18 Editor-Approved Recipes for Reducing Food Waste

Turn vegetable tops into pesto (or salsa verde!)

"Bunches of fresh root vegetables, such as carrots, beets, and radishes, with their vibrant greens still attached, are always so enticing at the farmers market or grocery store — they look like they've just been plucked from the garden. More often than not though, you may find yourself chopping off the greens and tossing them in the compost, or worse, the trash can. However, these nutrient-packed vegetable tops are quick and easy to transform into a sauce or spread. Try finely chopping carrot greens with pistachios for an effortless Carrot Top Pesto, or combine leafy beet greens with dill for an earthy Beet Green Salsa Verde." — Paige Grandjean, Food Editor

Use pickle brine to tenderize meat or punch up dressings

"It's not an uncommon sight for my husband to catch me basking in the glow of the refrigerator light munching on a cold, crisp dill pickle. When I've eaten my way through, I save the remaining juice, which is worth its weight in gold. It's acidic, salty, and packed with flavor — the ultimate jarred wet brine. Use it to tenderize meats and lock in flavor for recipes like this shatteringly crisp Pickle Brine Fried Chicken. I also add a tablespoon or two to vinaigrettes in lieu of lemon juice to give my salads a little bit of funky flare. Or you can amp up your cocktails with brine and give them an unexpected sour, tangy punch. This savory vodka cocktail combines pickle brine with a piquant chile liqueur for an ultra savory sip." — Andee Gosnell, Assistant Food Editor

Make the best next-day sandwiches with weekend roasts

"My husband loves Philadelphia-style pork sandwiches, so I make them any time we have leftover roast pork shoulder or loin. I follow this recipe starting at the fourth step, and sauté broccoli rabe with plenty of garlic to spoon on top of sliced roasted pork. Topped with provolone and broiled until everything is warm and melty, these sandwiches are perfect for the night after a dinner party, when you want to enjoy your leftovers but make them feel new." — Chandra Ram, Associate Editorial Director, Food

Turn milk that’s about to expire into buttermilk

"We go through a lot of milk in our house between my three-year-old twins and my cereal-loving husband, yet there's still often unused milk looming in the fridge. If the milk is still good but a little too sour for the toddlers, I help it along the sour spectrum by adding lemon juice and making a homemade "buttermilk." While it isn't true buttermilk, i.e. the liquid by-product from butter making, it's a really good substitute and is the key special ingredient to these Buttermilk Pancakes, Buttermilk-Brined Roast Chicken, and this absolutely delicious Buttermilk Macaroni and Cheese with Baby Kale." — Breana Killeen, Senior Food Editor

Make an "anything goes" salsa

"Despite my best efforts to only buy what I know I'm going to cook, at some point during the month I inevitably find myself staring down a bunch of random vegetables and fruits that need to be used up. My favorite way to do so is to make an 'anything goes' salsa, using chef Wes Avila's guidelines to balance whatever wildcard ingredient like fennel or broccoli I might have on hand with the core salsa elements of acid, chiles, and tomatoes." — Karen Shimizu, Executive Editor

Give excess herbs the Green Goddess treatment

"Fresh herbs make everything better but they truly can be too much of a good thing. When I have more parsley (or cilantro, or dill…) in my fridge than I can feasibly use in one week, I throw a handful, stems and all, into my mini food processor with Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Then I blend until smooth for a tangy, herby Green Goddess dressing that’s creamy enough to double as a dip. The best thing about Green Goddess is it's endlessly adaptable to whatever you have in the fridge — use any combination of mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt as the base; anchovies if you have them for an umami boost; and whatever leafy herbs or greens you have on hand (think watercress, spinach, and scallion greens). Or add tahini, as Justin Chapple does for this gorgeous green goddess wedge salad." — Audrey Morgan, Associate Food Editor

Overripe bananas = the best banana bread ...

"One of the cardinal rules of the kitchen? Never throw away bananas, even if they're brown and mushy. One of my favorite ways to put overripe bananas to use is by mashing them up into banana bread. Lena Sareini's Brown-Butter Banana Bread is unforgettable, especially when it's topped with her Banana-Caramel Sauce. As for what to do with the leftover heavy whipping cream? Well, whip it up! Top the caramel-laden banana bread with freshly-whipped cream, and save the rest in the refrigerator for a decadent afternoon snack, best eaten with berries." –Nina Friend, former Features Editor

...or cookies!

"While I love a good banana bread, sometimes a cookie is even better — especially when I don't have enough old bananas for a loaf of bread. These Spiced Banana-Oatmeal Cookies call for just one very ripe banana. With oatmeal, ground cardamom, and chocolate chips in the mix, these cookies feel right for breakfast, an afternoon tea break, or topped with ice cream for dessert." — C.R.

Transform citrus zest into a new cocktail ingredient

"When juicing lemons for a recipe, or when slicing up oranges for my kids' lunches, I'll use a vegetable peeler to capture big swaths of the rind/peel/zest to steep in sugar to make oleo saccharum for cocktails and mocktails, like this Bourbon Tea Julep." – K.S.

Upgrade your butter with leftover greens

"These Radish Tartines with Green Butter are a great way to repurpose radish and turnip greens instead of throwing them out. In the past, I've taken leftover greens and herbs and gone the green sauce route—turning nearly wilted cilantro into a drizzling sauce for scrambled eggs, and blitzing up radish greens in the food processor to make radish green pesto. But I've never tried green butter before, and I think it's such a smart option. You simply blend a firmly packed cup of reserved greens with unsalted butter, lemon zest, flaky sea salt, black pepper, and grated garlic in a food processor. Season it with more salt and pepper to taste and voilà! You've got green butter. To make the tartines, simply spread the butter on toasted bread, top it with very thinly sliced radishes and turnips, and finish 'em off with salt and crushed red pepper." – Bridget Hallinan, former Associate Food Editor

Mix up a cocktail with bottom-of-the-jar preserves — no shaker needed

"I've since reformed, but I used to give up on the hard-to-reach few teaspoons of jam at the bottom of the jar. Now instead of sending the jar to the dishwasher (to add to the cache of jars with matching lids I stash leftovers in), I shake up a cocktail right in the jam jar to add a fruity note. I usually make a margarita or a vodka soda, adding the ice, spirits. and juice to the jam jar (we tend to have strawberry or blackberry hanging around in the back of the fridge), then shaking until the jam dissolves and gives the drink a pretty, pale hue and fruity taste. For preserves that tend to linger a while I’m (looking at you, marmalade), this cocktail will up your drinks game with its bittersweet and sour edge. A few pointers: seedless jam works best and if you're using especially piece-y preserves, mash them a bit with a fork before beginning." — Cheryl Slocum, Senior Food Editor

Got stale bread? Make croutons

"A loaf of bread almost always goes stale before I can eat the entire thing. Between that and avoiding the heels of a bread loaf when making sandwiches, I'm sure I've thrown out lots of bread in my lifetime. But in recent months, I've been working to minimize my bread waste by transforming stale slices and heels into croutons! Slightly dried out bread is ideal for homemade croutons, so it's a win-win scenario. And if you happen to be craving some fondue to go with those crunchy bread bits, why not toss in any bits of cheese you need to use up?" – Merlyn Miller, Social Media Editor

Give leftovers a new life as a frittata

"Almost every night, we have leftovers from whatever we made for dinner. Almost every morning, we need to make breakfast. I like to use those dinner leftovers to solve the question of 'what’s for breakfast' by making a frittata. Leftover spaghetti is especially delicious in frittata form – I like to throw it into a Spaghetti Frittata, in a Pasta Frittata with Mushrooms. Leftover broccoli lends itself to a Broccoli Frittata – the basic method is great for pretty much any leftover vegetable, too." — K.S.

Reserve that bacon fat!

"If you look in my fridge, on the middle shelf next to the bottle of Japanese plum vinegar and jars of preserved lemons, you'll find a bright red silicone container with a pig face-shaped lid. It's the bacon bin my friend Kim bought me for my birthday a few years ago, and the secret hero of my kitchen.

I started saving bacon fat while working as a cook at a hotel in Maine. (Usually in an old jar; the bacon bin is a real upgrade.) My chef there taught me how to give a second life to bacon — and its rendered fat — leftover from breakfast by using the fat to sweat the onions and celery for clam chowder and crumbling up the bacon to sprinkle on top of each bowl as a garnish. These days, I scoop out a little bacon fat to use when sautéing onions for soup or a stew, or to grease my cast-iron pan before making cornbread. And there's nothing better in the summer than fresh corn from the farmers' market gently sautéed in bacon fat until barely cooked and heated through.

In colder months, I turn to chef Tim Cushman's Spaghettini with Warm Bacon-Mushroom Vinaigrette, in which you sauté mushrooms, onions, and garlic in rendered bacon fat, and then hit the mixture with a little balsamic vinegar for a bright dose of acidity. Sometimes I throw a handful of chopped kale into the pan as well, letting the leaves wilt as I toss everything together. The resulting dish of noodles glistening with bacon fat and coated with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is simple and comes together in minutes, but the bacon fat gives it rich carbonara vibes. It's just the thing to eat on a night when you want to reduce your kitchen waste while eating something simple but packed with smoky, fatty flavor." – C.R.

Save your seafood shells for stock, then make bisque

"Seafood shells such as lobster, crab, or shrimp are packed with flavor and perfect for a no-effort, no-waste seafood stock. I build up a collection of shells in my freezer, then slowly simmer them with mirepoix and herbs to coax out their sweet and briny essence. It makes the best base for gumbo, bisque, and paella. You'll never go back to boxed stock!" — P.G.

Turn leftover cheese into an irresistible spread

"Fromage fort is a supremely elegant French way of saying 'random cheese spread.' And that's exactly what it is — a fantastic way to use up all the bits and pieces of cheese at the bottom of your cheese drawer, especially after a party or blowout dinner. The great Jacques Pépin gave us his recipe for Fromage Fort, which you can and should adjust depending on what's in your fridge. There aren't a lot of rules here, but it's best if you use a mix of hard and soft cheeses. That said, if you only have hard cheese on hand, just add a little butter, a scoop of ricotta or yogurt, and/or a little more wine or cream so that it comes together into a spread. Too much blue cheese will overpower the rest of the mix, but otherwise, go with what you've got on hand. Toast some bread or pull out some crackers to go with it, pour yourself a drink, and enjoy this no-waste snack." –C.R.

Don't sleep on chicken scraps

"The first white tablecloth restaurant I ever went to was a French-Jewish bistro somewhere in the greater Cincinnati area, and to this day, you can't tell me that matzo ball soup isn't the height of haute dining. (Yeah, I know it's comfort food for a bazillion people around the world, but I've got a context thing, man.) The fact that this recipe comes from 2002 F&W Best New Chef Dan Barber does little to dispel that. But as per Barber's standard anti-food-waste mission, the recipe relies heavily on the often-chucked parts of chickens — backs, necks, feet — to maximize flavor while using every last scrap. The recipe yields eight quarts of broth, so there's plenty to portion and freeze for the next time you feel like getting schmantzy with your soup." — Kat Kinsman, Executive Features Editor

Clean out your crisper with a veggie-packed quickbread

"This combination of carrots, zucchini, and shredded coconut is a great way to both clean out your crowded crisper drawer and use up a commonly over-bought baking ingredient. But it's also a handy reminder that there are a bevy of leftover veggies or even slightly mushy fruits that can find a good home in a loaf of moist and sweet quickbread — which, let's face it, we all know is basically cake! And if your summer garden is giving you a bumper crop, you can even pre-shred or chop up zucchini and freeze it for warm treats in colder months." — Adam Campbell-Schmitt, former Senior Editor, News and Trending