Last year my parents bought us a juicer for Christmas. It was something I wanted and was very excited for to boost our vitamin intake and generally be a little healthier. Whilst I still have a tonne of juice combos I want to test out, so far it has become something we use very regularly and something the kids especially love to help with!
One thing that did concern me however quite early on, was the amount of waste. I am more than happy to buy my fruits and Veggies from markets, and often Aldi, which keep the cost low, but to think of all that was being thrown away was a hard pill to swallow and I literally felt I was chucking money away. It didn’t take me long to figure out how to use this “waste” and incorporate it into our cooking so that we were buying less veg and not wasting food!
So here is one of my recipes to use up the pulp after juicing and add more goodness to your meals.
Veggie lasagne – it is one of our family faves, and If your kids don’t like veggies, this is also an excellent way to disguise them in food. I always start by juicing the veg 1st, so use whatever you fancy. In this one I used spinach, courgette and carrots. I then set that aside out of the “bin” from the juicer before adding my fruits!
Next I diced onion and peppers and fried them up with olive oil and crushed garlic.
Next I added the pulp from the juicer and dried mixed herbs, a little garlic salt and black pepper.
Because I was making a large family sized one I then used about 6 tins of chopped tomatoes and allowed it all to simmer before layering it up as normal. The carrots give it a natural sweetness and I am always quite heavy with garlic because I like the taste in a lasagne! I then top with a home made white sauce (costs pennies).
And more than enough cheese.
And voila – A healthy family dinner made from something that would have been tossed away! And on this particular night, Ethan had 3 helpings and it did us 2 meals because I had cooked in bulk! LOVE IT!!!
Other recipes I have tried using pulp have been bolognese sauce, savoury muffins and curry. The curry especially has a wonderful texture! And I think its going to be great for home made baby food come the weaning stages!
Have you ever used the pulp in cooking to save money and avoid waste?
What a fantastic idea!! I remember when I was a kid, my mum used to make ‘peeling soup’ after sunday lunch. Same idea. Healthy and money saving xx
OOOO that sounds very frugal and interesting.. I might try it 🙂 x
That is such an amazing idea! Saves you doing all that chopping up too 🙂 We don’t have a juicer but if I ever get one I will remember this, the lasagne looks lush too! xx