The Sunday Post (Newcastle)

‘Put skins, bones and stems into the pot not into the bin’

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Our desire to eat fresh vegetables has left us with the idea that vegetables are only good if they’re cooked just before being eaten. But many of the best vegetable dishes are created over time. Each week, I buy whole bunches of the leafiest, stemmiest vegetables I can find. Then I scrub off their dirt, trim off their leaves, cut off their stems, peel what needs peeling, and cook them at all once. I like to roast vegetables – I can fill my oven once and create a week’s worth of healthy, delicious ingredient­s. Oversalted pasta should be saved, mixed with unsalted butter and a lot of fresh herbs, like parsley, rosemary and marjoram, and made into a pasta frittata.

Remember not to salt the eggs.

The skins from onions, green tops from leeks, stems from herbs must all be swept directly into a pot instead of into the garbage. Along with the bones from a chicken, raw or cooked, they are what it takes to make chicken stock, which you need never buy once you decide to keep its ingredient­s instead of throwing them away. If you have the bones from fish, it’s fish stock. If there are bones from pork or lamb, you will have pork or lamb stock.

Tail ends of loaves of bread are as good as their heads, and perhaps more useful. Warm olive oil, add a sliced garlic clove and a finely sliced leek, cook them slowly for a few minutes, add four cups of cubed crustless stale bread, two cups of any meat broth, two cups of any combinatio­n brothy portions and let it cook into a thick, unrecognis­able, delicious soup.

Parsley leaves stay good picked off their steam and stored in a closed container for weeks. All the rest of the herbs stay good for longest when kept whole and dry, side by side in single layers in paper towels. Stack layers in a roasting pan and wrap tightly in plastic.

 ?? ?? A tray of roasted vegetables
A tray of roasted vegetables

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