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No more food waste thanks to the Zero Waste cookbook

Are you also against wasting food? Do you think it's a shame to have to throw things away? No more food waste thanks to the Zero Waste cookbook. Find out how to use whole oranges, etc. in dishes.

Food waste is a major problem in the Western world

Unfortunately, food waste is a major problem. Especially in the (rich) Western countries, people throw away food every day. Individuals do this on a small scale, companies on a large scale. Fortunately, there are many things you can do yourself to avoid having to throw away food. More and more companies are also taking action to prevent food waste. Think of initiatives such as Lidl with goods that are discounted for 0.25 euros and the Too good to go app.

However, there is still much to gain. And as a private individual you can still make enough changes to throw away as little as possible. You can do this very easily, for example, by not throwing anything away from vegetables, fruit, bread, etc.

No more food waste thanks to the Zero Waste cookbook

You may find it difficult to think of what else you can do to prevent food waste. Fortunately, several books have been published to give you inspiration. A special book for this is the Zero Waste Cookbook by Jeroen de Paauw, among others.

A delicious book full of recipes from sweet to savory. For example, think of pestog made from radish tops with ricotta. Or stewed vegetables with coffee grounds. Or, just like me, make the cake below, using whole oranges (yes, the peel went into the cake too).

Unfortunately something went wrong with the baking or rather unmoulding. But the book is not called Zero Waste for nothing. So I got to work and covered it with melted chocolate and presented it as a bite-sized orange chocolate cake. Although the cake may not have looked pretty, it tasted perfect.

Zero Waste cookbook

The cookbook does not only contain dozens of recipes, but thanks to the application of Augmented Reality you can also watch videos using your smartphone or tablet. It explains in detail how you can prepare the recipes yourself. Ideal if you are a newbie in the field of cooking or could use a little more explanation.

Thanks to the handy layout you can search by ingredient. For example, if you have strawberries or red cabbage that you want to process, just search for this ingredient in the table of contents. Furthermore, with each recipe it is indicated how long it takes you, what it is (starter, main or dessert) and any extras such as vegan, gluten-free, etc.

Symbols indicate how many people the dish is for and what you need to have. Consider, for example, a blender. A photo has been taken of every dish, so that you know exactly what the end result should be. Do you drink wine? It is indicated for each dish which wine goes best with it.

No more food waste in the kitchen

Of course, this book will not be nearly enough to combat all food waste in the kitchen. However, it does inspire you to think out of the box and use more than you do now. A good example of this is making pesto from radish tops. For example, you can also process the foliage of carrots.

That also applies to many fruit and vegetable peels that you can use. For my recipe pear compote, for example, I used the peels to make syrup. You don't necessarily have to peel potatoes, just like apples. And orange peel really tastes great in a cake (be sure to use organic oranges!).

If you use a little more creativity in the kitchen, you have to throw away a lot less food. That makes a little difference and makes the world just that little bit more beautiful.

What do you do to prevent food waste?