Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Parm, Toasted Chickpeas and Lemon Zest

HOW NOT WASTE FOOD AS A FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER, CONTINUED

Short and sweet, yet another example of how I've been using of my leftovers from photoshoots, featuring tons of lemon zest from Mistfit Juicery, imperfect lemons. 

I’ve employed various strategies to prevent food waste in my own kitchen. While they may take a bit of extra effort, it’s actual a really fun way to get creative, give back, and be social.

Here are my top tips of avoiding food waste in the kitchen:

• Take stock

  • Look through your bermuda triangle-eqsue pantry to see what ingredients you have on hand.

  • Figure out what flavors work well with your leftover ingredients. Think about blending salty and savory, sweet and sour, raw and cooked. Be creative!

  • Look through cookbooks or do some online research with your selected ingredients in mind. Can any of these recipes that inspire you work with the ingredients you have? What about a stew? A salad? A frittata? 

• Make stock

  • When I have peels, stubs, odds and ends from cooking or from a photoshoot, I like to boil them in water and herbs to make a vegetable stock. I freeze the stock and have it on hand for months. It's an incredibly flavorful ingredient for soups, stews, braised vegetables, and grains. 

• Smoothies,  juices, sauces, dips

  • When in doubt, blend. Blend your leftover veggies into sauces, pestos, dips and blend your fruits into smoothies and sorbets. 

  • Juice your fruits and vegetables and keep them in the fridge for up to 2 days.

  • Freeze your bananas, berries and fruits and blend them into a smoothie. No need to add ice and dilute the flavor when your produce is frozen ;)

• Recreate and reinvent

  • Figuring out how to reuse a dish that you've already made is one of the best exercises in creativity. Think about how you could reinvent your leftovers by turning them into soups, stocks, sauces, sandwiches, desserts etc.

  • For example, you can use your leftover sweet potato casserole as a [delicious] breakfast topping for warm oats, or use your leftover roasted veggies into main ingredient for a grain salad.

• Freezing produce

  • Freeze your pulp or produce that you can make use of. Then bring the produce to your local market and compost it. Or use your frozen produce over the winter months when not much is available.

• Donate    

  • Donate your produce to a local emergency food relief organization. Food pantries are always looking for fresh food, especially around the winter months when not much else is available or seasonal.

• Facebook PSA

  • Share the wealth! Update your facebook status to see if friends want to pick up your food, or host a dinner party using your excess produce.

Recipe using leftover produce, below. Perfect and simple recipe for your holiday table. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups of brussels sprouts, shredded
• 2 lemons, zested and juiced
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• 1 can of garbanzo beans, roasted for 40 mins at 375
• 1 cup of parmesean cheese, shredded
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• splash of apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Toss all ingredients together and enjoy!