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Are you throwing money away? Chef reveals helpful tips on how to save by reducing food waste
Let’s not mince words - it’s tough out there at the moment. The current cost-of-living crisis means that we’re all tightening our belts. Prices of groceries are increasing at their fastest rate yet in over 13 years, so we’re all looking to save a few dollars in every way we can.
Food prices and energy costs are rising due to the current cost-of-living crisis. Credit: Pexels
Dane Barnard, an executive chef at Humble Grape, suggests that reducing your food waste is a great way to save money and live a more sustainable lifestyle.
The chef shares useful tips to cut costs during your weekly food shop, such as keeping herb stems for creating sauces or saving chicken skins which you can roast and pound down into a powder to use as a delicious savoury salt. You can even save leftover fruit to make chutney!
Here are Chef Barnard’s top ten tips to reduce food waste and save on grocery costs:
1. Dehydrate fruits and vegetables that are starting to go bad.
Easily do this by cutting up said fruits and vegetables into smaller pieces and placing them on a baking tray. Slide it into the oven and bake at 40 degrees for all the moisture comes out.
Now, you won’t have to spend on garnish, since you can top off your cocktails with dehydrated fruit. You can also blitz them and use the powder as a garnish to spruce up your food.
He also recommends mixing the powder with salt in order to create an entirely new kind of seasoning.
2. Keep vegetable trimmings and skins.
You can chop them up and combine them with chickpea flour and different spices to make vegetable fritters. It’s a very simple mix to make, and a very delicious snack or side dish that you can use as an alternative to chips. You can also use offcuts from veggies to make a delicious stock or broth for soups.
3. Use herb stems to create sauces.
Buying sauces every time you grocery shop definitely adds up, so it’s better to make them at home instead. You can keep stems when using herbs in order to add to your homemade sauces for a splash of colour and freshness.
You can also add them to your salad dressings, marinades, and even pesto!
4. Save meat fat to make oil.
Meat has a lot of excess fat that you would normally throw away. Instead, you can keep the fat and melt it in a pan under very low heat to create oil. Easily store it in an old oil bottle.
This homemade ingredient will add extra flavour to your dishes, from your eggs and bacon in the morning to your pasta dishes in the evening. See this article for more info.
5. Grind up chicken skin to make salt.
If you find yourself throwing away chicken skins while preparing your meal, you may want to consider saving them. Simply place them on a tray laid with parchment paper and bake them in the oven. Take them out when they’re golden brown and crispy
You can use them as a snack or side dish, or you can add them to your dishes to add texture. You can also blitz them down to a powder to make flavoured salt, which you can use on just about anything. Try it the next time you cook your roasted potatoes!
6. Use meat bones for stock.
Save the bones from your meat and fish, and roast them in the oven. If you cook them in a pan with water (and any leftover vegetables and trimmings), you’ll create a stock that adds flavour to your sauces or is a great base for soup or stew. The best thing is that you can freeze them and use them later.
7. Use cauliflower leaves and broccoli stems to make kimchi.
If you save your cauliflower leaves, broccoli stems, and the outside cabbage leaves, you can turn them into kimchi. After washing them, you can combine them in a jar with spices, vinegar, and water.
Leave them out at room temperature for at least a week so that they can ferment. The stronger the flavour you want, the longer you can leave them out. Once you’re satisfied with the taste, you can store them in the fridge. Learn how to make your own kimchi in the video below:
8. Turn pumpkin and squash seeds into snacks.
If you’re cooking with pumpkins and squash, you may as well save their seeds. Rinse them off and place them in a tray seasoned with salt. Bake them for 10 minutes until they’re golden and crispy, and serve as a snack or garnish. Feel free to add spices for extra flavour.
9. Cook and use the whole fish.
Don’t waste your fish. Some of the best parts are removed when cooking, such as the cheeks or the skin.
After removing them, boil the parts in water for two minutes and scrape off any fat. You can dehydrate them and place them in a pan of oil, which can be served as a snack or a garnish for added texture.
Cut them up and add them to a pan full of tomatoes, sugar, and vinegar. Leave them to cook until they break down and store them in a jar. You can then refrigerate it and serve it with cheese and biscuits - yum!
For more hacks on how to cut back on food waste and save money, you can watch this video:
Which of Chef Barnard’s cost-efficient hacks are you willing to try? What are some of your own hacks to cut down on food waste? Let us know in the comments below!
