From the bony ribs of kale to the stumpy legs of broccoli, vegetable stems are overflowing food waste caddies up and down the country. And what a terrible shame that is for our dinners, not to mention our wallets. The stems may be a little tougher and a touch more fibrous, but when shown a little love and care, you can get twice as much out of your ingredients.
In researching my cookbook, Too Good To Waste, I found myself weighing a lot of vegetables. It turns out that a little over half the weight of an average-sized cauliflower or broccoli is made up of the leaves and stem. This means if, like many others, you only eat the florets, you are wasting more than you are eating and essentially tossing away half the money you spent on them. This imbalance is even more marked if you trim off all but their mossy tops, leaving behind a stump of stalk, like an over-pruned tree, untouched in a puddle of gravy.
Get in touch
Waste away: stems