Find flavour in everything: pickling for reducing food waste

On some occasions, creative ways to find a solution may be born from need. This is why we are inviting everyone to think again about their kitchen habits to help reduce food waste. Pickling is one of those creative ways dating back to ancient times. Perhaps due to changing seasonal conditions, feast, famine and drought, pickling was born of a need to keep food edible for longer and being sure that nothing went to waste. In a world of rampant consumerism where stockpiles of food are going to waste, how many different ways of pickling do we know? We hope to expand your culinary knowledge with this article.

Using Pineapple Skins to Create Syrup

When it comes to extracting a flavour, you can even use peels! Mexicans invented a cool way to create a healthy soft drink from scraps. Just dissolve 800g of sugar in 5 litres of water and add your pineapple core and peels in it. You can even add some spices like cinnamon or star anise to enhance the taste. Store your mixture in a big crockpot or plastic bucket and check it every day. When it starts getting slightly fizzy and fermented strain the skins and cores off, then filter the juice to use as a soft drink or to add to cocktails.

Delicious Watermelon Rind Pickles

If you like to eat watermelon straight from the slice, you’ll be familiar with the inedible green part. But it doesn’t have to be like that. You can make crunchy and delicious pickles from the rinds of watermelon. And it’s quite easy. Just trim off the hard outer green skin and slice the white part into little cubes. Place them in a large stock pot filled with enough water to cover and cook over a high heat until boiling. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook until the rinds are fork tender or for about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain and set aside. Prepare your acid brine from vinegar and herbs you like and let your watermelon rinds be pickled in it! They will keep well for 3 to 4 months.

Infuse Your Ingredients With Vinegar

You can enhance any food with vinegar, both in nutrition and taste. But did you ever think about boosting the taste of your vinegar? There is a quite easy method to do that and it will help you to reduce food waste. Just add your favourite leftover herbs to your vinegar and let them infuse for a week. Your guests will be impressed when you offer your bespoke vinegar as a dressing for salads.