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Tuesday, May 17, 2022

A Great Resource for Using Every Last Bit -- IKEA Scraps Book (free to download or just browse)

I wanted to share a resource that has a lot of great ideas for getting the most out of your groceries. It's the IKEA Canada's The Scraps Book:A Waste-Less Cookbook. It's free to download or just browse. It may take several seconds to load. But patience is a virtue. There are roughly 200 pages of ideas and recipes for using every last bit, from the obvious of using bruised fruit to the not so obvious of using banana peels to make "bacon" (p.27) or chutney (p. 57) or in a chocolate-banana peel cake (p.155). 

There's a recipe for watermelon rind pickle (yes, I make these that, too --- post in this link). There's also a recipe for watermelon rind jam (p.29). Now that's something I haven't tried, but surely will. You may be surprised (as I was) that corn silks are edible. There's a recipe for frying those yellow silks on p. 41. And I found another recipe for using radish leaves -- a garlicky, cheesy green risotto (p. 71). 

Remember last summer when we talked a bit about using carrot tops? Well, this booklet has a recipe for chimichurri that uses copious amounts of carrot leaves instead of the usual parsley (p.99) Did you know that the peels from winter squash are edible? Turn to page 107 for a skillet dish that uses squash and potato peels.

How about getting more use from spent tea bags (p. 173) or used coffee grounds (p. 13)? IKEA's got you covered.

If you have an ingredient that you'd like to find a use for, no need to read the whole booklet. There's a handy index at the back that's organized by ingredient name (p. 211-213)

Some ideas are old hat for many of us, such as using the leaves and tops of celery. But many other ideas are fresh and new.

This free booklet is filled to the brim with useful ways to use foods that we might otherwise throw out. I know, I sound like an advertisement for IKEA. I'm just enthusiastic to share what could be a good tool for many of us as we try to keep our grocery spending down and/or get the most out of gardens this summer. 

Happy reading!

A good friend passed this on to me, knowing that I am trying to get all I can out of what we grow and buy. I'd like to be a good friend, too, and pass this on to you.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for passing this along to us. I just downloaded it to my computer. So many good ideas and so useful!

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  2. Thanks. It's always interesting to learn new ways to do things.

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  3. Thank you for sharing this. Lots to study, and it's interesting that chefs are the authors of these recipes. I can't get over the banana peel one. Does it matter if the peel is ripe enough or overripe? Some peels just don't look appetizing. Same with thorny pineapple skins. Also, should we worry about pesticides. Because of the skins, we don't have to worry much about pesticides, and have to buy organic. But it is such a novel idea to zero waste our food supply.

    Have a great day!
    Laura

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  4. Thank you for letting us know about this book. I browsed through it and found many creative and useful tips for using leftovers and scraps.

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