Thrifty Thursday: Stems 'N All
By: Shoshanna Levy
Published: July 28, 2011

How much of your food scraps could actually be dinner? Quite a lot, if you adopt "root to stem" cooking.
Stems of leafy greens and broccoli can be chopped up and tossed into any dish. Beet tops are one of my favorite leafy greens. Even better, save all of your produce scraps and make a delicious homemade veggie stock.
As this New York Times article points out, the movement to use every part of the veggie is growing. Even higher end restaurants are getting in on the action.
"John Shields, the chef at Town House in Chilhowie, Va, festoons plates with chickweed and makes juice from wild grass. Last summer he harvested a crop of green strawberries, curing them in salt and sugar so he could serve them as dessert with soft drifts of whipped cream, cucumbers and marshmallow."
So go ahead and pickle those watermelon rinds or make a veggie scrap soup; it's the ultimate in healthy and thrifty eating.

Comments:
Stephanie
July 28, 2011

The leaves of cauliflower and broccoli are also delicious.  Cauliflower leaves may be my favorite green!
As a gardener, I generally feel like I worked too hard for those plants to let any them go to waste.