You’ve likely noticed after preparing a meal rich in vegetables, there seems to be a lot of waste in terms of peelings, stalks and such.
   
While this waste mightn’t be as bad environmentally speaking as other forms such as plastic wrapping, it’s still waste that takes up valuable landfill space and releases potent greenhouse gases such as methane as it decomposes in that environment.
    
You could always compost your vegetable scraps to provide a rich fertilizer for your garden instead or start a worm farm to do the same, but here’s another way to deal with some of it. Eat it.
   
7 years ago, Lisa Casali asked herself if fruit and vegetable waste was really inedible or just more difficult to prepare – and in answering that question, her web site Ecocucina evolved.
    
Lisa uses all sorts of scraps to create her dishes – the outer leaves of artichokes, asparagus stems, various peels and pods.
   
Some of her creations:
    
Pea pod finger food
Faux “parmigiana” using pumpkin rind and carrot peel
Using vegetable peels to make vegetable stock powder
    
Lisa also delves into rather, err.. shall we say, “different”, ways to cook food. Have a bit of space in your dishwasher? If you’re adventurous, you can  use it to cook eggs. That’s certainly taking saving energy when cooking to a very interesting level!
    
Lisa says her recipes are best used with organic or home grown vegetables – I’m assuming this is partly in case pesticides and herbicide residue exists on the peels, rinds etc. of “normal” fruit and veg. As far as I know, washing your veggies prior to use will take care of this – but please check into the issue for yourself as pesticide/herbicide use and types varies from country to country.
     
Also, if you decide to start tinkering with turning food related waste into edibles; make sure what you are using won’t poison you in terms of the peel, leaf, etc. itself. In some cases, there is good reason for throwing part of a fruit or vegetable away. For example, rhubarb leaves contain oxalate and can cause all sorts of nasty effects if eaten either raw or cooked.
      
Related:
      
Tips for reducing food waste