Reusing roots was new to me and I was delighted to discover that the ends of my veggies still have life in them. The ends don’t have to spell the end, and you can grow new, delicious sproutings from them for free.
Keep about 4cm (an inch and half) of your veggies and place them in a shallow container with water that comes up to halfway of the cutting. Change the water every day or two.
Vegetables that work well include cabbage, garlic, herbs and lettuce, and in this blog I demonstrate with leeks, spring onion and pak choi.
Leeks
The leeks worked very well. After two days, new layers had grown with the middles sprouting fastest.
After being in the water for a month, the bottom of the leeks began to get a little mouldy.
So when using for cooking, I removed the ends and the first few layers of skin that were particularly squidgy.
Spring onions
Spring onions were the most satisfying to grow. Their shoots grew so fast and I was able to fit three or four in the same glass.
Similarly to the leeks, the bottom of the stems by the roots became soft and discoloured, so had to be discarded when prepared for cooking. But I got twice the amount of edible spring onion out of the ends than I would have by just throwing them away at the beginning.
Pak choi
I used spring onions and pak choi in the same dish, so planted them in water at the same time. The pak choi grew surprisingly quickly too, and their green leaves gave the room a lovely splash of colour.
However, one head got a lot mouldier and mushier than the other. I decided to take this one out earlier than I wanted, but the leaves were still great to eat.
And look how pretty this head is! I almost wish I could keep it as a house plant.
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FOOD WASTE STORIES 