Cooking with scraps Turn your peels, cores, rinds, and stems into delicious meals

Environmentally minded and budget-conscious cooks perpetually look for ways to avoid wasting any potentially edible food. Vegetables in particular seem prone to waste as stems, leaves, and peelings pile up in the sink. Ann Arbor-based Hard has come up with all sorts of paths to reduce food waste in the tastiest ways possible. Feel bad about pouring the liquid from a can of beans down the drain? Save it to whip into aquafaba, a foam similar to beaten egg whites, which can then be used in brownies or turned into a mayonnaise. Leek tops can be finely julienned and added to pasta for an attractively colorful version of cacio e pepe. Beet peelings make a colorful tequila infusion for vividly hued margaritas. Hate to toss that sinkful of cantaloupe seeds? Roast them with spices for a savory snack. Color photographs render attractive what might otherwise be merely compost.--Mark Knoblauch Copyright 2018 Booklist

In this terrific collection, Food52 writer Hard offers 60 different ways to get the most out of one's fruit, herb, and vegetable scraps. "According to the National Resource Defense Council," Hard writes, "40 percent of the food in the United States goes uneaten." Home cooks are probably familiar with the concept of using stale bread for bread crumbs and croutons, but they might not have considered using mushroom, carrot, or sweet potato odds and ends for a strata (a layered casserole), quick pickles, or vegetable tempura. Boozy infusions that, e.g., combine lemon and brandy, bourbon and roasted corn husks, or a mix of jalapeño and tequila are simple, as is incorporating pickle brine into a Bloody Mary or potato salad. Even stems are put to use: basil stems are used to create a buttermilk dressing; parsley stems are mixed into a fresh, zesty tabbouleh. Hard's plainspoken style and culinary ingenuity is sure to win over even the most profligate of home cooks, as this is far from a collection of novelties. Those who take the time to set aside their scraps are guaranteed to find a few new tricks here. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.