Eating leftovers day after day can also get old. And having one or two ingredients left after preparing a dish feels like a waste as it creates extra work in figuring out what to do with those scraps. So, what are some tasty and easy-to-implement ways to use up those holiday leftovers to prevent food waste?

First Off, Wasting Food Is, Well… A Waste!

Food waste is a big issue in the US and other industrialized countries. According to the USDA, food waste is estimated to be 30–40% of the food supply in the United States, increasing by 25% during the holidays. And in China, household waste is 10% of all food purchased, with the largest category being fruits and vegetables.

That being said, there they are, those leftover food scraps staring you right in the face on your plate, or in your fridge. Maybe you took more food than you could eat at once. Or you didn’t end up using an entire fruit or vegetable for a recipe. So what do you do with those food scraps before they go bad? Don’t throw them away! You can save those scraps in a bin or airtight container in your refrigerator. Or check out our article How to Use Food Scraps for all the know-how on making the most of those bits and pieces.

Another tip to avoid food waste is to not leave perishable food out for longer than two hours. If you’re planning on having a buffet-style meal with people coming and going throughout the day, consider placing cold, perishable food over ice or hot food over warming plates to keep everything at the proper temperature.

Or, if your party is more of a sit-down dinner, consider taking perishable food out of the refrigerator just before your guests arrive and putting it away immediately after they leave. If friends or family members still have food on their plate, or you have a significant amount of leftovers, consider providing eco-friendly to-go containers.

Store Leftovers Efficiently

Properly storing food and consuming it within a safe time period is key when it comes to perishable foods. The USDA recommends consuming refrigerated leftovers within four days. And storage containers should be airtight. You’ll want to practice first in, first out for prepared food — use up what you have on hand first before opening something new.

Another option is to freeze vegetables or whole meals. Portioning them into individual serving containers makes it easier to grab and go as needed.

Leftover dry goods and pantry staples can continue to be stored in a cool dark place (like a cabinet or pantry) in airtight containers. Things like whole grains, legumes, and flour do have expiration dates. Therefore, make sure to store them properly, use them before they expire, or consider freezing them to extend shelf life.

Visit our blog posts Healthy Plant-Based Pantry Food Essentials for tips on setting up a plant-based pantry and 10 Easy Pantry Meals to Make Using Minimal Ingredients for ideas on how to use those staples.

Get Creative and Think Outside the Box

When it comes to reusing leftovers, allow your creativity to shine. Think beyond what they were intended for. For example, “dinner food” doesn’t only have to be eaten at dinner. A savory breakfast can be delicious, or you can split meals up into snacks.

For an additional bit of flavor and nutrition, add a plant-based sauce to veggie dishes. Cauliflower Squash Cheese Sauce is a house fave, or try one of these homemade sauces.

Have ingredients left over that you tend to only use during the holiday? Try googling (or Ecosia-ing if you like to plant trees while you search) the name of your leftover ingredients along with the word “recipe” and see what pops up. You just might find yourself a new favorite dish, like Green Bean Casserole or a twist on mashed potatoes!

Ideas for Using Up Holiday Leftovers

Watch the video below for more creative ways to use up leftovers and create new recipes.

Leftovers Recipes

Need fresh ideas on how to use up your holiday leftovers? Even if you don’t have leftover food scraps from the holidays, you can still give new life to batch-cooked items from your weekly meal prep. These highly adaptable and delicious plant-based leftovers recipes will spark new life with whatever you have on hand!

1. Harvest Grain Breakfast Bowl

If you love the idea of leftovers for breakfast, this is the recipe for you! Harvest Grain Breakfast Bowl is a wonderful way to use up leftover veggies you may have been holding on to as well as batch-cooked grains you may have on hand. Those leftover ingredients will come straight to life once you give them a try with this recipe’s creamy orange tahini dressing, crunchy pumpkin seeds, and sweet dried cranberries. The fall flavors add a pop of freshness and zing that makes even the simplest leftover ingredients into a winning recipe.

2. Energizing White Bean and Kale Soup

This soup has it all — lots of colors, tons of flavor, and the ability for customization based on whatever you have on hand. Perhaps you have some leftover collard greens from your family’s latest gathering. Or maybe you have leftover homemade vegetable broth from the food scraps you saved up during the week. Taking full advantage of any unused ingredients is a wonderful way to explore kitchen creativity, prevent food waste, and create a tasty meal, all at the same time. We think you’ll love this nourishing beans-and-greens leftover soup!

3. Green Bean Casserole

Casseroles are one of the easiest ways to use up any leftovers, especially if you have a leftover condiment or two. Just throw all the ingredients in a casserole dish and bake it in the oven. This Green Bean Casserole is seemingly indulgent but loaded with nutrition, and makes using up leftover mushroom gravy and cashew sour cream a breeze. Plus, the crispy (baked) onions on top take this recipe from good to great!

Eat Your Leftovers!

Don’t let leftover conundrums add to any holiday stress. With some proper planning and storage, a bit of curiosity, and a little creativity, you’ll be able to give those leftovers a second and third (tasty) life.

For starters, give some of the ideas in the video a try, or make one of the recipes provided. Let us know what you think. Or, if you have your own favorite way to use leftover dishes and ingredients, please share!

Tell us in the comments:

• What’s your favorite way to use up leftovers?
• What’s currently in your veggie scrap bin, and how will you use those veggies?
• What’s the first tip you’ll try to reduce food waste this holiday season?

Featured Image: iStock.com/KoliadzynskaIryna

Read Next:

• How to Cook: How to Keep Produce Fresh to Avoid Food Waste

The post How to Cook: What to Do with Holiday Leftovers appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Vegetable broth is a cornerstone in cooking and is used in a variety of dishes (beyond soup!) from Thai to Italian to Japanese cuisine. It serves as the backbone of countless recipes, and, while vegetable broth can easily be made at home, many people rely on store-bought versions.

But making your own vegetable broth is a more nutritious, less wasteful, and more eco-friendly option than store-bought. The old adage “Waste not, want not” comes into play when making vegetable broth at home.

In this article’s included video, you’ll learn step-by-step how to make your own vegetable broth with an emphasis on utilizing vegetable scraps to minimize waste while maximizing nutrition and flavor.

Why Make Your Own Vegetable Broth

Optimize Nutrition

Because you get to select the ingredients that go into your homemade vegetable broth, it’s oftentimes more nutritious than broth you can purchase from the store. For example, many store-bought vegetable broth brands include a combination of carrot, celery, and allium vegetables (like onions, leeks, and garlic) — also known as mirepoix in French cooking — and maybe mushrooms. Rarely do they include much more vegetable variety than that.

Many components of various vegetables are also completely left out of store-bought vegetable broth. These scraps that are often thrown away are just as nutritious or, in some cases, even more nutritious, than the parts we are accustomed to consuming.

For example, when you think of broccoli you probably think of the florets. But did you know that broccoli leaves are higher in carotenoids, chlorophyll, vitamins E and K, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity compared to the florets? Broccoli leaves are, in their own right, true superfoods, and it would be sad to let them go to waste. Instead, toss them into your soups or stews, and add them to your homemade veggie stock!

Some broth brands may also add cane sugar or dextrose (another name for sugar), natural flavors, preservatives, and loads of sodium unless you choose an unsalted or low-sodium version. By making your own vegetable broth, you have the power to choose what goes into your soup and what stays out of it.

Be Kinder to the Planet

One of my personal favorite things to do when it comes to creating less kitchen waste is to keep a catchall bin in the fridge where all my food scraps live. If a recipe calls for ½ cup of carrots and a half carrot remains, it goes into the food scrap bin (I know, I know — I could easily turn this carrot into a snack by munching on it. But, to be honest, I just don’t love the flavor of raw carrots!). By the end of the week, the bin may be full of carrots, celery pieces, onion skin, and more — basically, enough scraps to make a delicious and nutritious broth.

You can either simmer the vegetables in water then strain them, or place the vegetables in a food processor and blend until smooth (try this method by making our Veggie Scrap Bouillon recipe). The former version will leave you with a nutrient-dense broth, but you’ll still have the sopping-wet vegetable scraps left. If you’d like to take an extra step toward a zero-waste kitchen, consider composting those scraps.

Also, consider all of the manufacturing that goes into making store-bought broth. Not only are you avoiding single-use containers and plastic packaging, but you’re also avoiding a big part of the carbon footprint that comes from sourcing, packaging, and transporting the vegetables and final product across the country to get to your grocery store.

Save Money

Making your own broth is cost-effective, too, especially when using vegetable scraps. Simply put, your produce purchases go much further when you use all veggie components.

Unfortunately, vegetable broth brands that contain carefully curated organic ingredients without preservatives and other unwanted ingredients are often more expensive. But when you make your own broth, there’s no need to spend on expensive organic or specialty broths.

Personalize and Customize

Finally, making your own broth at home allows you to personalize the flavors. Want umami flavors? Add mushrooms. Prefer naturally salty? Include celery. Looking for a broth to support your immune system? Add a variety of veggies, like leeks, mushrooms, and carrots. If you are making an Asian dish, consider adding ginger or lemongrass to the stock.

And whatever vegetable broth you create can be used in a wide range of recipes, from soups and stews to savory grains and beyond.

What You’ll Learn in Our “How to Make Vegetable Broth” Video

In the video below, you’ll learn:

• What kinds of vegetables and scraps can be used to make broth
• How to prepare the vegetables
• Various cooking methods, including stovetop, slow cooker, and pressure cooker
• How to strain and store your broth

I think you’ll find these methods simple and easily adapted to fit any kitchen!

Homemade Veggie Broth Recipes

Get ready to have some nourishing, flavorful fun in the kitchen with these wholesome vegetable broth recipes. Each recipe is simple to make, highly adaptable, and can be ready in under 30 minutes. Tap into your creative side and experiment with the ingredients that speak to you. From soups to stews to casseroles, or rice dishes, there’s no limit to what you can cook up with made-from-scratch vegetable broth!

1. Homemade Vegetable Bouillon

Preparing a nourishing homemade vegetable broth means you save on cost, eliminate packaging, and can even get in some fiber that’s often sorely lacking in store-bought broth. Rather than boiling and then simmering vegetable scraps (which is another way to make homemade broth), in this recipe, you’ll use the entire veggie by adding it to your food processor to make a bouillon. Within minutes you’ll have a deeply flavorful and nutrient-dense bouillon cube that is ready to go when you need to prepare your favorite homemade veggie soup!

2. Savory Mushroom Broth

One of the benefits of making homemade broth is that you get to decide the nutritional value, flavor profile, and ingredients! Savory Mushroom Broth is an intensely flavored umami-rich broth that is brimming with antioxidants, packed with B vitamins, and high in minerals such as selenium, potassium, and copper. What’s more, it makes a delightful base for your favorite soup, stew, casserole, or side dish. And because of all the intense umami flavor this broth imparts, you’ll be finding plenty of ways to use it!

3. Umami Vegan Dashi

Pull out the Instant Pot and get ready to prepare this profoundly flavorful and highly nourishing Umami Vegan Dashi in minutes! Prepping homemade broth in the Instant Pot not only helps get it done quickly, but thanks to the pressure cooking, the flavors become concentrated as if the broth had been simmering away for hours. By taking advantage of the Instant Pot’s magic, we’ve created an ultra-nourishing and mineral-rich broth using green onion, shiitake mushrooms, and seaweed. Together with the miso paste, this dashi makes a delicious and soothing stock that’s great for your health and your taste buds.

Cook Up a Batch of Broth

Vegetable broth’s versatility in flavoring a variety of dishes from around the world makes it a plant-based pantry essential. And making your own vegetable broth can be an empowering activity that allows you to take charge of your health and make a positive impact on the planet. By creating a broth from scratch (or following one of the included recipes), you can nourish your body, prevent food waste, and take part in a sustainable cooking practice.

Now that you’ve learned the basics of how to make vegetable broth, explore new culinary heights by cooking with it and coming up with your own DIY broth recipes.

Tell us in the comments:

• Have you ever made vegetable broth from scratch?

• What did you learn from the video?

• Which veggie broth recipe will you try next?

Featured Image: iStock.com/beats3

Read Next:

• How to Cook: Healthy Plant-Based Pantry Food Essentials
• How to Cook Beans and Lentils from Scratch

The post How to Cook: How to Make Homemade Vegetable Broth appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

If wasted food is not composted, it ends up in a landfill. There it releases the greenhouse gas methane, which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. What’s more, the bacteria formed from the decay of food in landfills can run off into freshwater, where they form toxic algae blooms that threaten humans, fish, and entire ecosystems. 

What’s shocking is that in the United States alone, 30–40% of fresh produce ends up in the trash due to spoilage. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 17% of this is happening in restaurants and American households. And, not just to call out the US — food waste is a major issue around the world.

Here’s another shocking statistic: The food that is wasted could feed 1.26 billion hungry people worldwide — every year. 

Given that the amount of wasted food can put a dent in your wallet, contribute to climate change, contaminate freshwater, and potentially feed hungry people, it’s important to consider ways of keeping produce fresh and using up food before it becomes inedible.

How to Keep Produce Fresh in the Fridge

As you watch the accompanying video, you’ll get several tips on how to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator. 

But one of the most effective tips in keeping produce fresh for longer is to separate out ethylene gas-producing fruits and vegetables. Ethylene-producing produce, like apples and peaches, can accelerate ripening and lead to spoilage of nearby produce. So unless you want to ripen something quickly, store these produce items in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator either in a designated produce bag or paper bag to keep them separate. 

A note about your crisper drawer — it’s designed to have just enough humidity and air circulation to prevent things from going limp and losing moisture. Some refrigerators may have drawers that allow you to adjust the humidity or temperature separately. But in general, the rule is vegetables prefer high humidity, and fruit prefer low humidity.

The take-home message? Use your crisper drawer for what it’s made for — produce storage (not for storing your plant-based cheese or leftover soup!). 

While we’re on the topic of moisture, it’s a tricky thing when it comes to storing your produce. Somewhat like Goldilocks and the Three Bears — you want just the right amount of moisture to prevent produce from drying up, but not too much to cause it to get slimy and moldy. 

First and foremost, ensure that your produce is completely dry before storing it in the refrigerator. One way to ensure this is to wash fruits and vegetables just before use rather than as soon as you get them. 

Also, set your refrigerator to the appropriate temperature, usually between 33-40°F (0-4°C), to keep your food from spoiling. While this may be obvious, it’s worth checking the temperature you’re refrigerating at (go ahead, I’ll wait while you check!). 

For more on food storage, visit our article, Food Storage & Preservation: Why It Matters and How to Do It Properly. 

How to Keep Produce Fresh on the Counter

Root veggies (like potatoes, carrots, beets, and turnips) and certain fruits (like bananas, tomatoes, avocados, and melons) do best when stored on the countertop at room temperature. You’ll want to ensure there’s good airflow to prevent moisture buildup, which can lead to mold and spoilage. 

And while some fruits like tomatoes benefit from a little sunlight to ripen, prolonged exposure to direct sunlight can cause them to spoil quickly. Keep countertop produce away from sunlight. Root veggies also do best when stored in a cool, dark area on the counter, or in a cupboard or root cellar. 

Finally, keep those ethylene producers separate from produce that is ethylene sensitive (I’m looking at you, onions and sweet potatoes!), which will prevent accelerated ripening and help extend shelf life.

Further Tips on Avoiding Food Waste

Aside from proper food storage, there are a number of ways you can reduce food waste in the kitchen, including making use of excess produce, produce about to spoil, or food scraps.

Watch the video below for 11 tips on how to store your produce, keep it fresh, and use it up.

Recipes to Use Up Produce

Sometimes figuring out what will last the longest can feel like a full-time job. But if you’re struggling to keep up with the freshness of the fruit and vegetables you bring home from the market, these recipes can easily help you figure out what to eat now and what to eat later. These tasty, minimal-waste recipes are a great way to help you prepare your ingredients ahead of time and encourage creative utilization during peak freshness and nutrition. What’s more, if you are a fan of batch cooking, each of these recipes offers ideas for how to extend the life of your produce!  

1. Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Slow Cooker Apple Butter is a great way to use up any surplus of apples. Depending on how you cut the apples, the only items left behind are the seeds and the stems. Once the apples have been stewing, they transform into a silky smooth butter that makes a wholesome addition to your favorite bowl of oats, a topping for breakfast hotcakes, or as a sweet dipping sauce for a delicious fruit board. What’s more, if you prepare this recipe in large batches, you can prolong the usability of your apples by freezing the apple butter for up to three months. 

2. The Shine Brightly Salad

The main ingredients in this salad are a few common produce items that often go to waste. So this salad was created to allow you to experience the textures and unique qualities that these plant-based foods have to offer, especially when combined. With proper preparation and storage, you can let the full flavor and nutrition of spinach, blueberries, red onion, and toasted sunflower seeds shine. Then, once you’re finished eating the Shine Brightly Salad, don’t be surprised if you’re also shining from the inside out!

3. Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chickpeas and Kale

Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chickpeas and Kale is a super cozy bowl of nourishing plants that provides nourishment in more ways than one. In addition to the soup’s mouthwatering flavors from mushrooms, chickpeas, kale, and cashews, it does double duty in the no-waste department. Whether your produce is on the verge of decline or you want to make it completely zero waste, toss in all the veggies (plus stems — just be sure to chop them finely) and enjoy a savory, nourishing, and comforting meal that’s good for you and the planet!

Don’t Let Produce Go to Waste

To avoid food waste, save money, preserve nutrition and flavor, and support the health of the planet, you may want to adjust the way you store fresh produce. Having a better understanding of which fruits and vegetables should be stored in the refrigerator and which thrive best on the counter — and which to store together or separately — can also minimize spoilage and maximize the nutritional value of fresh produce. 

Using up fresh produce before it goes bad and reusing food scraps can also further decrease contributions to worldwide food waste. By implementing these simple yet effective food storage tips, you can play your part in reducing food waste and creating a more sustainable food system.

Tell us in the comments:

• How do you store your produce?

• Which one of the 11 tips to reduce food waste from the video will you try first?

• What’s your favorite way to use up produce that’s nearing its end?

Featured Image: iStock.com/VioletaStoimenova

Read Next:

• How To Reduce Food Waste
• How to Use Food Scraps to Reduce Kitchen Waste

The post How to Cook: How to Keep Produce Fresh to Avoid Food Waste appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Deciphering recipe terminology, like “prep ahead” or “divided,” can mean the difference between stress and confusion in the kitchen versus cooking with ease and efficiency.

Without a clear understanding of the nuances of recipe language, it can be intimidating to attempt a recipe, especially if the cuisine is new to you.

Whether you’re curious about plant-based eating or have already gotten your feet wet a bit, understanding the elements of a recipe, including measurements and cooking techniques, will help you successfully create memorable meals.

In this article and video, we’ll explore the art of reading a recipe and crafting culinary masterpieces in your own kitchen.

Why Follow a Recipe?

You may be wondering, what’s the big deal? Do you even need to follow a recipe to make something great? Technically, no. But if you’re inexperienced in the kitchen and have never really attempted to create something new, there are a number of reasons why following a recipe is beneficial.

Achieve Consistency in the Kitchen

A good recipe is tried-and-true, meaning it’s been tested and turns out pretty consistently every time you make it. Following a recipe is a more reliable method for cooking than just winging it and hoping the flavor combinations and measurements you’ve included will work together.

When reading a recipe, you can follow the measurements, instructions, and cooking times to get the end result that the recipe developer intended. This is especially important when faced with unfamiliar ingredients or new culinary techniques. Although your creation may not always look as good as the mouthwatering photo in the cookbook or food blog, it will hopefully taste just as good.

Learn By Doing

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

Aristotle

Recipes can be valuable learning tools, whether you’re new to the kitchen or an experienced cook. They provide guidance on cooking techniques, ingredient combinations, and flavor profiles.

If you stumble upon an enticing recipe that has new-to-you ingredients or unfamiliar cooking techniques, go for it! Consider expanding your culinary knowledge and strengthening your kitchen confidence by fully embracing and making the recipe.

Because no matter the outcome of a recipe, there’s always room for some takeaway wisdom.

Sometimes, you’ll have recipes that look just like the photo and taste exactly how you expected, and sometimes you’ll have recipes that look like you spun them through a washing machine a few times. Cooking mistakes happen to the best of us (even seasoned recipe developers!). The key is learning from the experience and understanding what you can do differently next time. Or relish in the fact that you tried, and move on to the next dish!

Manage Your Time and Resources

Following a recipe can also help you determine whether a dish is suitable for your lifestyle.

Take a look at the preparation and cooking time in a recipe. If you have two full-time jobs, a family of four, and five foster dogs, a recipe with over an hour of prep or cooking time may not be suited to you. Instead, you may want to opt for recipes that use simple ingredients and require little preparation.

Recipes also often have a list of tools or equipment needed to replicate a dish. Obviously, if a recipe calls for an air fryer, and you don’t own one, you may want to turn the page or scroll to the next recipe. Although sometimes substitutions may work, they may take longer to do the same job.

By assessing the required time and resources to cook something, you’ll set yourself up for success and a stress-free experience in the kitchen.

What’s in a Recipe?

Now that you understand why following a recipe is important, let’s take a closer look at each recipe component.

• Recipe Name: The recipe name will often give you an indication of its origins, flavor, and main ingredients.
• Prep Time: The time it takes to prepare ingredients before cooking.
• Cook Time: The time it takes to cook ingredients.
• Serving Size or Yield: Lets you know how much a recipe makes and for how many people. It can help determine whether you need to halve the ingredient list if you’re cooking for one or double the ingredients if you’re feeding a family of six.
• Ingredients and Measurements: What you need to grab from the grocery store to make a recipe and which measuring utensils you’ll need. (Tip: Before making your ingredient shopping list, check what’s lurking in the fridge that can be used in your dish!)

Looking to convert a digital recipe from metric to standard or standard to metric? Try a recipe converter site like Whisk or Cooking Recipe Converter.

• Here’s a common list of cooking measurements:
  • dash – less than ⅛ teaspoon
  • pinch – 1/16 teaspoon
  • scant – when a recipe calls for a measurement, don’t use the full measurement. Instead, use slightly less than the given amount.
  • tsp – teaspoon
  • tbsp – tablespoon
  • c – cup
  • pt – pint
  • qt – quart
  • oz – ounce
  • lb – pound
  • doz – dozen
  • ml – milliliter
  • l – liter
  • g – gram
  • min – minute
  • hr – hour

• Instructions or Directions: Step-by-step details on how to create the recipe. It’s always good to give the instructions one good read before you start the recipe. See our How to Cook: Where to Start in the Kitchen article for more details around that. You’ll also learn what cooking methods are needed, as well as the equipment and cooking utensils you’ll need by reading the instructions.
• Chef Notes: If there are additional notes, make sure to read those as well. There may be ingredient substitutions that work better for you or suggested equipment that can be used in place of what’s listed in the instructions (for example, an immersion blender can oftentimes be used in place of a blender).
• Nutrition Information: Finally, if you follow a particular nutrition plan, you may want to see if nutritional information accompanies the recipe to make sure it’s a good fit for you and your family.

How to Read a Recipe Video: What You’ll Learn

Now, let’s put it all together. Watch the video below to learn:

• Why you should always read recipes all the way through first
• How to plan and prep your ingredients
• Whether to follow measurements provided or adjust
• Why you should pay attention to cooking times and take notes on how a recipe turned out

Recipes to Try Your Hand At

Now that you (hopefully!) have a better understanding of how to read a recipe and what you can expect when following a recipe, it’s time to put it into practice!

1. Cinnamon Oat Bars

Cinnamon Oat Bars are a harmonious blend of wholesome fiber, healthy fats, and plant-based protein. These breakfast bars are designed to help you feel energized and satiated and, most importantly, a pro at following a recipe! Although this recipe may seem a bit involved, the joy you’ll feel once you bite into your first homemade oat bar is priceless!

2. Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chickpeas and Kale

Just 10 easy steps, roughly 10 ingredients, and only 30 minutes stand between you and a scrumptious bowl of Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chickpeas and Kale. Umami-rich mushrooms, pungent onions, and aromatic garlic perfectly flavor the soup base, while mineral-rich kale and protein-rich chickpeas add wonderful texture, flavor, and nutrients. The key to success with this recipe is making sure all the ingredients are prepped and ready to go before you begin! (Mise en place, anyone?)

3. Moroccan Bulgur Bowl with Savory Orange Dressing

Sweet, savory, chewy, crunchy, and delicious — Moroccan Bulgur Bowl with Savory Orange Dressing hits almost every flavor profile while delivering superb plant-based nutrition! Not only will you learn to expertly combine the five tastes, you’ll also learn how to prepare ingredients that may be less familiar to you. Take the leap! We promise this recipe will not disappoint!

Become a Pro at Reading Recipes!

If you’re an aspiring cook, reading a recipe is a fundamental skill for recreating appetizing dishes in your own kitchen. And if you’re a seasoned cook, understanding the language of recipes can assist you in experimenting with new flavors and help to expand your culinary repertoire.

By familiarizing yourself with the various elements of a recipe, interpreting measurements accurately, and grasping cooking techniques and preparation methods, you can confidently approach any recipe with ease. And with practice and experience, you’ll become a skilled recipe reader, able to adapt and customize just about any plant-based recipe to suit your preferences.

Tell us in the comments:

• What recipe element catches your eye first (photo, ingredients, name, type of cuisine)?

• What surprised you in learning why it’s important to follow a recipe?

• Which recipe will you try first?

Featured Image: iStock.com/kupicoo

Read Next:

• How to Cook: Knife Skills, Mise en Place, & Cooking Without Oil

The post How to Cook: How to Read a Recipe appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Making dietary changes (or any change for that matter!) comes with a bit of a learning curve and adjustment period. Change isn’t always easy, but when it’s for your betterment, it’s typically worth it in the long run. Plus, it often presents an opportunity for learning and growth.

While you may have many burning questions about plant-based eating, the intention of this article is to provide a variety of tips and tricks on how to simply get started cooking. By the time you’re done with this article, you will hopefully feel confident enough to create delicious and nutritious plant-based meals on a regular basis.

Watch the how-to video below to find out the 10 tips (plus one bonus tip!) on how to start cooking and becoming a better plant-based chef. And at the end of this article, you’ll even get three delicious recipes to choose from in order to get your plant-based recipe library going.

Now let’s get started!

Getting Started Cooking and Preparing Plant-Based Meals

First and foremost, if creating plant-based dishes is a goal for you, try to treat it as a fun experience. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when trying new things. But letting go of expectations can help to ease the pressure. Focus on progress over perfection.

Even the most experienced plant-based recipe creators can have a disaster in the kitchen every so often (some more than others… I’m speaking from experience here!). But there are two big things that help with kitchen mess-ups — having a compost bin handy and treating each mess-up as a learning experience.

Using Recipes as a Guide

Once you’ve adjusted your mindset to allow for mistakes, you’ll also need to figure out what exactly to cook. And where will you get the recipe from?

Consider your favorite type of cuisine and start there. Maybe it’s Asian flavors or Italian seasonings that you love. Look for cookbooks and recipes that incorporate these flavors.

Or perhaps you already have a few recipes that you know and love but are traditionally made with animal products. Can you find a plant-based version of that recipe online or in a cookbook?

For those of you preparing meals for the entire family, think about what meals you enjoy most together (pizza, tacos, and pasta ring as tried-and-true favorites for many!) and try creating plant-based versions of these.

You may encounter foods that are new to you, such as tofu or tempeh, or specific flavor profiles that may take a little time and practice to perfect. This is where investing in a few good plant-based cookbooks or bookmarking a few plant-based recipe sites will be super helpful.

Through tried and tested recipes, you can get guidance on things like how to make tofu crispy or how to blend just the right amount of seasonings to create a restaurant-worthy Indian dish. And as you keep practicing, you’ll start to become a plant-based chef in your own right.

Keeping Your Kitchen Stocked

Once you start creating a few plant-based recipes, you’ll notice that your cabinets and fridge naturally start to fill up with plant-based foods (that’s the goal!).

You may also want to stock your pantry on a regular basis so that you’re equipped with staples like legumes, whole grains, and condiments.

Visit our How to Cook: Healthy Plant-Based Pantry Essentials article to find out how to set up a plant-based pantry.

Try to create some space in your schedule to plan a few meals, shop for ingredients, and prep meals for the week ahead.

It may take a little investment in time and energy at first, but the more you get used to shopping and cooking this way, the more efficient and relaxed you’ll be in the kitchen.

Navigating Your Kitchen

Another essential step to getting started in the kitchen is making sure you have the right tools — and knowing where everything is.

You may want to do an inventory of your existing kitchen tools and appliances to see what you have on hand and what you might need. A good chef’s knife, wood cutting board, and perhaps a food processor or blender are all recommended starting points. If you’d like further guidance on kitchen tools, visit our guide on 27 Useful Kitchen Tools (+3 Bonus Tools) to Make Cooking Easier.

In addition to tools, you’ll also want to make sure you have a dedicated prep station to chop food and organize your mise en place. Keeping this space clean will also help to keep your mind clear for a stress-free cooking experience.

It’s also a good idea to arrange your kitchen in a way that makes sense for preparing food. Doing so will save you time and keep you organized. For example, keep pots and pans near the stove and knives and measuring cups easily accessible to your prep station.

It also doesn’t hurt to have some beautifully photographed plant-based cookbooks on your countertops for a boost of inspiration when you need it!

Tips on How to Start Cooking Plant-Based Meals

Watch the video below to get 10 tips (and one bonus tip!) to help you get started in the kitchen, have fun, and stay inspired when creating plant-based recipes.

Recipes to Help Get You Started

No kitchen intimidation here! You’ll be having fun in the kitchen in no time thanks to these simple, nourishing, and vibrant plant-based recipes. Each one of these recipes helps you to develop a different set of skills in the kitchen. From chopping to sautéing to blending and beyond, you’ll be surprised at what you can create. With a bit of practice and patience, you’ll be a master of the cutting board and a champion of the stove (or whatever heating apparatus you use) sooner than you think!

1. Kale Walnut Basil Pesto

You’ll feel like a master in the kitchen in no time with this deliciously fresh and herby pesto sauce! Kale Walnut Basil Pesto is one of those versatile recipes that looks and tastes like it’s a complicated culinary masterpiece. But in reality, it’s made with seven simple ingredients, is ready in 10 minutes, and can add a bit of pizzazz and nutrition to a variety of meals (check out the Chef’s Notes for ideas!).

2. One-Pot Butter Bean Soup

Focusing on dishes that only require one pot is a great kitchen hack when you are looking to save time and serve a meal that comes together quickly. With only a 15-minute preparation time and less than 30 minutes of cooking time, all you have to do is chop, stir, simmer, and serve! One-pot meals are an easy and delightful way to hone your kitchen skills while serving nourishing and tasty meals that you can be proud of!

3. Simple Kung Pao Tofu and Broccoli

Now that you have a few of the basics down and your pantry is starting to look like a carnival of plant-based foods, perhaps it’s time to take a leap and add a few more ingredients into the mix. Simple Kung Pao Tofu and Broccoli is exactly as the name suggests — simple and restaurant-worthy! Don’t let the list of ingredients seem overwhelming (you’ve been practicing, remember?). The trick to making it a quick meal is having the rice ready to go and pressing the tofu ahead of time. The rest is as easy as (plant-based) pie — or, in this case, stir-fry!

Practice Makes Progress

We get it; cooking can be a challenge. Not only do you have to plan and find the time to prep and cook the meal, but you also have to make it tasty — that’s a big venture! It may feel daunting at times, not to mention time-consuming. Whether plant-based cooking is new to you or you’re a plant-powered aficionado, cooking can be a challenge.

But whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a moment to think about why you want to eat plant-based in the first place. And try adjusting your mindset from one of defeat to one of exploration.

Feel free to visit our How to Cook blog series anytime you need a little encouragement and support. Happy cooking!

Tell us in the comments:

• What is your mindset like when you try something new?

• Which plant-based meal will you create first?

• What’s one favorite family meal that is traditionally made with meat or dairy that you’d like to make with plants?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Wavebreakmedia

Read Next:

• A Guide to Going Plant-Based: What to Eat, Benefits, and How to Succeed
• 5 Common Mistakes Plant-Based Eaters Make and How to Avoid Them

The post How to Cook: Where to Start in the Kitchen appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Side note: After reciting the rhyme to my husband, he told me I had it all wrong and the rhyme goes like this: “Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot.” This was new to me! Maybe we need to take a poll on which is the correct rendition, but my argument is that legumes (the umbrella name that includes beans, peas, and lentils) are not fruit!

What I didn’t know, and would learn later in my adult life, was that beans are like a magical food that are a staple in many cultures around the world. In fact, beans are one of the common foods consumed by people who live in the Blue Zones, where longevity and quality of life rank the highest in the world. What’s fascinating is the variety of beans consumed and how they’re prepared in each country. For example, centenarians in Okinawa, Japan, enjoy stir-fries with soybeans or mung bean sprouts; folks in Nicoya, Costa Rica, love a hearty black beans and rice dish; and those in Sardinia, Italy, thrive on lentils, garbanzo beans, and white beans mixed into soups and salads.

Why Beans Get a Bad Reputation

There are certain groups in the health and wellness space that believe some compounds in beans, namely lectins and phytates, are poisonous. They’ve deemed them “antinutrients” because they bind essential minerals, like calcium, iron, and zinc, making these nutrients less available to us, and may also cause gastrointestinal discomfort. It’s true that eating raw beans may wreak havoc on your belly. However, when beans are soaked and cooked properly, a majority, if not all, of lectins and phytates are destroyed, making beans digestible with ease. What’s more, these “antinutrients” (we really need a new term for them) may offer protection against heart disease and cancer. In fact, lectins have been studied in clinical trials as an anticancer treatment.

Why Learn to Cook Beans & Other Legumes from Scratch?

At this point, you may want to open the canned beans sitting in your pantry and Google “chickpea recipes,” so you can make dinner tonight. That’s fantastic! However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the beauty of making beans from scratch.

Full disclosure: I was a canned bean girl myself for a very long time — until I tried chickpeas cooked in an Instant Pot. That was when I discovered that cooking beans from scratch is a game changer when it comes to texture and flavor.

Here are seven reasons to consider cooking beans from scratch, whether you’re a current canned bean lover, wannabe bean lover, or seasoned bean fanatic.

1. Eating freshly cooked beans is delightful. Beans cooked in a pressure cooker are a creamy, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth experience that is not to be missed. Don’t have a pressure cooker? No problem! Soaking and cooking beans on the stovetop can give you that same blissful bean-y experience (check out our How to Cook Beans Guide).
2. Cooking beans from scratch may result in more nutrition. Nutrients may be lost during the processing of canning beans. Compared to canned beans, dried beans have been found to have more protein, fiber, iron, potassium, and magnesium — and less sodium.
3. Cooking beans from dried is more economical. According to The Bean Institute, dried beans cost 15 cents a serving, store-brand canned beans cost 34 cents a serving, and national brands cost 48 cents a serving. These cents add up when you’re feeding beans to a family of four daily.
4. Cooking beans from scratch may help with tolerance. When you cook beans on the stovetop or in a pressure cooker, you can control the texture. This means that you, or people around you, won’t have a reason to recite the fun little bean rhyme.
5. Adding onions, garlic, or spices (the sky’s the limit!) during the cooking process creates the most flavorful bean, veggie, and spices combinations!
6. Avoiding cans can decrease your footprint on the planet. Purchasing dried beans in bulk creates less waste and uses fewer manufacturing processes, resulting in a smaller food-related environmental footprint.
7. Eliminating cans also eliminates any chemicals (like BPA) that might be found in the can. Keeping chemicals off your plate is important for health.

What You’ll Learn in the Video on Cooking Beans

In the video below you’ll learn how to cook three types of common beans or legumes:

• Lentils — cook lentils on the stovetop (no soaking required!)
• Chickpeas — soak then pressure cook, resulting in the creamiest chickpeas
• Black beans — learn how to make flavorful refried beans from your home-cooked black beans*

*Please refer to our How to Cook Beans Guide for directions on cooking black beans from scratch.

3 Legume Recipes You Can Cook from Scratch

Creating these three from-scratch legume recipes is simply a delight thanks to their bold flavors and creamy, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth textures. The bountiful benefits of these nourishing plant ingredients and the satisfaction of making your own from-scratch pot of beans are too good to pass up!

1. Spicy Spinach Lentil Soup

When it comes to a legume recipe that showcases lentils in all of their glory, this one is it! Spicy Spinach Lentil Soup offers versatility, lots of flavor, and plenty of wholesome nutrition. There is so much to love about this soup, you’ll find yourself making it again and again.

2. Buttery Instant Pot Rosemary and Garlic Chickpeas

Perfectly tender Buttery Instant Pot Rosemary and Garlic Chickpeas are one of those have-on-hand-at-all-times recipes — they’re that good. With savory garlic and herb-y rosemary added to the mix, you’ve got a delectable pot of nourishing chickpeas that is simply irresistible!

3. Pressure Cooker Monday Red Beans and Rice

A few minutes of prep is all you need to get a wholesome pot of homemade beans (and rice!) on your table with ease. We love a good set-and-forget-it recipe, and you will, too, after preparing these tasty Pressure Cooker Monday Red Beans and Rice. Don’t have a pressure cooker? Check out the Chef’s Notes for instructions on how to easily prepare these on the stovetop!

Get Cooking!

No matter how you enjoy beans — canned, frozen, or cooked from scratch — you’re fostering health for you, your family, and the planet, especially when your luscious legumes replace meat. Beans, peas, and lentils can easily supplant meat in satisfying and delicious veggie burgers, added to yummy tacos, tossed into a salad, used as a chili base, or blended into a veggie dip — and that’s just for starters! Plus, as the centenarians in the Blue Zones demonstrate, they deserve to be a staple in everyone’s diet.

Tell us in the comments:

• Which type of bean will you try to cook from scratch?
• Share your experience with canned beans vs cooked from scratch.
• Tell us how you love to eat beans!

Featured Image: iStock.com/FG Trade

Read Next:

• How to Cook Whole Grains
• How to Cook: Healthy Plant-Based Pantry Food Essentials

The post How to Cook Beans and Lentils from Scratch appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

A few things have happened in the modern, industrialized world, however, to turn people away from them:

• Manufacturers of consumer products have processed whole grains to their refined state, stripping them of their nutrition and selling them as convenience foods.
• Whole (healthy) grains have been lumped into the demonized “carb” category along with refined grains.
• Controversies, related to lectins and phytates, in particular, have convinced people to stop eating an entire category of what, for most, are healthy, whole, plant-based foods.

If you’ve been staying away from whole grains, I hope that this article and video will persuade you to give them at least a couple more chances. Think of them as a part of a Whole Grains 101 class.

First, I’m going to offer a recap of why you might want to consider cooking and eating them. Then, in the video, I’ll show you how to cook three types of grains to foster your newfound or newly rekindled love for them. Finally, you’ll find three delicious and easy-to-prepare whole grain recipes that incorporate a variety of nutritious grains.

Why Learn to Cook Whole Grains?

Are grains good for you? The emphatic answer is, yes!

Convenience foods with processed grains are unhealthy for us and contribute to inflammation and lifestyle diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. However, whole grains are quite different — they contribute to overall health. Studies show that whole grains are associated with:

• Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease
• Improved weight management
• Lower inflammation
• Reduced risk of type 2 diabetes
• Reduced risk of certain types of cancer

Researchers say this may in part be due to whole grains’ effects on gut health.

Experts also suggest that consuming a variety of whole grains is key for optimal health. However, as a result of grains’ negative reputation, many of us have limited experience cooking a variety of whole grains. We either end up consuming less than optimal amounts (at least three servings a day has been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease) or we eat only one or two types of grains as part of our regular diet (when, according to the Whole Grains Council, there are 22 varieties!).

Whole grains offer impressive culinary benefits, as well. They make a great “base” for many dishes.

Use them in:

• Bowls
• Chilies and soups
• Stir-fries
• Salads
• Burritos and wraps
• Hot cereal
• Side dishes

Grains are also versatile and can often be used interchangeably. For example, if a recipe calls for quinoa, you can easily substitute brown rice, millet, or buckwheat in its place. Talk about flexibility!

How to Cook Whole Grains — What You’ll Learn

In the “How to Cook: Whole Grains” video below, you’ll learn how to cook three types of whole grains:

• Quinoa — a quick-cooking, no-soaking-needed pseudo-grain
• Brown rice — a longer-cooking grain using a special technique
• Kamut — a hardy grain that requires both soaking before cooking and a longer cooking time

When purchasing whole grains, try to choose organic to minimize your pesticide exposure, in general, and avoid glyphosate, in particular.

Watch the video here:

For a printable list of whole grain and water amounts, soaking times, cooking times, and yield, check out our whole grains cooking guide.

3 Recipes to Practice Cooking Whole Grains

One of the beautiful things about grains is that they can be enjoyed any time of day and for any type of meal, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Please your tastebuds and your belly with a variety of whole grain goodness in the Overnight Three-Grain Breakfast Porridge. It’s got breakfast in its title, but the scrumptiously savory Harvest Grain Breakfast Bowl also makes a nourishing lunch (or dinner). And the Vibrant Bulgur, Kale, and Chickpea Salad uses quick-cooking bulgur wheat for a hearty and satisfying main or side salad that takes only 35 minutes to prep and cook. No matter which recipe, or recipes, you choose to try, have fun experimenting with whole grains!

1. Overnight Three-Grain Breakfast Porridge

Typically, quick-cooking grains like millet, quinoa, and teff don’t need to be soaked before cooking. However, they can certainly be soaked to lessen the cooking time even further. Soak these three nutritious grains overnight, while you sleep, so that cooking time in the morning is only 10 minutes! Add banana and berries, or any fruit of your choice, plus nuts or seeds, for a delightful and comforting meal to kickstart your day.

2. Harvest Grain Breakfast Bowl

Starting your day with a hearty bowl of breakfast grains can help to keep you satisfied throughout the morning. However, this savory bowl can truly be consumed any time of the day! Harvest Grain Breakfast Bowl calls for millet, but feel free to experiment with any organic whole grain you like. It’s packed with fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients from the grains and variety of colorful vegetables. It’s almost too pretty to eat! Tip: Prepare it the night before so the dressing has time to marinate the grains and veggies, creating even more delicious flavors (it’s great hot or cold!).

3. Vibrant Bulgur, Kale, and Chickpea Salad

Grains might not be the first ingredient that comes to mind when thinking about creating a satisfying salad, but they deserve to top the list! Whole grains add texture, nutrition, and flavor, and give a salad hearty deliciousness. As the name implies (vibrant!), this salad includes an array of radiant vegetables including kale, carrots, cabbage, and avocado, as well as bulgur wheat and pumpkin seeds, which make excellent additions to the colorful veggies. We can’t wait for you to try it — Vibrant Bulgur, Kale, and Chickpea Salad is magical!

Cook Grains to Add Texture & Nutrition to Meals!

Whole grains are a valuable part of a whole food, plant-based diet due to their nutritional value, culinary versatility, and contribution to optimal health. They’re used in every type of cuisine from Mexican to Italian to Middle Eastern and can be easily swapped between recipes. Whether quick-cooking, par-boiled, or pre-soaked, whole grains are easy to prepare.

Tell us in the comments:

• Which whole grain will you try first?
• After reading the article and watching the video, which new whole grain will you add to your pantry?
• What’s one new thing about whole grains that you learned after watching the video?

Feature Image: iStock.com/

Read Next in Our How to Cook Series:

• How to Cook: Knife Skills, Mise en Place, & Cooking Without Oil
• How to Cook: Healthy Plant-Based Pantry Food Essentials

The post How to Cook Whole Grains appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

It’s often the first thing taught to kids when they learn Mandarin Chinese, and it basically means, “How are you?”

Of course, that’s not how the greeting is written in Mandarin. That would be 你好吗. But Westerners trying to get around Beijing or Shanghai needed a way to render the Chinese characters into something they could recognize. And given the vast differences between Chinese and the vocalizations and worldviews of Romance and Germanic languages, this was no easy task.

For example, take the Mandarin syllable “ma.” Depending on the tone used by the speaker, it can mean mother, hemp, horse, or scold. Or, as in the case of the greeting above, it can transform a declarative statement into a question.

Can you see how this sort of ambiguity can make cross-language understanding a bit dicey? And that’s to say nothing of the famously cringeworthy attempts by Western companies to advertise in China — KFC’s “Finger-licking good” turned into “Eat your fingers off,” and Pepsi’s “Pepsi adds life” promised that “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.”

Enter one of the most important scholars of the 20th century, the Chinese linguist, poet, composer, and scholar Yuen Ren Chao. Blessed from an early age with a natural gift for languages and an exquisite ability to distinguish between very similar accents and dialects, Chao was instrumental in creating the Gwoyeu Romatzyh, a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in Roman characters. His system, unlike previous attempts, was flexible enough to prevent many of the ambiguities that can lead to translation errors and greatly facilitated cultural, scientific, and commercial exchanges between China and the West.

The Globalization of Chinese Food Through Stir-Fry

Unless you’re a Chinese speaker or an expert on Chinese history and culture, you may not be aware of the influence of Chao’s work on your life.

With one exception.

In 1945, Chao’s wife, the physician and writer Buwei Yang Chao, published an English language Chinese cookbook, How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, one of the first books to bring the techniques of Chinese cooking to America. She enlisted her linguist husband to translate some of the more unfamiliar terms and techniques. And in that book, the phrase “stir-fry” entered the English language.

Since the publication of the book, stir-frying has gone global. Many of the dishes you can order from a Westernized Chinese restaurant are stir-fries, as we call dishes prepared using the technique.

But cooked in unhealthy oils, high in sodium and sugar, and often high in animal products like chicken broth and beef, these entrées may hyperstimulate our taste buds at the expense of our health.

The good news is, it’s pretty easy to make delicious stir-fries at home. You can prepare them quickly, which makes them a good option for busy weeknights. They’re versatile and can accommodate a wide variety of ingredients, which means you can express your creativity in the kitchen. I’d bet that you can probably throw one together with whatever you’ve got in your fridge and freezer, or on your counter, right now.

And, of course, you have control over the ingredients, so you can make your stir-fries as healthy as you like, full of tasty and nutrient-rich, plant-based ingredients.

In this article, you’ll discover what you need to make a stir-fry, including different ingredient options and kitchen tools, and even how to stir-fry oil-free. Plus, you’ll get a handful of delicious, plant-based stir-fry recipes to try.

What Is Stir-Fry?

Stir-fry refers both to the cooking technique and the dish that technique creates. Traditionally, food is cooked in oil, in a wok or similar cooking pan, over high heat. The “stir” part means that you’re stirring rapidly to heat and sear the individual ingredients without letting them burn or turn mushy. As Chinese chef, Martin Yan is fond of saying, “Remember it’s called stir-fry, not stare fry — it means you keep tossing it, you don’t stand there and just stare at it.”

Stir-frying is similar to sautéing but done hotter and faster. Woks, with their small heated area and high sides, are ideally suited to this because they allow you to toss the ingredients well without them soaring out of the pan. (If I might be permitted a little pun in homage to Martin Yan, “It’s called stir-fry, not stir fly.”)

Because the heat is centered — and largely limited to — the bottom center of the pan, you can cook ingredients evenly by rotating them into the center and up to the cooler sides as needed.

Stir-fries often include meat, but it’s easy to omit. You can transition to purely plant-based stir-frying by using animal-free meat analogues, adding tofu or tempeh, or keeping it simple and just cooking fresh and frozen veggies along with any desired whole grains.

How to Make Stir-Fry

Let’s start with techniques, cover the equipment you’ll need, and then explore the wide variety of ingredients you can use in your stir-fries. We’ll finish up with a few stir-fry recipe examples to get you going.

There are three basic steps to stir-frying.

Step 1: Make a Sauce

The flavor profile of the many stir-fry sauces out there generally includes salty, sweet, and sometimes creamy. They’re often based on pungent or spicy ingredients, such as garlic, ginger, lemongrass, or chilies. Make enough to satisfy the culinary dictum, “No dry bites,” which refers to each solid element of the dish carrying at least some of the sauce on it.

Step 2: Cut and prep your ingredients

Because the timing and pacing are so important in stir-frying, having all your ingredients ready to go before you begin to heat your wok or pan is essential. Choose a shape and size for each ingredient that allows everything to cook evenly. You don’t want large raw pieces of broccoli alongside small florets that have turned to mush.

Some ingredients, like fresh produce, can go in as-is. Others, such as tofu and tempeh, can benefit from marinating in a sauce from 20 minutes to overnight.

Step 3: Adding in Stir-Fry Ingredients

Begin by heating your wok — don’t start adding ingredients or liquids to a cold wok.

The traditional method involves heating the wok first, then coating it in a thin film of oil and allowing it to get hot before adding the rest of the ingredients. One of the best oils for stir-fry is light sesame oil, because of its neutral flavor and high smoke point.

(The smoke point of an oil is the temperature at which it begins to smoke. Once an oil reaches this point, it gives off toxic fumes and starts producing free radicals that can create inflammation and lead to disease.)

Go easy on the sesame oil because of its high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. As a matter of principle, go easy on any oil in stir-frying; you’re looking to lightly coat, not submerge, your food.

An alternative with a more favorable fatty acid ratio, as well as a high smoke point, is avocado oil. (For more on the pros and cons of avocado oil, and how to get the “real thing,” click here.)

How to Stir Fry Without Oil

If you prefer oil-free stir fry, you can keep the food from burning or sticking with water, vegetable broth, (very) diluted soy sauce, or a soy sauce alternative (such as Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or Coconut Aminos), or some extra sauce from your recipe. If you aren’t using any oil, you’ll probably need to use lower temperatures, in general, in order to prevent sticking.

Depending on the quality of the wok and the evenness of the heat source, you may be able to begin stir-frying with a dry pan, adding liquid to prevent burning. Or you can start with the liquid.

One way to tell if the wok is hot enough is to splash a few drops of water onto its surface — if they ball together and “dance” for a couple of seconds before evaporating, you’re ready to start frying. (That’s only true of stainless steel — water droplets on non-stick pans will not exhibit this behavior.)

Do the Stir-Frying

Once the wok is hot, start adding your ingredients. If you’re using an uncooked protein-rich ingredient, such as marinated tofu, start with that one and stir-fry until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Next, add any spices to the wok and let them heat up to release their flavors.

Then toss in your veggies, one at a time, starting with the ones that take the longest to cook. You can keep laying ingredients in, or if you want to get more elaborate, you can remove early ingredients to a separate pan when they’re cooked, and add them back right before serving.

Just before the veggies are fully cooked, coat the entire contents of the wok with sauce and stir to mix it fully and evenly with the ingredients. You can add toppings directly into the wok before serving individual portions, or allow your diners to help themselves to the toppings once their meal has been plated.

Stir-Fry Pans & Other Cooking Tools

To create an authentic stir-fry in which the ingredients are cooked but still crispy, you need a pan that can produce sufficient heat, and that allows you to stir and toss ingredients somewhat vigorously.

If you don’t want to invest in a wok and you have a large pan, that could serve. For example, here’s a large cast-iron skillet that’s a reasonable alternative. The size and shape are somewhat wok-like.

If you choose to go with a wok, you can opt for Mandarin or Cantonese styles. Mandarin woks, such as this carbon-style model, have one long handle and a flat bottom, which makes them suitable for electric and induction burners. Cantonese woks come with two small handle grips, which make it easier to shake the whole pan to move the ingredients around. They also tend to have rounded bottoms, which are more appropriate for gas burners. (You may need a wok stand if your burner grill doesn’t provide enough stability or depth.) Here’s a cast-iron wok (with a flat bottom) that is relatively inexpensive.

Stir-fries are generally served on top of noodles or grains, which you’ll cook in a separate pot. We’re big fans of Xtrema here at Food Revolution Network. Here’s a really nice ceramic stock pot (that won’t work on an induction stove) which you can get in sizes ranging from 1.5 to 5.5 quarts. There’s also a lot to love about the Instant Pot.

Utensils for the actual stirring will also come in handy. While technically lots of things can do this job, including regular wooden spatulas or even stainless steel stirring spoons (for metal pans only), you may enjoy using a tool designed specifically for the task, such as this bamboo-handled wok spatula (again, for metal surfaces only).

A sharp chef’s knife will make cutting the veggies not only easier but much safer than using a dull knife. If you like the shape and feel of German kitchen knives, this Zwilling 8” chef’s knife is a high-quality and relatively inexpensive choice.

A couple of optional tools you might want to check out once you commit to wok life (or, as Lou Reed might have put it, taking a “wok on the wild side”) are a wok brush, which you can use to clean your wok without scratching it, and a wok spoon, which can serve double duty as a stirrer and serving ladle.

Stir-Fry Ingredients

Now that you know how to stir-fry and what equipment to use, let’s talk about the food itself. The heart of your plant-based stir-fry will be your veggies. You can be minimalist, and limit a dish to a single veggie, such as the ubiquitous broccoli, or the always-better-in-season and less common asparagus. Or you can mix and match, experimenting with different combinations. An easy first step is to let someone else decide for you, by dumping the contents of a stir-fry veggie mix, either fresh or frozen, into your hot wok.

Best Stir Fry Veggies

Here’s a short list of the veggies you might consider including in your stir-fry:

• Stir-fry vegetable mixes (fresh or frozen)
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Bok choy or other cruciferous greens
• Bean sprouts
• Bell peppers
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Carrots
• Baby corn
• Snap peas
• Bamboo shoots (either canned, frozen, or fresh from an Asian grocery store)

Chewy and Umami Stir-Fry Ingredients

To add chewiness and/or umami flavor, you can add any of the following meat-free (and generally protein-rich) options:

• Organic tofu
• Organic tempeh
• Organic seitan (can be very tasty, though definitely not gluten-free)
• Commercially produced meat analogues
• Organic edamame (fresh soybeans)
• Nuts
• Jackfruit (learn more about this versatile fruit that you cook like a vegetable and that can taste like chicken shreds or pulled pork)
• Mushrooms (button, shiitake, Lion’s Mane, portobello, etc.)

Stir-Fry Bases

The base of your stir-fry, usually noodles or rice, should be able to soak up the flavors of the sauce and stand up to the veggies. If you’re avoiding gluten, some varieties of Asian noodles that aren’t made from wheat include rice and mung bean noodles, and noodles made from sweet potato starch and kelp.

Rice is a common stir-fry base. You can keep the rice separate from the veggies until you mix them in a bowl or plate, or you can add cooked rice to the wok with the rest of the ingredients to create a fried rice dish. Other grains that you can use the same way include quinoa, wild rice, buckwheat, and millet.

If you’re avoiding all grains and cereals, you can still rock a wok. Serve the stir-fry over cauliflower rice, or spiralize zucchini or sweet potatoes to mimic noodles. You can even use a crunchy-leaf variety of lettuce such as Boston, Bibb, or butter.

(Optional) Fruit in Stir-Fry?

Some tropical fruits can add sweet and/or sour notes that meld nicely with a sauce. These include pineapple and mango. You might also experiment with certain dried fruits, too, such as raisins and currants.

Vegan Stir-Fry Sauces

You can try many different kinds of (organic) soy sauce-based sauces on your journey to becoming a soy sauce-based sauce sorcerer (and don’t get me started on where to source the soy sauce for your soy sauce-based sauces). What I’m trying to say, before you get too ex-sauced-ted, is that it can be fun to make your own stir-fry sauce.

You can use tamari (we generally prefer reduced-sodium), which is a soy sauce made without wheat (or with very little; if you’re gluten-sensitive or intolerant, be sure to read the label), or avoid the soy entirely and add a little sweetness with coconut aminos.

To add depth of taste and some healthy fats, you can try nut or seed butter sauces that may include peanut butter, tahini or ground sesame seeds, cashews or cashew butter, or sunflower seeds or sunflower butter.

Stir-Fry Seasoning with Herbs & Spices

To ramp up the flavor and health of your stir-fries, generously include your favorite herbs and spices. Here’s a short list of stir-fry all-stars.

• Ginger
• Garlic
• Onion
• Lemongrass
• Chinese 5-spice
• Whole peppercorns
• Chili pastes or chili sauces (Thai and others)

Stir-Fry Toppings

A good topping can add a complementary flavor or texture to a stir-fry, as well as adding visual appeal. Here are some suggestions for healthy stir-fry toppings:

• Sesame seeds (black or white)
• Seaweed flakes
• Kimchi and other fermented vegetables
• Jalapeños or other hot peppers (fusion anyone?)
• Fresh herbs like Thai basil or cilantro
• Green onions

Vegan Stir-Fry Recipes

As it’s been said, variety is the spice of life. But, in this case, stir-fry is the spice of life! Whether you are a stir-fry connoisseur or a newbie, these vegan and plant-based stir-fry recipes are sure to become staples in your culinary repertoire!

Sweet Chili Broccoli and Tofu Stir-Fry is the best of both worlds with sweet and spicy notes that are deliciously satisfying. Coconut Red Curry Tempeh and Veggies takes inspiration from classic Thai curry dishes, but you might find our version a bit lighter and, of course, it’s brimming with nutrition! Veggie Lo Mein is a stir-fried masterpiece — who doesn’t love a good noodle to veggie ratio? And Ginger Carrot Edamame Noodles is an updated twist on traditional Asian noodle flavors that’s bursting with fresh and savory flavors.

Savory Bok Choy Stir-Fry delivers a surprising delight that is sure to be a new favorite way to eat leafy greens! And speaking of surprises, Kimchi “Fried” Rice is a game-changer if you want fried rice with all the taste and none of the oil. Last but not least, with its somewhat tangy, slightly spicy, and delightfully aromatic sauce, Spicy Peanut Tofu and Broccoli is a must-try. No matter which stir-fry you choose, we hope you have a blast while you rock your wok!

1. Sweet Chili Broccoli and Tofu Stir-Fry

Crispy baked tofu, tender broccoli, and chili sauce add a little sweetness with a kick to our stir-fry roundup! Ready for some fun nutrition facts? Cruciferous veggies like broccoli contain a powerful phytonutrient, called sulforaphane, which has been shown in research studies to prevent certain types of cancer and protect your heart. Tofu has plenty of nutrition thanks to its essential minerals like calcium, iron, and selenium. The combination of baked tofu with oil-free, stir-fried veggies and sweet chili sauce is not only wholesome but a recipe for the entire family.

2. Coconut Red Curry Tempeh and Veggies

Does curry count as stir-fry? For us it sure does! Creamy, light coconut milk is combined with red curry paste and tamari to create a velvety sweet and slightly spicy cooking sauce that is delightful in this one-wok meal. Red curry paste contains ingredients, such as ginger and lemongrass, that have anti-inflammatory, gut-loving, and immune-supporting properties. Toss it with protein- and fiber-packed tempeh plus broccoli — or any veggies you love or would love to use up! — for a meal that is creamy, dreamy, and delicious.

3. Veggie Lo Mein

Lo mein may be one of the most popular Asian wok meals on the planet — and for good reason. Noodles tossed in a savory sauce with crunchy veggies and hearty (plant-based) protein are fun to eat, not to mention absolutely delicious. These Veggie Lo Mein noodles are just as satisfying as the restaurant version, but with even more colors, textures, and nutrition for you (and your body!) to enjoy.

4. Ginger Carrot Edamame Noodles

Feeling inspired to think outside of the stir-fry box? Ginger Carrot Edamame Noodles are an updated twist on traditional Asian noodle flavors. Bright, colorful, and full of flavor in every bite, this dish serves up protein, fiber, prebiotics, probiotics, and plenty of phytonutrients. There’s no shortage of plant-based goodness here!

5. Savory Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Bok choy is a beloved staple in Asian cuisine and holds up well to the high heat of a wok, which makes it a star ingredient in many stir-fry recipes. It has a milder flavor and aroma than green cabbage, not to mention it’s brimming with calcium. This dish is bursting with flavors and textures, as well as minerals from the bok choy, fiber from the rice, and phytonutrients from the ginger and garlic. We hope you’ll agree that this restaurant-style Savory Bok Choy Stir-Fry is simple to prepare and absolutely delicious!

6. Kimchi “Fried” Rice

Depending on your knowledge of Korean cuisines, kimchi may be a new food experience for you. Kimchi “Fried” Rice is an excellent way to expand your culinary palate, cooking skills, and, perhaps most fun, your stir-fry repertoire. Our sautéed, not-fried, version includes traditional rice and piquant kimchi along with plenty of broccoli, carrots, peppers, and snap peas. Topped with nuts and seeds, it also offers healthy plant-based fat, protein, lots of phytonutrients, and some fun crunch!

7. Spicy Peanut Tofu and Broccoli

There are few things better, in our humble opinions than a warm bowl of broccoli cooked to perfection. Combine it with satisfyingly spiced peanut sauce and crispy baked tofu to take the nourishing and delightful crucifer to the next level. A classic takeout menu item, Food Revolution Network’s version of Spicy Peanut Tofu and Broccoli is a scrumptious and wholesome meal you can feel good about serving any night of the week.

Say Yes to Healthy, Plant-Based Stir-Fry!

Stir-fries can be a healthy and nutritious addition to your recipe rotation. They’re relatively quick and easy to make and don’t require a lot of fancy or expensive equipment. You can make a stir-fry with many different types of plant foods like vegetables, protein-rich legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grains, spices, and even some types of fruit. And when you make your own at home, you can control what goes into your stir-fry to avoid unhealthy ingredients that you might not be able to avoid with restaurant dishes.

Tell us in the comments:

• What’s your favorite stir-fry dish?
• Do you use a wok in your cooking? If so, what’s your favorite thing about it?
• What’s one stir-fry recipe you’re looking forward to trying soon?

Feature Image: iStock.com/zeljkosantrac

Read Next:

• Power Bowls: 10 Easy & Nutritious All-in-One Meals
• 11 Whole Foods Plant-Based Recipes from Around the World

The post How to Make Vegan Stir-Fry Recipes That are Better Than Takeout appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Clearly, this isn’t your ordinary vegetable we’re talking about here. The artichoke has incited passions from its earliest domestication in the Mediterranean region. The Latin name for the plant, Cynara cardunculus, honors the mythical Cynara, a beautiful Sicilian maiden that the god Zeus pursued, made immortal, and then banished from Mount Olympus and turned into an artichoke after she sneaked away to visit her mother.

As members of the spiky thistle family, artichokes can be intimidating. It’s not obvious how to eat an artichoke — try taking a big bite out of the petals and you may end up with a bloody mouth. And they’re not common dinner fare — you may only come across them in the appetizer section of fancy restaurants, pickled on the occasional salad bar, or perhaps in some traditional Italian dishes.

If you don’t know how to cook an artichoke, or how to eat it once cooked, you’re not alone. And our article will change that, because, despite their odd configuration, artichokes are well worth the effort to get to know and love. In this article, we’ll go over nutritional facts about artichokes — why they’re good for you — as well as how to choose, store, prepare, cook, and eat them.

What Is an Artichoke?

The artichoke, also known as a French or Globe artichoke to distinguish it from the fabulous but totally distinct root vegetable called Jerusalem artichoke, is a vegetable related to the daisy. It’s been the official vegetable of California since 2013 when it beat out avocados in a radio station listeners’ poll.

Originating from inedible thistles, the artichoke is the product of long and intensive cultivation that has created not just a tasty food, but an incredibly nutritious one as well.

Artichoke is a perennial plant native to the Mediterranean region, where 90% of the world’s crop is produced (largely in Spain and Italy). In the US, 99.99% of the domestic crop grows in California. Most artichokes are green, but there are some purple varieties as well. You can also find baby artichokes that are smaller and more tender than their adult cousins.

The truly edible portion of the plant consists of the flesh of the green petals, the center of the stem, and the inner artichoke heart. Attempting to eat the thistly portion in the center of the vegetable can really put the “choke” in artichoke.

It’s one of the realities of our times that food companies aren’t interested in your health, and most doctors don’t know much about food. As if to prove the point, a Miami doctor succeeded in eating an entire artichoke at a restaurant — including the hard leaves. His subsequent pain led him to the hospital, where a laparoscopy discovered undigested leaves lodged in his bowels. In his lawsuit against the restaurant, the physician accused them of not training their wait staff to instruct patrons on the “proper method of consuming an artichoke.” Suggestion: Don’t go to that doctor for advice on how to eat fruits and vegetables.

Artichoke Nutrition Facts

Artichokes pack a powerful nutritional punch. In addition to being a rich source of phytochemicals and antioxidants, artichokes also provide magnesium, potassium, niacin, and folate. Your average artichoke contains almost six grams of fiber, some of which comes in the form of the fabulous prebiotic fiber called inulin.

Inulin is a big deal because it directly feeds and supports the growth and maintenance of colonies of beneficial gut bacteria. It also increases your body’s absorption of certain nutrients, including calcium.

Artichokes have strong antioxidant properties. These are attributed in part to a plant metabolite known as caffeoylquinic acid (which works in part by stimulating your liver to produce bile), as well as flavonoids such as luteolin (which has nothing to do with medieval guitars) and glycosides (compounds in which one or more sugars are combined with nonsugar molecules).

Artichoke nutrition for 1 large fresh artichoke: 76 calories, 17g carbs, 5g protein, 9g fiber, 152mg sodium, 599mg potassium (USDA)

Are Artichokes Good for You?

With all that good stuff, it’s no surprise that artichokes demonstrate beneficial effects on a host of diseases and conditions. Let’s explore the health benefits of artichokes and artichoke hearts.

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Artichoke leaf extract (ALE), a supplement derived (can you guess?) from artichoke leaves, has been shown to improve liver function in both humans and mice with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.) The human study followed 100 people with NAFLD for 2 months — half took 600 mg of ALE daily, while the other half got a placebo. The ALE recipients experienced significantly better liver function and a healthier lipid panel than the control group.

Digestion

The prebiotics in artichokes can aid in digestion. A 2015 study out of Argentina found that powdered artichoke fed beneficial strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. A 2020 study simulated the human gut microbiome ecosystem in a test tube, and determined that a compound made from artichokes called artichoke aqueous dry extract (AADE) increased the population of beneficial bifidobacteria by 2,500%.

Cancer

There’s been a lot of interest in artichoke’s potential role as a cancer fighter. A 2015 study showed that some polyphenols from the edible parts of the artichoke were able to induce apoptosis (self-destruction) in a line of human breast cancer cells. Egyptian researchers in 2020 found that an extract of artichoke, including the leaves, was able to kill mouth cancer cells.

ALE has been shown to induce apoptosis in certain colon cancer cell strains, and an isolated compound from artichoke leaves, cynaropicrin, has been found to slow the proliferation of thyroid cancer.

Cardiovascular Disease

An unhealthy ratio of LDL (“bad”) to HDL (“good”) cholesterol is a significant precursor and presumed cause of much cardiovascular disease. ALE was one of a number of plant-derived foods found to increase the concentrations of good cholesterol in people with mildly high cholesterol. A 2013 study out of Italy showed that ALE not only increased HDL cholesterol in overweight adults but also lowered LDL and total cholesterol compared to those in the placebo group. And a systematic review and meta-analysis of multiple studies, published in 2021, concluded that artichoke supplementation may significantly reduce blood pressure.

Metabolic Health

Artichokes appear to benefit metabolic health by aiding the body in metabolizing fat for energy, rather than storing it in adipose tissue. A 2018 mouse study found that a couple of different artichoke extracts, including one with luteolin, prevented insulin resistance and inflammation even in animals who were being fed an unnaturally high-fat diet.

Skin Health

It turns out that artichoke, a vegetable named for the scales of a fish, may do wonders for your skin. Italian researchers in 2018 found that artichoke polyphenols blended into a cosmetic cream produced antiaging effects by improving the integrity and function of skin cells.

When are Artichokes Bad for You? (Potential Risks)

Artichokes are pretty awesome, but there are a couple of concerns that you should know about. It’s rare for anyone to have an allergic reaction caused by consuming artichoke. Very occasionally, an artichoke can trigger oral allergy syndrome in someone highly sensitive to ragweed.

Also, artichokes are so high in fiber, they can cause gas and bloating if you suddenly consume large quantities when your digestive system isn’t used to processing a lot of fiber. The solution typically isn’t to avoid artichokes and other high-fiber foods — rather, it’s to train your gut to handle more and more fiber over time, so you can get the benefits of a high-fiber diet without the discomfort.

The main health danger associated with artichokes is how they’re prepared and what they’re served with. If you cook artichokes at home, you’ll likely steam or bake them. But artichokes served at restaurants are sometimes fried, so before you order an artichoke appetizer at a restaurant, ask how it’s prepared.

Artichokes are often served with a potentially artery-clogging dipping sauce like butter or egg-based aioli. It’s not uncommon for people to regard the artichoke leaves as more of a delivery mechanism for salt and fat than as a food in and of themselves. That’s regrettable for many reasons, including that too much added salt and fat overpower and obscure the more subtle but deeply delicious flavor of artichokes.

You can avoid dairy and egg dipping sauces by making a vegan aioli using tofu instead of dairy, or aquafaba as the egg replacement (you might just find one of those recipes below). Or keep things simple by dipping your artichoke leaves in lemon juice and herbs instead.

How to Choose and Store an Artichoke

Artichokes have two main seasons, early spring and late summer/early fall. Whole fresh artichokes can be expensive, so it’s important to know how to find ripe ones that are going to be delicious.

One thing you’ll notice is that artichokes vary a lot in size. Typically, the larger ones are more highly prized (unless, of course, we’re talking about the baby variety, in which case good things do come in small packages) as they have more food relative to the thistle, which also makes them more expensive per edible pound. Look for heads with leaves that are tightly closed.

Artichokes are gendered vegetables, and some foodies claim that the female ones taste better. If you want to put this to the test yourself, compare artichokes with rounded petals that point inward (female) to those with straight petals that point up (male).

Whatever your artichoke’s gender, look for globes that are firm and heavy. Avoid heads with a slimy or overly dry stem. And listen carefully, as an artichoke will actually speak to you when it’s ready to eat. That is, hold it up to your ear and squeeze. A perfectly ready artichoke will give a little squeak, courtesy of the firm leaves that indicate ripeness.

In terms of pesticides, artichokes are pretty much average. They don’t make either the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen or Clean Fifteen lists. And even though residue is reasonably low on the vegetable once it makes it to your supermarket, the chemicals used to treat artichokes still harm farmworkers. Plus they contribute to the decline of important pollinators, such as bees, and they pollute soil and groundwater. So it’s best to choose organic varieties when possible, or buy from local farmers and ask them about their pesticide applications.

You can store fresh artichokes in the refrigerator crisper drawer for up to two weeks. Don’t wash them until you’re ready to cook them. Once cooked, you can freeze the hearts and keep them for about 10 months in an airtight container.

How to Prep and Cook an Artichoke

If you’re going to buy a whole artichoke, you’re committing to a certain amount of time for both preparing and eating it. Embrace the slowness of the process, as that’s one of the vegetable’s charms.

To prep an artichoke for cooking, start by cutting off the top with a sharp kitchen knife. Next, snip off the remaining petal tips with scissors or a knife, to remove the thorns. If there’s more than two inches of stem protruding from the bottom of the globe, cut off any excess. Do this both to remove the bitter stem, and to save space in your cooking pot.

Here’s a video, complete with piano music perfect for a silent movie scene of a scheming villain, that demonstrates most of this process.

Now that your artichoke is prepped, you have a few options when it comes to cooking. Steaming artichokes is one of the most popular ways to cook them, but it takes a long time, especially if you’re preparing more than one at a time. You can steam it by placing the prepared artichoke on a rack above an inch or two of boiling water in a stockpot. Cover and steam for 25–45 minutes, depending on size, or until a petal near the center pulls out easily.

You can shorten this process by using a pressure cooker such as an Instant Pot to cook artichokes. Place the artichoke on the rack, and add one cup of water and seasonings as desired. Seal the cooker and let cook at pressure for 13 minutes. Do a quick pressure release (avoid the steam!) and test the artichoke to make sure it doesn’t get overcooked and mushy.

We prefer steaming to boiling artichokes because so many nutrients get lost in the water. However, you can boil an artichoke for 20 to 40 minutes. Tip: Save the water to use in vegetable stock or for cooking grains!

You can also bake or roast whole artichokes in a 400–425° F (200–220° C) oven for 60–80 minutes. To grill artichokes, cut them in half vertically and place them cut-side-down on the grill for 8 to 10 minutes, until they’re done to your preference.

How to Eat an Artichoke

There are two edible parts of a whole artichoke, the fleshy part at the base of each petal, and the heart. Start eating by pulling the leaves off the head and stripping off the petal “meat” with your teeth. If you like, dip the end of the petal into a sauce of your choice.

Once you’ve pulled off all the petals with edible bottoms, you’ll encounter thinner, flimsier petals with little flesh to eat. Remove these (nibbling on as many as you like, if you have the patience). Then use a spoon to scoop the choke (the thistly bit) out from the middle, to get to the artichoke heart, which has a tender, meaty vegetable flavor that’s a delicate combination of slightly sweet and slightly bitter.

If cooking and eating fresh artichoke sounds like more trouble than it’s worth (Narrator: “It isn’t”), frozen hearts are another good option. You can add them to stews and sauces, and roast or bake them with other vegetables.

Canned artichoke hearts are also available but often have added salt and preservatives that can compromise both health and flavor. Plus, metal cans often have interior linings that contain BPA, a hardening agent that’s linked to endocrine disruption and several health problems.

You can also get marinated artichokes in glass jars. While the packaging is fine, these products tend to be high in sodium and contain omega-6-loaded and/or GMO/BE oils, as well as preservatives.

You can enjoy artichokes hot out of the steamer or oven, or you can enjoy them cold. Here’s a short list of ideas for eating whole artichokes:

• By themselves or with a dipping sauce
• Grilled with other vegetables

And here’s where you can add canned or frozen hearts:

• Cold salads
• Pasta
• Dips (like spinach artichoke dip)
• Hot or cold soups
• Sandwiches and wraps
• Pizza

Artichoke Recipes

Now that you’ve learned all about artichokes, are you intrigued by this humble but mighty veggie? It’s time to put that intrigue into practice by using artichokes in a variety of ways from Spinach Artichoke Dip (a favorite here at Food Revolution Network) to Steamed Artichokes with Aioli (a fun way to “get to know” artichokes) to Cheesy Artichoke and Asparagus Penne (one word: YUM!). Whichever artichoke recipe you choose to try first, enjoy the experience of using this unique vegetable in recipes, and be sure to let us know what you think!

1. Spinach Artichoke Dip

Creating an irresistible, ooey-gooey, plant-based version of Spinach Artichoke Dip requires a few essential ingredients — creamy cashews, cheesy nutritional yeast, and delightful artichokes and spinach. Seemingly indulgent, yet anything but, this dish boasts prebiotic fiber for gut health, magnesium for bone health, and antioxidants for inflammation. Serve it as a veggie dip, spread it on flatbread, or layer it with potatoes and then bake it as a casserole.

2. Steamed Artichokes with Plant-Based Aioli

Steamed artichokes with a side of sauce is a classic. It’s been popularized in restaurants and on social media and cooking shows. It’s simple yet elegant, intriguing, and so much fun to enjoy as an appetizer. Serve steamed artichokes with the Plant-Based Aioli in the recipe or with a favorite sauce you have on hand. Visit the Chef’s Notes for suggestions on how to dive in once you’ve placed it in front of your guests!

3. Cheesy Artichoke and Asparagus Penne

If there’s a dish to convince your family that plant-based meals can be nutritious AND delicious it’s Cheesy Artichoke and Asparagus Penne. An array of colors give this vibrant dish vast antioxidant power. What’s more, it’s packed with gut-loving prebiotic fiber from the legume pasta, leeks, asparagus, artichokes, and garlic. Cheesy Artichoke and Asparagus Penne might just create a new mantra, “Eat pasta — heal your gut!”

Conclusion

The artichoke has a long and colorful history that deserves to be much better known. The vegetable is also highly nutritious, with powerful antioxidant properties, abundant inulin fiber, and numerous health benefits. The main downsides to eating it are its oftentimes high price and intimidating thistles. But it’s safe for most people as long as you know how to eat it. And it’s delicious, too!

Tell us in the comments

• Have you ever cooked and eaten a whole artichoke? How did you learn how to do it?
• What’s your favorite healthy dipping sauce that you can use for artichoke petals?
• Which artichoke recipe do you want to try next?

Feature Image: iStock.com/AngelSimon

The post Artichokes: Nutrition, Benefits, & How to Cook and Eat Them appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

The hairy mystery foods in the back of your fridge may be humorous in and of themselves, but when you multiply food waste by billions of people, it becomes tragic.

One-third of the planet’s food goes to waste — enough to feed two billion people. A lot of food waste happens before it reaches the consumer — fruits and vegetables rot in fields or warehouses, packaged items not sold by their expiration dates end up in supermarket dumpsters, and restaurants dispose of unused food at the end of the day.

Reducing Food Waste

The United States is the largest producer of food waste. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that 30–40% of the entire US food supply goes to waste. A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council put this collective behavior into an individual context — imagine going shopping, filling five grocery bags, and leaving two of them in the supermarket parking lot before driving off.

While we don’t routinely leave bags behind at the grocery store, each US resident does waste, on average, about 400 pounds of food every single year. Four hundred pounds! That’s about the weight of a full-grown female muskox, in case you were wondering.

While most of us don’t have direct control over wasteful supply chains, we can do our part with the food that makes it into our homes. In addition to eating what we buy before it starts to go bad, we can also give otherwise unused food scraps a second life, and benefit people and the planet, by not adding them to our landfills.

So what are the benefits of saving or recycling food scraps, what kinds of food scraps can you reuse, and what are some ways to use them that can help create a zero-waste kitchen?

Why Save Food Scraps?

Some food scraps can be used to make new foods. With others, you can grow new plants or feed companion animals. Some can even be turned into homemade DIY beauty and household cleaning products. And almost all of them can be used to make compost that can enrich your soil and your garden.

If you’ve never saved or repurposed food scraps before, you might be wondering what difference you can make by starting. It turns out that there are plenty of benefits to doing so (and not contributing to food waste), a few of which I’ll discuss below.

Supports Environmental Health

Repurposing your food waste keeps it out of landfills, and that’s a good thing. Food accounts for nearly a quarter of solid waste in US landfills, which are themselves the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the country. Food in landfills is deprived of oxygen (and insects), both of which are needed to accelerate the decomposition of that food into carbon, nitrogen, nutrients, and water that can return to the earth. As a result, food trapped in landfills putrifies, but doesn’t properly decompose.

Aside from air pollution caused by methane and the stench of a giant pile of rotting food, food waste can also contribute to soil and water pollution in the form of landfill leachate. This is what happens when rainwater enters a landfill, mixes with rotting food waste, and seeps down into the ground (and groundwater) below.

Food waste can also lead to resource overuse, which is a fancy way of saying that along with the food itself, we’re also wasting all the water that went into producing that food. And since water shortages are plaguing more and more communities (just ask anyone from California or Brazil or Madagascar or Arizona or Mexico or Oregon or the Middle East), this wasted water is contributing to water scarcity.

Compostable Food Improves Your Soil

Food scraps can also help improve the health and quality of your garden soil if you use them to make compost. If you grow your own food, you can create fertile soil for growing fruits and veggies by composting leftover scraps. Organic matter attracts more life to your soil by providing yummy meals for decomposers like earthworms. Earthworms — red wigglers, in particular, if you practice vermicomposting — can repair damaged soil, improve its structure, recycle nutrients, and help create an overall better growing environment.

Using food compost can also improve water retention and buffer the pH of your soil, promoting healthier plants. Compost is nature’s ultimate closed-loop system, utilizing food waste from one cycle to make a whole new generation of food to feed others.

Recycled Food Scraps Save You Money

Saving food scraps can even help you save money? Yes! On average, households could save about $370 per person annually by reducing food waste. For a five-person household, this comes out to $1,850 saved in a year. That’s a lot of cabbage!

Not only does reducing your food waste save you money on food in the long run, but depending on what you do with them, repurposing your food scraps can also help you save money on soil and fertilizer (if you turn them into compost), new plants (if you use them to grow more vegetables), animal feed (if you feed them to companion animals), or beauty and cleaning products (if you use them to make these).

Examples of Food Scraps That Can Have a Second Life

With all the food scraps we tend to toss away, where do you start to turn things around in your own kitchen? Here are some parts of foods you might commonly chop and discard that are great to save as recycled food.

• Fruit and vegetable seeds
• Ends of vegetables (e.g., green beans, onions, celery, zucchini, and lettuce)
• Fruit cores
• Green tops of root vegetables (e.g., carrots, radishes, beets)
• Herb stems (e.g., basil, parsley, mint, cilantro)
• Fruit and vegetable peels, rinds, and skins
• Almond or other nut or legume pulp (from making nut milk, soy milk, etc.)
• Fruit or vegetable pulp from juicing
• Coffee grounds, tea leaves, and unbleached tea bags
• Stems from mushrooms and stalky veggies like broccoli and cauliflower (the parts you don’t eat, that is!)
• Pretty much anything on a picky eater’s plate

What to Do with Food Scraps

Curious what your most frequently discarded food waste can still be used for? Here are some ways you can turn would-be trash into (repurposed) treasure for a zero-waste kitchen.

Make Your Own Compost

As you’re prepping food or cooking, have a designated bag or food scrap container to save scraps as you go. Rather than throwing scraps into the trash or garbage disposal, toss them in your kitchen scrap container instead. Once your bin is filled, bring it to your compost area. (Pro tip: In warmer climates or during summer months, you may want to make the trip daily, unless you want to DIY a solution for fruit flies.)

Your compost setup might also include vermiculture, or using worms to decompose organic food waste into the nutrient-rich matter you can then use in your soil and garden. Kitchen scraps like vegetable trimmings, green leaves, tea bags, coffee grounds, and seaweed can make up the “greens” of your pile.

Or you can pile everything up in an enclosed space in your yard and let nature take its course without the intentional acceleration provided by red wigglers (chances are that earthworms of one variety or another will turn up to help). Commercially available food waste composters come in a few different styles. One popular design consists of a drum that can turn via a hand crank, which aerates the pile and speeds up the transformation from kitchen trash to soil.

And if you’re in a hurry and have the time and energy to tend to it, consider the Berkeley Hot Compost method, which promises to turn food scraps into rich humus in under 21 days. (That’s humus, not hummus. But if you suddenly find yourself craving hummus, here’s our favorite red pepper version.)

And if you like the latest technological gadgets, you might want to consider a food recycler, which turns compost into soil that’s ready to go into the garden in just a few hours. Seriously. Here’s a popular food recycler from Vitamix.

Check out this post for more information on how to compost at home.

Contribute to a Commercial Composting Program

If you don’t have use for compost at home (no garden or garden space), save food scraps and include them with your regular municipal green waste pickup, if offered. This includes things like garden waste, leaves, or grass clippings. Some forward-looking states and cities have enacted composting programs. For example, Vermont is one of a growing number of states that have “no landfill” laws for organic waste. With a full ban on such waste in landfills, residents can use curbside pickup, bring scraps to local collection points, or compost at home.

And the Los Angeles County composting law went into effect on January 1, 2022, and requires consumers to recycle their food scraps and other leftovers instead of throwing them away. And just to be clear, this doesn’t include throwing your food scraps onto the Staples Center floor to protest the Lakers’ terrible outside shooting this season. That is not OK.

To find a composting program in the US, check out CompostNow. There you’ll find programs where people will pick up food scraps from your home, as well as locations where you can drop them off. Europeans will find abundant composting resources here.

There are also apps that can help match you with people who need food scraps for their compost. One example is ShareWaste, which connects composters with people who have food scraps to share, as well as cafes that may have coffee grounds and other organic materials to give away. (Coffee grounds are a great addition to any compost pile — especially if you prefer the smell of espresso to the smell of a typical compost pile.)

Make Vegetable Stock with Food Scraps

If vegetable stock is a pantry staple in your home, consider making your own using food scraps — it can be far more flavorful than commercial stocks or those made from salt and palm oil-filled bouillon cubes and saves you from having to buy these packaged foods. 

To make vegetable stock from food scraps, save your vegetable scraps in a resealable, freezer-safe bag or container, where they can live for up to six months if you keep them in the freezer. Stock scraps can include peels, stems, and ends from things like carrots, onions, mushrooms, herbs, zucchini and yellow squash, potatoes, and more. The only categories you’ll want to avoid are Brassica vegetables, like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, as well as artichoke stalks, and most varieties of lettuce (these will make the stock bitter).

When your freezer bag or container is full, transfer the contents to a large pot on the stove. Fill the pot with water until the vegetables are floating, around ¾ of the way full. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes to allow the most flavor and nutrients to be released into the liquid. Then, strain out your solids, leaving the stock liquid. This homemade stock can be kept in the fridge for three to five days, or, once cooled, it can be stored in the freezer for up to three months. Use it for soups, sauces, slow cooker dishes, as a base for cooking grains, and in stir-fries.

If you just need a couple of tablespoons of vegetable stock at a time, say for oil-free sautéing, you can freeze some of it in ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop the cubes out of the tray and into a labeled freezer bag or container. Nobody wants to play “Guess what this is” with some unidentified frozen lumps at the bottom of your freezer.

Regrow Plants From Scraps or Seeds

Leafy greens and herbs are some of the easiest plants to regrow from scraps. When preparing fruits and veggies to eat, save the seeds from different varieties so that you can plant them in your garden or in containers. It can be fun to try a number of different kinds and see what grows best.

Especially if you have kids who are growing up thinking that food comes from the supermarket, it can be fun and exciting to see a carrot growing out of a carrot top, or a puny garlic clove transform into a plant that can go into the ground and regenerate.

Many people have had success using market-bought produce and kitchen scraps to grow new plants, like apricots, bok choy, garlic, red onion, pineapple, basil, melon, carrot tops, squash, mint, green onion, ginger, celery, potatoes, and more. For more specific guidance on regrowing plants from food scraps, see this post.

Feed Scraps to Companion Animals

Food scraps make great, healthy supplemental food for certain kinds of animals you may have at home. Just make sure to check which foods might be toxic to certain species before offering them free range to all of your scraps.

Rabbits love to munch on leafy greens and herb scraps, beet and carrot tops, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli. Cats can safely enjoy a variety of herbs and herb scraps like mint and basil. As long as you don’t have bears and other large visiting wildlife where you live, backyard birds can flock to feeders filled with pantry grains, nuts, seeds, and fruit scraps. Backyard chickens, some of the most famously non-picky eaters in the animal kingdom, enjoy vegetable peels, bananas, apples, berries, carrots, bok choy, silverbeet, spinach, cabbage, and broccoli. And some scraps will also be enjoyed by dogs (though there are also some dangers to be aware of — as described here).

Get Creative With Food Scrap Arts & Crafts

The beauty of colorful fruits, vegetables, and grains isn’t limited to the kitchen. You can also put these kinds of scraps to creative use in a number of food scrap art and craft projects. Some ideas include decorative and aromatic citrus peel garlands and candles, potato stamps, veggie-based watercolors, and hot-glued pistachio shell artificial succulents.

Good advice — if you carve Michelangelo’s David out of an old turnip, make sure you list it on eBay before it gets wrinkled and starts smelling like old socks.

DIY Beauty & Cleaning Products

You can even use food scraps to make eco-friendly and non-toxic products for your home and personal care routine. After you eat the inner flesh, the insides of avocado shells can be rubbed on elbows as a natural moisturizer. The pit can be dipped in olive oil and used as a softening foot massager. You can mix coffee grounds with coconut oil and sugar for an exfoliating scrub. You can even throw unused oats into your bath water for an extra creamy and softening soak.

As for cleaning products, you can use fruit peels, pulp, and juice to make “garbage enzymes” that can kill problematic bacteria and fungi around your home. You can use them to mop your floors, wash your dishes, and clean your sink. One way to do this is by collecting fruit peel scraps in a bag with some sugar and water, allowing them to sit for around three months, and then using the residual enzymes — which are found in the vinegar-smelling brown liquid. It might not smell or look appetizing, but it sure does the trick when it comes to cleaning the house.

Citrus peels and vinegar can make a quick DIY cleaning spray, leaving parts of your home clean and smelling good. One simple recipe is this gentle lemon cleanser, which combines lemon rinds, white vinegar, water, and liquid castile soap. It takes two to seven days to make, but once it has ample time to sit, you’ve got yourself a non-toxic, gentle, all-purpose cleanser. If you don’t feel like making your own cleaning products, a company called Veles sells a cleaning product made up of 97% food waste.

Reuse Food Scraps in Recipes

Of course, you can keep your food scraps in the kitchen by repurposing them for a variety of recipes. Herb scraps, carrot or radish tops, and other leafy greens can make pesto. Use apple scraps to make homemade apple cider vinegar, which can then be included in dressings and other recipes.

If you have nut pulp leftover from making nut milk, use it in baked goods like crackers, muffins, or even dog treats, to add nutrients and texture. Save stems of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, and kale and create a sheet pan meal by seasoning and roasting them as a side dish or to top a grain salad. You can also make jams, dressings, or purees out of fruit that’s nearing the end of its useful life in your fridge. And you can pickle or lacto-ferment vegetable scraps or slices that would otherwise go unused — for example, celery stalks, cucumber slices, or the stems of rainbow chard.

Recipes Using Food Scraps

Minimizing waste while preparing delicious, plant-based dishes can be its own fun adventure. Now for some recipes! 

Homemade Vegetable Bouillon skips the scraps stage entirely by blending the whole plant, which means you get exponentially more nutrition (think fiber) and flavor! 

You can rename Creamy Squash Soup each time you make it by adding just about any leftover vegetables you have on hand to the sauté process and blending them into the creamy base. 

Instead of ditching those pesky fibrous kale stems, use them in the Kale Walnut Basil Pesto. With this pesto’s perfect texture and flavor, you won’t even know they’re there, but your body will recognize the abundance of nutrition. 

If you’re ever unsure if you’ll be able to finish fruit in the fridge before its expiration date, freeze it. Then, when you happen upon that fruit one day and wonder what you’ll do with it, make delicious and nutritious jam — either our Strawberry Pear blend or whatever fruit you have on hand. 

Finally, a tasty and crunchy way to elevate just about any meal is by adding pickled veggies. Pickling, especially our Vietnamese-Inspired version, is simple, yummy, and a great way to expand veggies’ shelf life!

1. Homemade Vegetable Bouillon

If you enjoy maximizing nutrition while minimizing food waste then you’ve come to the right recipe. Vegetable broth might be something you keep on hand to use in soups, whole grain dishes, and casseroles. Why not use vegetable parts (stems, roots, or leaves) that you’re not using in traditional recipes, or vegetables nearing expiration, and make a bouillon? Rather than boiling and then simmering vegetable scraps (which is another way to make homemade broth), you’ll use the entire plant by adding it to your food processor to make a bouillon. This means that, in addition to the phytonutrients, you’ll also get plenty of fiber — a huge bonus! Not only are you minimizing food waste, but you’ll also save on packaging costs and trips to the grocery store.

2. Creamy Squash Soup

Have you ever made a recipe and had just one small extra piece of an ingredient or a few items leftover? Oftentimes, it’s a few potatoes left over from a five-pound bag, a leftover piece of squash from a recipe calling for one cup cubed, or the relentless half an onion which always seems perched up in the fridge. While this recipe is called Creamy Squash Soup, you can add a variety of vegetables that you need to use to the sauté portion of this recipe, just before blending.

3. Kale Walnut Basil Pesto

Often, the fibrous stems, or ribs, of leafy greens are ditched because of their ultra-chewy texture and extra bitter compounds. However, there are fun and delicious ways to disguise them in recipes so that you can enjoy all of the nutrition they offer while minimizing waste. For example, Kale Walnut Basil Pesto is so appetizing and tasty that you won’t even know that stems are included! Use this flavorful pesto on top of avocado toast, as a pasta sauce, or as a pizza spread.

4. Strawberry Pear Jam

When in doubt, freeze it! This is a good motto to keep in mind whenever you have fruit that is nearing expiration and you’re unsure if you’ll enjoy it before it’s time to say goodbye. At some point, you may open your freezer door and find that fruit, wondering what the heck you’re going to do with it now. We have a solution — make nutritiously delicious homemade jam! Pears, strawberries, and chia pack a ton of fiber. Strawberries contain phytonutrients that have been shown to help with skin, brain, and heart health. And chia seeds bring lots of bone-supporting minerals like magnesium, calcium, iron, and phosphorus. Share this jam with friends and family and let them know that your homemade jam is not only delicious but also good for their health!

5. Vietnamese Inspired Pickled Veggies

Have you ever experienced the excitement of finding a new farmers market veggie to try or growing unique vegetables in your garden that seemed interesting to you at the time, but then you’re left with, “what the heck do I do with it?” We have a healthy fix for you — make pickled veggies! Not only will you have an opportunity to use new-to-you veggies in a fun and tasty way, but you’ll also exponentially expand their shelf life with the help of the brine solution. Pickled veggies are also simple to make! Use them on top of plant-based burgers, grain bowls, and avocado toast. P.S. Kudos to you for exploring and experimenting with new plant-based foods!

Be Scrappy with Food Waste

Food waste is a worldwide problem that’s contributing to global warming — and can be affecting your pocketbook, too. There are many ways to make use of your food scraps — like composting them, making household or personal care products with them, or including them in recipes, so they don’t end up in landfills. By thinking about your food scraps in a new light, and using them in new ways, you can contribute to a better world for people and the planet, both inside and outside of your home.

Tell us in the comments:

• Do you compost? If so, share your composting tips (and favorite scraps to use) below!
• How do you already reuse food scraps in your home, or what are some ways you can start?
• Have you ever used food scraps to make a household cleaning product?

Feature Image: iStock.com/chameleonseye

Read Next:

• Infographic: 19 Foods You Can Regrow from Scraps
• You Have More Power to Reduce Food Waste Than You Think! 17 Things You Can Do to Take a Bite Out of This Massive Global Problem

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