November 2020

THANKSGIVING DAY THE GREEN WAY

By the time you’re done prepping the big meal, you’re bound to have a mountain of scraps.  These pros share their secrets for not letting it go to waste, proving that leftovers really are the best part of Thanksgiving.

Potato Peels.  Chef Alison Mountford, founder of Ends+Stems, a meal-planning website that designs menus with the goal of using up every ounce of food, swears by potato peel snacks.  As you prep your Thanksgiving sides, aim to keep the peels as long and wide as possible, then toss them with a good drizzle of olive oil and roast at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes, tossing partway through.   When they come out of the oven, season with salt and your favorite spice, like onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder or smoked paprika.

Apple Scraps.  Keep your apple-pie game strong long after the last slice is gone, with Mountford’s infused cinnamon sugar: Submerge the peel of 1 medium apple in a jar with ¼ cup each white and brown sugar, plus ground cinnamon to taste.  Let the mixture infuse for up to a week, then pulse in a food processor until finely chopped. Store in the refrigerator and enjoy the sugar sprinkled on buttered toast, oatmeal, muffins, ice cream or home-made granola.

The Kitchen Sink.  All those vegetable odds and ends: tomatoes, celery, scallions, cucumbers, squash.  Save them for a DIY Bloody Mary mix.  Give the scraps a whirl in your blender, adding water or vegetable juice to thin as needed, plus spices to taste.  Some flavors you can mix-and-match include cracked black pepper, celery salt, garlic powder, onion powder, prepared horseradish or cayenne.  Strain the mix, if desired.  (If you do strain, add the solids to your next tomato soup for extra body and a kick!).  Add a shot of vodka and a squeeze of lemon.  Serve in an Old-Bay-and-salt-rimmed glass.

SOS: Save Our Scraps!  Americans purchase more than 1 billion pounds of food in preparation for Thanksgiving each year.  And around 400 million pounds of it will be thrown out.  Let’s make it our mission to change that this year!

Jennifer Kaplan