For a lot of families, getting to the end of the week without wasting any food can be a real struggle. We often have to get rid of certain produce that has gone bad, or composting kitchen scraps that have accumulated during cooking.
But there are certain ingredients that can be given a new lease of life in the kitchen, even though your first thought may be to just throw it away.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is a huge advocate for reducing food waste at home. He recently took to TikTok to rave about one very common piece of kitchen waste that should never be thrown away, as it has plenty of nifty different uses – especially when it comes to adding extra flavour to your food.
In a recent video, he urged people not to throw away any parmesan rinds – which is the tougher outer edge you get when you buy a block of the cheese from the supermarket.
Parmesan is the perfect cheese to sprinkle on top of a pasta dish, as its strong flavour packs a hefty punch that pairs well with plenty of Italian ingredients. And according to Jamie, the rind can be just as useful.
In the video, he slices it off from the cheese wedge, and says: “That rind of parmesan – often that goes in the bin. It’s hard and it’s salty. But what if I put it in here?” as he drops it into a sizzling pan of vegetables.
He continued: “You can use that as a seasoning flavour bomb. Parmesan has that umami flavour, it’s also very salty on the skin. But when you put it in a soup, you shouldn’t have to season much at all.”
Jamie then spooned the soup into a bowl with the parmesan rind too, and added: “Interestingly, after some nice simmering, that hard, inedible parmesan rind, actually softens up.
“And then you can actually slice it up and eat it, fry it and make it crispy – it’s very, very cool.”
In the video’s comments, people were quick to offer suggestions on how they use their leftover parmesan rinds. One said: “In Italy we never throw away the rind of parmesan, pasta and beans, legume soups.”
Another said: “Put it in risotto when cooking,” while a third said: “I put it into minestrone.”
