Preventing food waste with Food Lover's Diary

Hi! Emily here from @foodloversdiary. If you don’t know me, let me give you the TL; DR version: I’m a former line cook, content creator, recipe developer and host, based in Brooklyn, NY. But for the purpose of the conversation we are about to have today, you should also know that I’m a first-generation American who was raised in an immigrant household. My parents left the Soviet Union a couple of years before me and my twin sister were born and because they were busy, you know, starting their lives over in a totally new country, we were primarily raised by our grandparents in those early years. Our grandparents ran a tight ship and never, EVER wasted anything – as Holocaust survivors, they knew all too well what it was like not to have enough. The “no waste” mentality has stuck with me all my life, especially when it comes to food. When I began working in restaurants at age 15, you can imagine my horror upon seeing the amount of perfectly good food that gets thrown out at the end of the day! 

I am beyond grateful that Too Good To Go exists and am excited to share my own food-saving tips with you today. Let’s get to it.

1) Anything can be a stir fry if you try hard enough

This is a cardinal rule in the Fedner household. I always keep my pantry stocked with my favorite stir fry essentials so if I’m sick of staring at the same piece of chicken from 3 nights ago, I can give it a new life via stir fry. In fact, that’s exactly what I did with my Too Good To Go pick-up from a local Korean market: I turned it into a stir fry!

My stir fry essentials: soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, chili oil, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, oyster sauce, rice, sweet potato starch noodles, regular wheat noodles. Even spaghetti!

2) There’s nothing fishy about fish oil

If you’re anything like me, you eat a LOT of tinned fish. I probably go through a can a day and while I’d venture to say this isn’t particularly *normal* there’s gotta be other tinned fish lovers out there. Anyways, the good quality stuff comes packed in delicious, aromatic extra virgin olive oil. Don’t you dare throw it away! This oil is absolutely busting at the seams with flavor and nutrition. Store this leftover oil and once you accrue a decent amount, follow my instructions to turn it into an aioli OR use it to make an anchovy pasta (check out my recipe here). You could also make a killer risotto. Remember: fish products aren’t always used to make things taste like fish. A subtle hint of fish flavor adds umami and depth to a dish.

3) Give greens and herbs a second life

Herbs are finicky little rascals. You buy a gigantic bunch of cilantro for one single dish and afterward, you’re left with…a gigantic bunch of cilantro. Are you making other cilantro dishes? TBD. Next thing you know, there’s a gigantic bunch of cilantro wilting in your fridge. What do you do?? Here’s my protocol:

First, try reviving your herbs in an ice bath but if that doesn’t work…

1) Make herby meatballs – these lamb meatballs I made recently fit the bill!

2) Make an herb pesto.

Yes, pesto is traditionally made with basil but you can really use whatever herbs you like! As long as you have some good quality extra virgin olive oil, parmigiano reggiano, and grated garlic in there it’s going to taste awesome.

3) If you want to get fancy, you can laminate wilting herbs into pasta like this. The herbs don’t have to be in perfect condition to look (and taste) beautiful encased in some pasta! Plus, it’s a really fun project if you like cooking.

4) Turn leftover mashed potatoes into gnocchi

My Babushka Lola’s signature dish was her vareniki (Ukrainian dumplings) filled with potato and fried onion. And every single time she made them, we were left with extra potato and onion filling! So one day, my older sister (who had acquired some wisdom from an Italian roommate at college) added flour to the leftover potatoes and onions and rolled gnocchi for us. We were awed, inspired, and amazed at the mashed potato glow-up before us, and trust me, you will be too. This past Thanksgiving I had leftover mashed sweet potatoes that I turned into gnocchi and served with brown butter, maple and sage. It was a hit!

5) Have trusty condiments around to give new life to food

Sometimes, you don’t have the time or energy required to turn leftovers into something new and exciting again. I don’t blame you at all. In these instances, it’s important to have some flavor-boosters on deck. My favorites: Holy Tshili Jewish-Chinese chili crisp, Mom’s Mala Sauce, and any sort of Bomba Calabrese.