Waste Not!
Kristina’s Bookshelf
The Zero Waste Cookbook:
100 Recipes for Cooking Without Waste
By Giovanna Torrico and Amelia Wasiliev
(Hardie Grant, 2019)
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 30 to 40 percent of the United States food supply gets wasted: a sobering statistic, considering the cost of food production and consumption and the problems of food shortages, hunger, and malnutrition.
The Zero Waste Cookbook offers simple suggestions for reducing food waste. The book contains over 100 easy recipes for using the bits of produce, meats, fish, and other leftovers that typically get thrown away. Some of the ideas many cooks will no doubt be familiar with, like using vegetable and other scraps for stock. But other tips may be new, like adding cucumber peel and mint stems to a spritzer, shredding stems and cores for slaws, and using leaves from various vegetables to make side dishes. One of the more intriguing ideas is a parmigiana from empty bean pods like the big plump ones from fava beans. Descriptive and visually appealing photos make the book an enjoyable and useful reminder of the importance of using food efficiently.
Edible East Bay’s book editor Kristina Sepetys is eager to share her ideas and book recommendations with
our readers.
