BBC Scotland - The Social - Six zero waste recipes to help you save the planet (2024)

By Laura Young // BBC The Social contributor // 15 September 2021

The climate is changing, and we can all play our part to reduce our waste, and carbon emissions, through cooking with less waste. Globally one-third of food is wasted and if the emissions from all this waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitter in the world!

Here are a few of my favourite waste-saving and plant-based recipes to help you eat your way to sustainability.

I would put money on watermelon rind being something which is wasted in most households. This tough green outer skin can seem unappealing but this is a great ingredient to bulk up curry and stew. It's also packed with nutrients and helps save on food waste.

Making watermelon rind curry could not be simpler. It involves chopping the rind into bite sized pieces, boiling for about 20/30 minutes until you can put a fork through easily, and then adding into your curry or stew of choice.

Make sure before chopping and boiling you give the outside of the watermelon a rinse to keep it clean. Then once clean you can chop it down and put into a pan of boiling water to cook. One small watermelon could do up to 8 portions depending on how many other vegetables you use in your curry. I tried with cauliflower and it was delicious!

Add in your favourite curry sauce and serve with rice, naan, or on its own.

The result?

This is another recipe that people can be sceptical of but that I thoroughly enjoyed. It has the texture of pumpkin or sweet potato but with a more subdued flavour similar to the cauliflower I tried it with. Something new to try for a very unique meal!

This might be one of my most controversial recipes but trust me on this and give it a try. A great, and very unique, way to use up an ingredient part you’ve probably never tried… and if Nigella Lawson can cook with banana peels why can’t we?

This is a really simple recipe with only a few steps. The first thing you have to do is prepare the banana peels into the pulled ‘pork’ strips by scraping out the pulp on the inside, before cutting into thin strips. This should look like shredded yellow pulled ‘pork’. Then, mix your oil and spices into a marinade and sit your banana peel strips into this and set aside.

The longer you leave these to marinade the stronger the flavour, but after a few minutes you are good to fry your strips. Fry until crispy and for a fuller flavour, add your favourite BBQ sauce.

Once crispy you can add to nachos, stick in a wrap, or chuck on top of a pizza for a delicious, waste-saving meal!

The result?

Although it sounds a bit suspect, this is actually a delicious recipe which makes for a very unique meal to have with friends. The texture is crispy but with a chewy centre and has a bold BBQ flavour.

You can mix up the spices to your liking and try peri peri, sriracha, or any other spice combination.

Another sustainable food swap we can make is opting for more plant-based foods for a little change. This recipe is a great way to find a swap for smoked salmon using only carrot peels and a spicy marinade.

This is a simple marinade recipe where you take your carrot strips and marinade in a cup, bowl, or jar of water and spices. I love to make this in an airtight jar and keep in my fridge for use throughout the week.

Take a peeler and make ribbon strips of carrot and add to a jar. Measure how much water will fit inside with the carrot strips then remove the carrot for a moment while you make the marinade. Add in your spices and flavourings and mix together. Then add your carrot back in and leave for 30 minutes minimum before eating.

If you find the carrot too hard you can blanch them in hot water for a few minutes before marinading.

The result?

Trust me on this one. I really love this as a veggie option for sandwiches, and once you’ve made a batch you can store it in your fridge for use throughout the week. It's tangy, and fragrant, and a great alternative to smoked salmon.

Once you’ve used all your carrot strips, you can also use this marinade in a stir fry to save it going to waste!

Cheese seems to be the hardest thing to find a plant-based solution for, but this vegan ‘cheese’ sauce recipe is great to switch in for nachos, pasta, or toppings on sandwiches. It's a nut-based sauce with spices, although you could use chickpeas or fava beans to make it nut free.

This recipe is super simple involving only two steps. The first is to leave your cashew nuts in a bowl of warm water to soak for around 30 minutes. Then rinse the nuts and add to a blender.

Add your spices of choice to the blender - I’ve gone for veggie stock to pack a punch and add a bit of a salty flavour, smoked paprika, chilli flakes, and nutritional yeast which gives it that cheesy flavour. Then simply blend and watch as the paste forms.

To make it a little saucier in texture you can add water slowly spoon by spoon until you have the sauce consistency you like.

The result?

An absolute winner! This is my new favourite thing for topping on nachos, pizza, sandwiches, and using as a dip. You can change the spices and consistency to whatever you fancy and make it different every time until you have your perfect recipe.

Pesto is a staple in my house, perfect for pasta, salads, sandwiches, and toppings on pizza. However, did you know it is one of the easiest things to make, and you can make it with lots of odds and ends from leftovers.

This is a great recipe to use up the stalks and stems from herbs, vegetables, and other flavourful scraps. The recipe can be adapted to suit what ingredients you have lying around!

All you have to do is blitz all of the ingredients in a food blender, then add water at the end to make it into the consistency you like. It could not be simpler!

The result?

I absolutely love the taste of homemade pesto, and the best thing is you can season to taste and change this up to suit your favourite flavours.

This recipe is great for using the odd bits and bobs left from other vegetables and herbs you’ve been cooking with recently. It is garlic-y and creamy and tastes slightly different every time. If you don’t have these ingredients why not try basil stalks, carrot tops, spinach, or beetroot leaves.

Aquafaba is the liquid you get from a can of chickpeas. This stuff normally gets poured down the drain, but it is actually a fantastic ingredient which can be used to replace egg whites in many recipes. Two of my aquafaba favourites are chocolate mousse and meringues!

Making aquafaba meringues is the same process as it would be if you were using egg whites. Add your aquafaba to a mixing bowl and add a splash of lemon juice (this helps it hold its shape when whipped) and begin to whip by hand or with an electric whisk.

Once you’ve got stiff peaks you can stop. Slowly fold in your sugar making sure you don’t knock out the air from the mixture. Once mixed together, get an oven tray and either dollop into individual sized meringues or one huge pavlova style mound before putting it into the oven at 120°C for 45 minutes or until crispy on the outside.

The trick to avoid them cracking on the outside is to leave them in the oven to cool down once cooked rather than straight into the kitchen where the temperature change can cause cracks to appear. Enjoy with cream and fruit, or on their own once cooled.

The result?

Honestly, these are delicious. They are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and so simple to make. Not only are they waste-saving but they are also gluten free, vegan, and only use three simple ingredients you may have in your cupboards already.

Making aquafaba mousse is the same process as if you were making meringues. Add your aquafaba to a mixing bowl and add a splash of lemon juice (this helps it hold its shape when whipped) and begin to whip by hand or with an electric whisk. Once you’ve got stiff peaks you can stop.

To this you want to add melted, but cool, chocolate. You can do this bain marie style with a glass bowl over hot water in a pan, or carefully melt in stages in a microwave making sure you don’t burn it. Once melted and cooled, you can begin folding into the whipped mixture. Finally, add to a dish or small ramekins to cool and set in the fridge.

The result?

These are a game changer and only take a few minutes to make. If you’ve got a bar of chocolate and some lemon juice lying around why not turn normally wasted aquafaba into delicious desserts?