Eat It Up!

May 15, 2016

According to the National Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of the food produced in the United States never gets eaten. To help home cooks combat food waste, food preservation expert Vinton (Put 'Em Up!) offers practical lifestyle advice and 150 recipes highlighting frequently discarded ingredients (e.g., parsley stems, beet greens, cauliflower leaves, chicken giblets). By sharing a variety of basics, snacks, and meals (e.g., celery leaf fattoush, potato peel soup, pickle juice fridge pickles), Vinton makes it easy to transform food trimmings and by-products into something delicious. VERDICT For readers unsure of what to do with leftover egg whites, stale bread, or chicken carcasses, this book is for you. Highly recommended for budget and environmentally conscious cooks.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Before you automatically toss those potato peels and radish leaves into the compost bin, stop to consider ways to turn seemingly useless scraps into tasty new dishes. In an age of nose-to-tail consumption of meats to sustain the planet, Vinton rushes to aid cooks equally concerned not to waste fruits and vegetables. Chard stems and watermelon rinds both turn into pickles. Radish and beet tops make sprightly salad greens. Potato peels fry into tasty snacking chips. Vinton addresses meat trimmings, too, transforming them into savory cooking fats. And professional chefs have known for centuries the hearty, healthful broths that bones produce. Vinton provides recipes and other strategies for all these kitchen leavings. She even cleverly suggests using the last inaccessible bits of mustard in the jar by pouring some oil and vinegar into the jar and shaking it into perfect vinaigrette. A sterling resource for the ecologically minded cook.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)