I love to cook, but I am also passionate about reducing food waste. I personally try to not let anything I own go bad before I use it up (which is a challenge living alone). Eco-friendly cooking is all about reducing food waste and being mindful about consumption, and I found the perfect cook book to let me do just that.

Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems Into Delicious Meals by Lindsay-Jean Hard is a book that takes you through an informative journey to reduce food waste and create delicious meals through scrap ingredients. Lindsay-Jean writes a column for Food-52 on how to repurpose scraps, and turns that into an eco-friendly book.

I love the way the book is set up. After an introduction about scrap cooking in general as well as storage tips, we move into recipes by ingredient. For example, there’s an apple section you can conveniently turn to if you have apple scraps. Scattered throughout these sections are different fun ways to use a variety of scraps, like salts, liquor, and frittatas. It’s a visually engaging book organized in a way that makes sense.

Not only beautufiul to look at (with awesome photos), the book is also so educational! She teaches you about the scrap, including how to best procure it, and there’s some really new food items I’ve never heard of, like international treats and ingredients in general! I feel like I learned so much from this book, besides just cooking recipes, that has really allowed me to be a more mindful consumer.

I’ve made a variety of different things from this book. Some simple recipes include bread crumb eggs (yum), and bagel seasoning pumpkin seeds from my carving pumpkin. I also made apple core syrup with danish pancakes, which was a ton of work, but a great breakfast. Other items on my list include a beet peel margarita (one of my favorites) and a turnip green coconut milk stew.

Oe of the most unique things I did was make brownies and mayo with aquafaba (or bean liquid). You can read more here, but the mayo was incredible!

Overall, I love this book for the way it teaches me to repurpose food and reduce waste. I haven’t found absolute favorite recipes yet, but I’ve made a lot and it feels like a cooking adventure! I think everyone could use to read this and be more mindful  of the way they use food!

What do I plan on making next? There’s a variety of of gourmet salts, sugars, and candies that I want to make and give as gifts this holiday season. I also plan on making the banana peel cake…how unique!

So, have you heard of this book, or would you consider combining your scraps into your cooking routine? Tell me in the comments! Reducing food waste is a great step you can take to care for the earth.

All thoughts and opinions are my own.