Once a month, we’re looking at ways to help reduce food waste and keep our planet happier and healthier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our ever-growing environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of everything we produce is tossed out, over a billion tons of edible food, not spoiled, but edible. This impacts our environment, our economics, and certainly our health. But we’ve rolled up our sleeves in the past to save these resources, and now’s the time to do so again.

We all know pesto, that marvelous sauce made with the simple technique of grinding or otherwise pulverizing sweet basil with olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, and cheese. It is pretty much a staple in our meal planning these days. We spread it on toast, toss it with pasta or any number of vegetables, top fish and poultry with it, and use it as a garnish. Full of flavor, easy to make, and always popular.

Rescue those scraps

 But one can rescue many a tasty and nutritious ingredient from the compost heap or trash can and create a unique and flavorful pesto that is still very much the familiar. These scraps are full of life and vitamins and minerals. I know I always feel virtuous when I use something in a new way, especially if it might otherwise be wasted.

Wasted tops

Did you find a big bunch of carrots with greens attached at the market? Radishes? Fennel? These can serve as the base for a delicious sauce. Miss the basil flavor? Just toss in a few basil leaves and a few stems you will be hard-pressed to think of it as anything but the original. 

Use those stems, don’t toss them!

Don’t forget the stems! I’ve always been told that parsley and basil stems are too bitter to use, but if you taste one, it usually just tastes like the herb. Basil stems, mint and parsley stems, they all go in the pesto in my book, absolutely no need to waste.

Freeze them for another day

As a special bonus, all these pestos freeze well! So tackle into submission that overabundance of whatever it is and store it for use all year in pastas, soups, stews, sauces, toppings. Or take a closer look at what you are tossing in the trash, it very well could be the makings of a lovely sauce!

Some ideas for your scrap pesto:

Fennel stems and fronds – one of my favorite pestos! Most folks just cut the tops off the bulb of fennel and toss all the stems and fronds away, maybe saving a measly few fronds for garnish. But the fronds make not only a nice dried herb, but also a wonderful pesto. Flavor and texture here, and toss in some fennel seeds while you are at it.

Carrot tops – when carrots are in season at the farm stands here along with their glorious fronds, they are added to stocks and soups and sometimes get turned into pesto to top those roasted carrot roots.

Cauliflower leaves and core – while you slip in the cauliflower core to add texture, toss in a few of those green leaves as well, it will extend your herbs.

Greens – spinach and chard, arugula, watercress, most greens in fact will extend your pesto if you only have a bit of basil, and they lend their own character.

Radish tops – radish top pesto is delicious, and use the radishes as well to mimic the nut texture. Most of the summer, we can find radishes with their lovely tops, a bonus that is not to be discarded, and the radish pesto is quite delicious. You can also chop them up and toss them in soups and stews, or in your vegetable stock.

Celery leaves – if you have some celery leaves you think will go to waste, toss those in as well.

Chive Pesto – Oh the abundance of those spring chives! What a vibrant pesto they make, and it freezes well too. Don’t forget to toss in some of those lovely flowers as well.

Leftover refrigerator bits – olives, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, that last roasted red pepper in the jar, these all add flavor to any pesto, or use them by themselves. Make a pretty pink pesto with a couple of leftover beets, some red radishes, and a handful of parsley tossed in.

Pasta with Feta and Peppermint and Arugula Pesto

I had a lot of mint in my garden last year, as always. When I say a lot, I mean arms full and after drying all I needed for tea for the next decade, and all my family needed for tea for the next decade, I still had masses of mint in the garden. Some stalks are still there, sticking their heads up out of the last of the snow to offer their little dried flowers to the birds.

A scent of summer

Don’t get me wrong, I love mint, the smell of it when I walk through the garden, the wonderful tea in the middle of winter that takes me back to July. It’s great in so many dishes, and is always handy to ease little tummy troubles. When I served a dish that contained mint at the inn, I would crush and scatter some fresh mint leaves on the chargers just to get the aroma started and delight the sense of smell. It really is an uplifting scent.

Not a good neighbor

But I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with it. Love it in so many ways, but it does not play nicely in the garden, taking over any inch of space it can, roots creeping beneath everything else ready to pop up and strangle the others in their path. So I keep it sequestered where there is nothing else growing, and put several other varieties in pots, just to keep them on speaking terms with their neighbors.

Let the mint shine

Although I have made pesto out of just about everything that is green and often toss in some mint, I rarely make it solely with this herb. This time around, I used peppermint and arugula, not a basil leaf in site, plus I tossed in a lonely little broccoli stem for texture since I was omitting the traditional nuts because of food allergies. The stem was left over after making a crudité platter over the weekend. With both a daughter and granddaughter highly allergic to nuts, but lovers of pesto, I’ve found lots of little texture swaps over the year that fill in nicely: toasted seeds, of course, broccoli or cauliflower stems, water chestnuts, radishes, and even a mild turnip. Everything else in the pesto is so robust, you really get just the texture, and it’s yet another way to use up bits of produce that might go to waste.

Last year’s stash is done

This is about the time of year my stash of pesto from last year’s garden get used up. My little containers dwindled from dozens to just a precious one or two. It’s pretty easy to make a little batch of pesto even in early spring when nothing is growing. Right now, we have the briefest scents of earth where some of the snow has melted on our warmer days. Spring will happen; with temperatures in the 30s and 40s but freezing at night, the sap in the maple trees is running, and not a moment too soon. 

Choices

I found a lush pot of peppermint at the market this week, one whiff and I was in my summer garden. I certainly don’t need another mint plant, when one plants mint there’s enough for just about forever, but often a mint plant at the co-op is less expensive than a little container of the herb which is probably packed in plastic and pretty sad looking just about now.  I also had some lovely Greek goat and sheep feta cheese which I used sparingly and it melted into creamy deliciousness on the very humble macaroni.

No-recipe recipe

            Pesto is a sauce one should be able to make without a recipe, so I’m not giving exact measurements here. It’s really all about how you like it. Add the garlic, a little at a time if you are not sure, same with the lemon, you know what you like. Use the nuts or texture substitute you enjoy, and drizzle in the olive oil to where it is the smoothness or chunkiness you like. It’s also easy to make this vegan by using the dairy-free alternatives, or just leave out the cheese.

The Pesto:

• Large handful or so of mint, stems and all
• Large handful or so of arugula
• 1 to 4 garlic cloves
• Zest and juice of a lemon
• Nuts, broccoli or cauliflower stem, or seeds
• Parmesan cheese or vegan Parmesan
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

            In your food processor, combine mint, arugula, garlic, lemon zest and juice, nuts or other chunky element, and Parmesan. Process to a coarse paste, then drizzle in the olive oil until it is where you want it.

            

If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender, pulsing at first as you drizzle in the oil. And there is always the traditional but time consuming mortar and pestle method as well, which is really delicious if you are only making a small amount.

The Pasta:

• 8 ounces pasta of choice, I used ditalini
• About six ounces more or less of Greek Feta or vegan Feta, chopped or crumbled
• Another handful of Arugula
• Pesto from above
• Salt and pepper

            Put a pot of water on to boil, salt it, and when ready, drop the pasta. If you haven’t made it yet, there’s plenty of time to make the pesto while the pasta cooks.

            Drain the pasta and place it in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then add the cheese and a big spoonful of the pesto. Mix well, and keep adding the pesto until it is where you want it, tasting after each addition. The feta will melt in, and the arugula will wilt.

This dish is filled with bright flavor and is really simple to make, even if you are making the pesto from scratch. A dinner that is ready in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

Second Act: Pasta and Pesto Salad

This pasta dish is delicious cold with the addition of a bit more olive oil and some vinegar of choice, or a simple vinaigrette.

And, if you are looking for something to watch on the tube, this documentary about our planetary waste of all sorts is quite enlightening:

Copyright 2025– or current year, The New Vintage Kitchen. Dorothy Grover-Read. Unattributed use of this material and photographs is strictly prohibited. Reposting and links may be used, provided that credit is given to The New Vintage Kitchen, with  active link and direction to this original post.\

The New Vintage Kitchen does not accept ads or payment for mention of products or businesses.

Supporter of:  Slow Food      Fair Trade USA        Northeast Organic Farmers Association     EcoWatch Let’s Save Our Planet  No Kid Hungry   Hunger Free Vermont  Environmental Working Group World Central Kitchen  Sustainable America  Seed Savers Exchange Save the Children  Vermont Farm to Plate

Our posts and images are created by a human, not by AI. We like it that way.