbs and salad, for instance your supermarket basil plant that’s starting to wilt, replant in your compost and give it a new lease of life. Try worm composting, an efficient method of turning kitchen waste and small amounts of garden waste into nutrient-rich compost. You can buy composters and wormery’s online from Amazon or your local garden centre.

Did you know you can regrow shop brought herbs and vegetables? 

Regrow leeks, Basil, onion and so much more! 

To regrow herbs simply place in a jar with 2cm of water. Replace the water every day and keep somewhere warm in the sun. After seven days you should start to see some roots forming, once you have sufficient roots simply replant in some soil and keep watered regularly.

Regrowing Leeks and onions is SO simple, for leeks simply put the root of the leek into 2cm of water, change the water daily. After about seven days you should start to see some roots forming, you can then plant your leek in soil! To regrow onions put the root of the onion into a pot of soil, keep well watered and leave somewhere warm in the sun. After a few days you should start to see some growth! After three months your onion will be ready to reuse. The ultimate up cycling!