Saturday 19th of October is world food day, a day which sees organisations from across the globe celebrate food. To mark the day we’re sharing all the brilliant ways the local community stop good food from going to waste. After all, what better way to celebrate and value food than by stopping it from going to landfill?
The work of the Food Hub is a real team effort, from the volunteers who are the lifeblood of the organisations, the suppliers who donate their surplus food, to wonderful local community and partner groups who have endlessly imaginative ways putting the food to good use. We hope these recipe ideas will inspire you to join us in our fight against food waste!
Why stopping food waste is important
By stopping good food from going to waste, as a community we can make a really strong statement about what we value. At the Food Hub we value food and the huge power it has to nourish us as individuals and knit us together as communities; we also value the health and well-being of our planet. Stopping food from ending up in landfill is a practical way of reducing our carbon footprint. If food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the US.
Recipes and ideas to reduce food waste!
Take a look at some of the recipe ideas below, kindly submitted by our volunteers and local community. Get in touch if you’d like to contribute your own!
Windfall apple crumble
“I had half a leftover cooking apple that had fallen into my garden: I chopped it up, placed apple into individual dishes, added some ginger, mixed a bit of sugar, flour & butter, sprinkled on top and baked in the oven. Delicious and no waste. The waste bits of apple went in my compost bin.”
Veg of the day soup
“I make soup from any fresh veg that I happen to get from Saturday’s foodshare at URC.
Last week … broccoli, corn, beans, spinach and cauliflower …. added a scoop of red lentil, plenty of seasoning, boiled/simmered for 60 minutes and made a (Food Hub) baguette hot and crisp in the oven, 10 minutes on 100°c.”
Pickled baby beetroot
Pickling is a great way of using up veg that is on the edge!
‘Ready, steady, cook!’ at home
“I buy reduced items at the supermarket and do a ‘ready, steady, cook!’ at home”
Fried green tomatoes
“Fried green tomatoes, cut thin slices, breadcrumb them and fry in Olive oil. Delicious!”
Bread crumb savoury crumble
“Bread crumb savoury crumble, 1 bowl of old breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon oil, some grated cheddar. Mix together and use to top vegetables!”
Pea pod soup
“Half an onion chopped and sweated for five minutes. 100g diced potato 200g pea pods added with 500ml vegetable stock, boiled for 10 mins, add 20g peas, some mint to taste if you have it (mint sauce will do in a pinch – I used some mint ice cubes made last time we had mint at Shrewsbury Baptist Church Food Tables). Boil for further 5 mins. Reserve some cooked peas for garnish, and blitz the rest. Season to taste. Unlike most of my recipes, straining this soup is NOT optional – unless you want to spend the rest of the day picking pea pod strings out of your teeth! Warm through and add back the reserved peas as garnish. Serve with some fine Food Hub #BelliesNotBins bread.”
