19 Zero-Waste, Get-Food-on-the-Table-Fast Tips to Try This Week

Shared courtesy of Zero Waste Chef.

Most of the following tips do require a small investment of time up front but will pay generous dividends later. In the middle of a busy week, when you have at least some food ready to cook, you’ll be grateful you spent a bit of time (just a bit!) prepping on your day off. You’ll also prevent planet-heating waste; prepped food, especially perishable produce, is more likely to be eaten.

1. Make flatbread dough and refrigerate it for bread on demand. Make pita bread or tortilla dough, store it in the refrigerator for up to five days and when you want flatbread, grab as many hunks as you need, roll out and cook in minutes. (This same mix-and-chill logic applies to chocolate chip cookie dough by the way.)

2. Make pastry. Having pastry ready to bake simplifies and yum-ifies your life. My daughter MK made two pastry shells on a recent weekend. She baked quiche with one and froze the other. A week later, I thawed the second disc on the counter and quickly made a berry galette with strawberries that needed to be eaten soon. They were.

3. Prep toppings in advance. The topping for fruit crumble will keep in the refrigerator for several days. When you crave a crumble, cut up the fruit, toss in sugar and spices (depending on your recipe), cover with the crumble topping and bake.

4. Make pancake batter in advance. Yes, you can make pancakes quickly on busy mornings! Or have breakfast for dinner. Make a batch of your favorite pancake recipe batter, store it in the refrigerator for several days and make pancakes on demand.

5. Make your own dry mixes. If you prefer, start your pancakes with a homemade mix instead. In a container, mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and any other dry ingredients your secret recipe requires. When you crave pancakes, whisk together the wet ingredients and combine with the dry. Other dry mixes to prep include corn bread mix, chocolate chip cookie mix, brownie mix, granola mix, hot chocolate mix, soup mix and so on.

6. Shred food. Shred cheese in advance for pizzas (make mini pizzas on the tortillas or pitas!). Shred carrots in advance for quick breads. If you shred potatoes for latkes, store the shreds in the refrigerator in a bowl of water for up to a day.

7. Blanch and freeze vegetables. You’ll have the prep done when you need those green beans for a dish. Plus you can enjoy the summer bounty months after the season ends. Go here for blanching instructions.

8. Pre-mince. We use lots of garlic, ginger and jalapeño in Indian dishes like dal, chana masala, dosas and chutney. Having a jar of this combo minced in advance speeds up cooking on a busy night. If you prefer to prep everything by hand, mince it all up with a knife. If you prefer to use a food processor, cut up large pieces before giving everything a whir. Store your mixture in a glass jar in the refrigerator so you'll see it when you look in there. (If you can see it, you're more likely to cook it.) Grab what you need when you need it. Not a ginger fan? Omit it. Customize your ingredients as you like.

9. Ferment vegetables. Because they keep for so long in the refrigerator (from weeks to months), you’ll always have a condiment or two or three ready to enjoy. Having fermented hot sauce, preserved lemon and kimchi on hand adds a burst of flavor to dinner.

10. Regrow (select) vegetables. This works really well with green onions and basil. Rosemary is a bit finicky but I’ve regrown it as well. Place green onion ends or a sprig of very fresh basil in an opaque cup or jar of water. Once roots grow, plant in a pot in a sunny window or outside, or plant directly in the soil outside. I have not bought green onions for years. They go to seed out in the yard and I plant more (really, they plant themselves). Go here for more info.

11. Freeze herbs in olive oil. Add chopped herbs of your choice to an ice cube tray, top with olive oil and freeze. When you cook, toss two or three into a pan on the stove and start sautéing.

12. Press, cut and freeze tofu. Not only will it be ready to go, freezing renders a chewy, flavor-absorbing, firmer texture. If you already love tofu, you’ll love it even more. And if you didn’t like it beforehand, you just might after you try this trick.

Cube the tofu, spread it across a cookie sheet and once it has frozen, pop off the cubes from the pan and either allow them to thaw if you'll cook the tofu immediately, or store them in a glass jar in the freezer to cook later. Freezing turns the color from off-white to pale yellow. (Frozen tofu looks something like cheese.)

13. Prep passive recipes. Beans, grains and slow-cooker dishes require very little active cooking time. Staples like no-cook lemon rind syrup, wine vinegar and vanilla extract basically sit on the counter and make themselves.

14. Start overnight oats. Fill a jar with oats, seeds, sweetener or jam, peanut butter if desired, cinnamon… Pour in your milk of choice, store in the refrigerator and enjoy for breakfast. (These variations look delicious.)

15. Start overnight steel-cut oats. I love steel-cut oats but they can take 30 to 40 minutes to cook. Instead, I bring oats and water to a boil in a covered pot before bed, turn off the heat and let them sit overnight to cook. In the morning, I reheat the now-cooked oats and top with my favorite fixings. Go here for the full instructions.

16. Make stock. Having vegetable stock on hand will speed up dinner prep. Add it to grains, soups, stews, béchamel sauce, gravy and so on. Or make bone broth. Bone broth is like a meal.

17. Hard boil some eggs. With these on hand, you have a quick snack or almost egg salad. Throw the calcium-rich eggshells in the compost—plants love it. Crush the eggshells if you prefer for faster decomposition.

18. Make marinades and dressings in advance. Vinaigrette, mayonnaise, aioli… You’ll enjoy all the convenience of bottled versions but your homemade versions cost less, taste better and, stored in glass, reduce the amount of microplastic you ingest along with dinner.

19. Make sauces in advance. I made a pot of pizza sauce on the weekend for pizzas this week and froze a bunch for future pizzas. Other contenders include tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, pesto, peanut sauce, tzatziki, berry sauce and so on.