Explore root-to-stem cooking with these 20 sustainable recipes that reduce food waste. Learn how to use vegetable scraps like beet greens, carrot tops, and more in creative, eco-friendly dishes.
Paint your kitchen green with root-to-stem cooking. Wondering what that means? Well, it’s simple! Just try to eat as much of the plant as possible, thus reducing food waste, saving money, and cutting down your environmental footprint associated with food. All you have to do is focus on using the entire edible plant in your kitchen. Did you know that many plants are entirely edible, from the roots, to stems, to leaves, to flowers, to seeds? Beets, carrots and radishes are just a few examples. Did you know that the leaves of broccoli and cauliflower are also flavorful and highly nutritious? Even the peelings on so much of our everyday produce, such as apples, pears, carrots, potatoes, and cucumbers, don’t need to be discarded, as they are completely edible—and super nutritious. So many parts of the plants we eat every day are wasted, even though they are perfectly enjoyable. All of those nutritious parts end up in the trash. If you have a garden or visit a farmers market, you have the perfect opportunity to use the entire plant and do your part to reduce food waste, because often you get untrimmed produce—beets and carrots with their tops, and broccoli and cauliflower with their stems and leaves. I asked some of my favorite food bloggers to share their favorite root-to-stem plant-based recipes that encourage you to use parts of the plants which are typically discarded.
In today’s eco-conscious world, root-to-stem cooking has gained popularity as a way to make the most of every part of your vegetables and reduce food waste. By embracing sustainable recipes that use vegetable scraps—from carrot tops to beet greens—you can create flavorful dishes while minimizing your environmental footprint. In this blog, we’ll share easy and creative ways to incorporate all parts of your veggies into everyday meals, helping you make the most out of your ingredients and contribute to a more sustainable kitchen. Let’s dive into these eco-friendly root-to-stem recipes that will elevate your cooking while benefiting the planet.
Top 20 Root to Stem Recipes: Delicious and Sustainable Recipes to Use Every Part of Your Vegetables
Appetizers/Dips
Beanless Broccoli Stem Hummus, Kelly Page, Tasting Page
Carrot Top Pesto with Vegetable Noodles, Cassidy Payne, Euphoric Vegan
Kale Stem Pesto, Kathy Hester, Healthy Slow Cooking (shown above)
Papaya Seed Salsa, Valerie Zemba, Very Vegan Val
Salads
Everyday Detox Salad and Citrus Ginger Dressing, Julie West, The Simple Veganista (shown above)
Leftover Broccoli Stem Salad, Alexa Blay, Veggie Lexi
Soups
Borscht with Beets and Beet Greens, Sharon Palmer, MSFS, RDN, The Plant-Powered Dietitian (shown above)
Creamy Celery Soup, Julie West, The Simple Veganista (shown above)
Entrees
Beet Pizza with Beet Leaf Pesto, Katherine Hackworthy, Veggie Desserts (shown above)
Beet Root and Beet Greens Stir Fry, Richa Hingle, Vegan Richa
Garden Veggie Burgers, Rebecca Pytell, Strength and Sunshine (shown above)
Quick Chickpea Curry, Jenna Braddock, RDN, Make Healthy Easy
Side Dishes
Harissa Spiced Tomato Fried Rice with Beetroot Greens, Teenuja Dahari, Vegan Lovli (shown above)
Vegetables
Carrot and Broccoli Chips, Kelly Page, Tasting Page (shown above)
Simply Roasted Radishes with Balsamic, Linda Meyer, Veganosity
Sweet and Spicy Sautéed Kale Stems, Kristen Stevens, The Endless Meal (shown above)
Maple Roasted Carrots and Cranberries with Pistachios, Renee DeLeon, Veeg (shown above)
Moroccan Roast Cauliflower, Jess Saunders, Vegan Punks
Roasted Baby Carrots with Carrot Top Pesto, Nicole Malik, Delicious Everyday (shown above)
Roasted Carrots & Carrot Top Salsa Verde, Louise-Claire Cayzer, The Vegan Larder
Learn more about growing your own vegetable garden with my free toolkit here. And get my tips on reducing food waste here.
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