Trash to Treasure

In this trash to treasure I am not going dance around the subject… I am going to shoot straight to the heart of the idea.

The central focus of the idea is just that—the center, the “core” or the “heart” of our products. These parts of our foods are trashed, thrown away and overlooked, but they are often perfectly edible. They only need some special treatment. The tougher parts are denser and harder and may need a longer cook time than the other parts of the plant. I deploy this tactic when cooking chard. I dice and cook the stems with the onions and other flavors, and then add the greens to finish and wilt.

The other option is to make something completely different out of these parts. Culinary professionals often use one product in multiple forms to offer different textures or contrasting flavors.

Several thoughts of the top of my head…

Pineapple… what about using the entire waste of the pineapple to make a flavored simple syrup, used for mixed drinks or a sweetener for tea?

Peel the stem of my collards like asparagus and cook, or pickle as a different vegetable?

Pickle carrot stems, and use the tops sparingly as an herb for pesto?