How can YOU cut down on food waste? A chef reveals these ten tips can help you reduce food waste to save money amid the cost-of-living crisis
- Reducing food waste in your home could cut costs amid the cost-of-living crisis
- Chef Dane Barnard shared his top ten tips that can help you reduce food waste
- Including keeping herb stems to make sauces and leftover fruit to make chutney
The rising costs of bills puts many in a perilous position, both financially and mentally, however reducing food waste in your home could cut costs during the weekly food shop.
Dane Barnard, who is the executive chef at Humble Grape in London, shared his top ten tips that can help you reduce food waste to save money amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Including keeping herb stems to make sauces, saving chicken skins to roast and to be blitzed down into a powder for salt and use leftover fruits to create a chutney.
It comes after soaring energy costs and rising food prices has hit almost every section of UK households’ finances in recent months.
The price of groceries is rising at its fastest rate for 13 years, with prices for dog food, savoury snacks and fresh meat seeing particularly steep hikes – but there are plenty of ways to save on your shop by making the most of your food shop.
Here, FEMAIL shares Dane’s top ten tips…
Dane Barnard, who is the executive chef at Humble Grape in London, shared his top ten tips that can help you reduce food waste to save money amid the cost-of-living crisis (stock image)
1. Dehydrate fruit that is starting to go bad
Any fruits or vegetables that are starting to go bad, cut into small pieces and place on a baking tray and place in the oven at 40 degrees until all the moisture has come out of them.
You can use the dehydrated fruit as a garnish in cocktails, or alternatively blitz them up into a powder and use as a powder garnish to jazz up foods, or mix with salt to create a different, new seasoning.
2. Save vegetable skins and trimmings.
Roughly chop these up and mix them together with chickpea flour, spices and salt to create a vegetable fritter.
This mix lasts well and is a super quick and easy way to make a delicious snack or side.
3. Keep herb stems to make sauces
When using herbs keep the stems, use these when making sauces to add freshness and colour. These work well in salad dressings, pesto and marinades.
4. Keep meat fat to make oil
When preparing meats that have lots of excess fat that you would normally cut off and throw away, keep the fat, and put it in a pan on a very low heat until the fat has melted.
Put this in an old oil bottle and use this when cooking, this will add extra flavour to even the simplest of dishes, give frying eggs with it a try.
5. Save chicken skins to make salt
When cooking chicken, if you don’t need the chicken skins, don’t throw them away, place them on a tray with parchment paper and cook them in the oven until they go golden brown and crispy.
This can then be used to add texture to a dish or again blitzed down into a powder and mixed with salt to make chicken flavoured salt which works well when cooking roast potatoes (or just about anything).
6. Save meat bones for stock
When cooking with meats or fish that have bones, save the bones and roast them in the oven.
Then place them in a pan and cover with water and any leftover vegetables or trimmings, this will create a stock that will give your sauces much more depth of flavour. This can be frozen.
If you are making stock with fish bones, simmer for about 45mins, if you are using meat bones this can simmer for anywhere between 3-10 hours.
7. Save cauliflower leaves and broccoli stems to make a kimchi
Cauliflower leaves stems, broccoli stems, the outside cabbage leaves, these can all be saved and turned into a kimchi.
Make sure you wash the leaves, then roughly the leaves and stems. Put them in a jar or container, mix with some spices, vinegar and water and cover. Leave out at room temperature for around a week and then it should have started fermenting.
You can then start tucking in, for a stronger flavour leave it out at room temperature for longer, once you’re happy with the taste pop it in the fridge to store.
8. Save pumpkin and squash seeds
When cooking with pumpkins and squash make sure to save the seeds. Run them under water to clean off any of the strands and then place them on a tray with some salt.
Bake them in the oven for about 10 mins until they are golden and crispy. These can be eaten as a snack or used as a garnish. You can add any spices to this to add extra flavour, they are a really healthy snack and add texture to any dish.
9. Cook the whole fish
When cooking with fish make sure to use the whole fish. Some of the best parts of the fish are the cheeks, they are easy to remove if you are not cooking the fish whole.
The skin of the fish then can also be used if you’re planning on throwing it away. Remove and place in boiling water for two minutes minutes.
Take the skins out and then scrape off any fat, dehydrate the skins and then place in a pan of oil.
These will puff up and double in size (they will look similar to prawn crackers) these can be used as a snack or starter or again used for garnish and texture.
10. Use any leftover fruits to create a chutney
Simply roughly cut them up and add them to a pan with tomatoes, sugar and vinegar and leave to cook down until it all breaks down, then you can keep in a jar in your fridge and use it with cheese.
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