“After talking at our last session, I was so excited to start eating healthier! But I'm getting a bit discouraged. I bought the fresh, organic lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and kale. There were a lot of peaches and blueberries, so I bought a bunch of those too. I bought something called pluots, like you suggested, to try something new. I brought them home and put them in my fridge, but now I’m throwing most of it out because it all went bad before I could use it! I don’t have time to go to the store everyday, and I don’t want to waste good food. Am I doing something wrong?” ~Mary G.
I got this message a week ago...Sound familiar?
I’d been working with Mary on developing an anti-inflammatory diet, which meant helping her make some changes in the foods she was eating. She was doing a great job and eliminating many of the foods contributing to her joint pain and bloating but was on the verge of giving up at this point. Luckily, we were able to sit down and go through some of the produce-saving tips that I have learned over the years and she was encouraged to give them a try.
Maybe this has happened to you.
You know you should be eliminating junk food and adding in more fresh fruits and veggies, but don’t know how to use up your produce before it goes bad. I’ve had to throw out some down-right “soupy” lettuce or droopy parsley in my day. But through my own experience, I’ve learned a few tips over the years that I shared with Mary and can share with you. Some of these tips help with storage, others are ways to preserve it.
Eating with the seasons sometimes means you’ll have an abundance of one type of vegetable or fruit at some point. I have a small garden, receive a farm share every other week, and can’t seem to resist great prices at the famers market or local grocery store. Last week it was a box of delicious, ripe peaches; this week, I was tempted by fresh figs. (Boy, did I use some of the following tips to get the most enjoyment out of them.)
Let’s just say, there are times when my whole refrigerator is filled with produce that I know I can’t consume in time. And I hate to waste food!
Here are some of the ways I make good use of my produce before it goes bad.
5 Tips to Use Your Produce Before It Goes Bad
1. Store it properly
Greens and Soft Veggies
I learned early on that green leafy vegetables will quickly get mushy (too wet) or go limp (too dry) if not stored properly. This can include lettuce, kale, spinach, and Swiss chard, but also beet tops or turnip greens. Here’s a way to avoid that from happening.
The first thing you want to do when you get back from the market is to give them a good drink of cool water. Fill up the sink with water, add about ½ cup of white vinegar, and submerge the greens. Let them soak for at least 15 minutes. If you have beets, carrots, or turnips with their tops, remove the greens and soak them as well. After soaking, shake the water out. You want to remove as much water from the leaves as possible. If the leaves are small (like spinach or spring greens), you can spin them in a salad spinner. At this point, wrap your greens in a cotton towel. I have also bought cotton bags for this purpose. You can find both towels and bags on Amazon. I like using cloth because you can wash and reuse them, but a few sheets of paper towel work too. You can then place your cloth-wrapped veggies in a storage container or plastic bag. If I have a lot of greens, I will put a post-it note inside to identify what’s inside! This saves me from having to unwrap the bundle or remove the markings afterward!
I also wash cucumbers, carrots, root veggies, peppers, celery, or other soft vegetables with water. Give them a little rub and rinse, then wrap them as you would the green leafy veggies, and label them too.
Things I don’t wash are garlic, onions, prewashed lettuce blends in containers or bags, oranges, tangerines, or avocados.
Store on the Counter
I store tomatoes in a mesh basket on the counter and wash them just before using them. I will only refrigerate them if they are getting too ripe (see tip below for really ripe tomatoes!)
Sweet potatoes can also be stored on the counter and scrubbed right before use. I like to keep the skins on whenever possible, so they need to be clean!
2. Freeze it
Sometimes, even with good storage, you just get too much of a good thing. This can happen with fruit (like my peaches and figs), kale, and green beans. When that happens, you need to find a way to store it for longer. Freezing them is a good way to do this.
When peaches, nectarines, or figs are in season, I buy them by the boxful, knowing I will probably need to preserve them somehow. I leave them out of the refrigerator until ripe and then store them in the fruit drawer of the refrigerator. In addition to snacking on them directly, I find ways to use them by adding them to my porridge, chia pudding, or with yogurt, or cooked into a cobble, relish, or tart. You can google almost any recipe on the internet to find one that will work.
Buying in bulk is a great way to save on money, but there are times when there’s just too much produce to use up at once, even if it is stored in the fridge! When that happens, freezing is a great way to preserve your “harvest” so you can enjoy it later on in the year. The flavors will be retained, but the textures will be softer, so I like to us them mixed or cooked into a recipe.
To Freeze fruit
Wash the fruit, remove bruised areas, and then cut them into bite-sized pieces. You can now place the pieces directly into a Ziplock bag to freeze. If you place them in a single layer on a small tray they won’t freeze together, allowing you to take a few out at a time as needed.
To Freeze Vegetables
You can also freeze vegetables, such as green beans and broccoli. After washing and cleaning the beans or cutting your broccoli into florets, it is best to blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water. After blanching, place them in an ice bath and drain them before placing them in a bag and freezing. Again, put them in a single layer if you don’t plan on cooking all of them up at one time.
And of course, one of the easiest ways to always have vegetables on hand is to buy them frozen from the start! Studies have shown that the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables is retained when they are stored this way. And it has been harvested at the peak of its ripeness and flavor! You can also find very reasonably priced organic produce this way.
3. Cook it!
Sometimes the best way to use something up fast is to cook it!
That’s what I did with some of my figs this week. I heated them up in my oatmeal with some walnuts; made a delicious Balsamic Fig Relish with Mint & Rosemary that I served as an appetizer over goat cheese and seed crackers (see recipe here.) I also used it as a topping over grilled chicken. Yum! The figs would also taste delicious cooked into this delicious tart. It's one of my favorite recipes and I make it with all kinds of fruit. I’m also planning on trying this Sheet Cake made with seasonal plums. Peaches would taste great with these too.
For nutrition, I always like to add a variety of vegetables to my dishes, but that means I usually have a lot in my vegetable drawer! To use them up, I like to cook up a lot of them in one dish, such as a stir-fry served over cauliflower-rice or zucchini noodles, or this “clean out the refrigerator” recipe: Chicken Nestled Over Roasted Veggies. Once your dish is cooked, you can freeze the leftovers for a quick meal when you’re short on time. Just make sure to label everything with a name and date!
If you are a gardener, you may have experienced a bumper crop of tomatoes. Or maybe, you just bought a pint of grape tomatoes but are traveling and won’t be able to use them up. A great way to “save” ripe tomatoes is to roast or sauté them. I like to combine them with chopped onions and garlic. To roast them, line a baking tray with parchment. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Coat chopped tomatoes, onion, and garlic with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes or until onions are softened and tomatoes are falling apart. Let cool and store in the refrigerator for a couple of days or freeze in an airtight container or bag. It will keep for months this way until you are looking to make a quick tomato sauce or soup! Need more ideas? Here are some other suggestions for preserving your tomatoes.
4. Dehydrate it
Fruit
I have fallen in love with my dehydrator! I use it mostly to dry fruit and herbs. I have dried sliced bananas, kiwi, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, cherries, peaches, cranberries, serviceberries, blueberries, nectarines, and, yes, some of my figs from this week! I love experimenting with different fruit and the flavors are delicious. Dehydrated watermelon is nature’s natural candy! You can also blend different fruits together in a mixer and make fruit rollups.
Veggie Chips
I have also dehydrated tomatoes with or without garlic and basil to make tomato “chips." You can blend them into a powder for a warming “instant tomato soup” in the winter.
And speaking of chips, you can make kale, zucchini, sweet potato, turnip, rutabaga, and beet chips for snacking. You can even make these in your oven if it has a low temperature. This is a great way to use up a bumper crop of zucchini (or at least a few of them.) Just season with salt and pepper or add your favorite herb.
Herbs
Herbs that can be dried include the leaves of oregano, thyme, dill, parsley, cilantro, and basil. These can be stored as whole leaves or crumbled into small jars to be used in seasoning recipes.
5. Ferment it
And lastly, fermenting! Fermenting, specifically Lacto-fermenting, is an age-old method for preserving vegetables that also helps improve the nutritional value of the food. Fermentation occurs when microbes (also known as probiotics) that are naturally present on the vegetable are encouraged to grow and multiply. In the process of breaking down the vegetable, these microbes release beneficial vitamins, such as vitamin C, and make it more digestible. More importantly, though, they also play an important role after being eaten. In our guts, they continue to break down food particles releasing beneficial enzymes, hormones, and gut healing compounds. This allows us to extract more nutrients from the foods we eat and keep harmful pathogens from entering the body.
There are many foods that can be fermented. You’ve probably been eating them without even knowing how beneficial they are. Cabbage becomes sauerkraut and cucumbers become pickles. Kimchi is another form of spicy fermented cabbage. Other fermented vegetables include green beans, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, peppers, cauliflower, and even radishes. Want to learn more about how to ferment foods? Contact me on how to do it at home!
If you would like the nutritional benefits of fermented foods, but don’t want to make your own, you can buy them already made for you. But, be careful, many products that are found in the grocery aisles have be processed to preserve them or have been pickled in vinegar. To get the probiotic benefits, look for sauerkraut or dill pickles in the refrigerated section of the store. The label should indicate that the food contains “live cultures” or is “Lacto-fermented.”
These are just some of the ways that you eat healthier by extending the life of your produce. I am constantly experimenting with different ways to cook up or preserve fresh vegetables and fruit.
Do you have other suggestions? I would love to hear what they are. Please share with the rest of us!
Yours in Health,
Evey
