Lindsay-Jean Hard’s COOKING WITH SCRAPS (Workman Publishing, $19.95, October 30, 2018) provides 85 creative, delicious, and inspired recipes to help home cooks meet this important goal. By learning the basics behind transforming food waste into treasure, readers can take advantage of ingredients such as outdated produce, cheese rinds, stale bread, and other oft-discarded foods to create budget-conscious, sustainable, and highly satisfying meals.



Lindsay-Jean Hard explains the rationale behind her choices in the recipes: “What lies unused in one’s fridge or pantry is not a purposeless object destined for the waste bin! For the most part, you’ll find recipes for the often unused parts—I’m assuming that if you buy carrots you already know how to use the carrot’s root, but you might not know how to make use of the greens—every now and then I’ll touch on how to incorporate the whole item. For an ingredient to make it into the book, it had to be “worth it” to me as a scrap. For example, when buying broccoli, generally enough of the stem is included that it makes sense to put it to use, but you won’t find a recipe focused around ginger peels, because not only does ginger not really need to be peeled, but even if you do peel it, you won’t generate enough peel at one time to turn into something else.”



Organized by ingredient, from apples to zucchini, here are just a few samples of how to repurpose unused parts of produce and pantry items—from bones and brine to pits and peels.



Asparagus: Charred Asparagus End Pesto
Bananas: Banana Peel Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting
Stale Bread: Crispy Breadcrumb Fried Eggs
Carrots: Carrot Top Pesto Tartlets
Cheese: Brothy Beans with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Rind
Corn: Corn Cob Yaki Onigiri (Grilled Rice Balls)
Jam Dregs: Soba Noodles with Ginger Marmalade Dipping Sauce
Pineapple: Pineapple Peel and Core Lemonade with Mint
Whey: Red Lentil and Whey Soup


In addition to the recipes, readers will also find tips and techniques, including how to maximize the shelf life of produce, and foolproof and flexible "Clean Out the Crisper" recipes (infused alcohols, stocks and broth, sugars and salts, pickles, and more) that teach readers how to salvage produce that's past its prime. Hard also provides thoughts on freezing, composting, and using the right kitchen equipment to make your ingredients go further.



Filled with full-color photographs throughout and delicious and accessible recipes, COOKING WITH SCRAPS is an important book for cooks to own. One that’s good for the wallet, good for the earth, and good for the dinner plate.