Where do you find yourself wasting food? As much as we hate food waste, sometimes we fall into the same traps over and over again — buying too many apples at the farmers' market, forgetting a load of spinach in the crisper drawer. I have been trying to identify the places where I most frequently slip up, and for me, that means salad greens.
Here's one way to eke a little more use out of a load of salad greens and hopefully avoid waste.
I love salad greens, especially spicy stuff like arugula. I keep lots of it around, since some days I will eat a salad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But sometimes I neglect my salad greens, letting them get old and yellowed in the refrigerator. This past week, for instance, I went away for a few days and forgot about this huge tub of baby arugula. When I returned it was rapidly turning stale, yellowed, and just a teeny bit slimy around the edges. But I didn't want to throw it out — such a waste! So much salad!
So I tried something else: I sautéed it with a little butter and a lot of garlic. That entire tub of arugula wilted down into a very nice side dish for two, perfectly complementing the fresh salmon we ate alongside it. It was delicious and not a bit slimy or stale-tasting.
This can work for other greens, too. Even romaine and iceberg lettuce are delicious after a quick sauté with garlic and olive oil. They make a splendid addition to a morning omelet or an evening grilled cheese sandwich, and cooking them takes five minutes flat.
Of course, if your bag of salad has turned black and goopy, this probably wouldn't apply. But if it's just on the edge, a little too yellowed for a fresh salad, then dump it in a pan and cook it. No waste, and plenty of flavor.
Related: Tips and Tricks: How to Avoid Wasting Food
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Actually I have done this with frisee and romaine because the dish I was making - it didn't seem appropriate to be served cold! But I will remember this trick too when I am over zealous at my produce shop and bring home way too much!
A squeeze of lemon juice and maybe add a little broccoli! num!
I do try to remember to do this with my arugula! Which I love SO much but rarely get around to eating the whole bag/container before it starts wilting. (I've actually stopped buying the bagged arugula from Trader Joe's because even though it's so much cheaper than the supermarket brands, it seems to go bad much quicker.)
Any idea if arugula could be frozen, like spinach?
@Brooklynnina, actually, one thing to do if you want to freeze arugula is make arugula pesto... then freeze in ice cube trays and use later in omelets and sandwiches.
I agree, sauteing is a lovely way to use it up!
Toss them with freshly cooked, steaming hot pasta or rice. Wilts nicely in the heat and it's an easy way to add nutrition to a meal.
Chop them up roughly, add cheese and seasonings, beat with some eggs, and make egg muffins or frittatas with them. These freeze well.
I love sauteed arugula and not just when it's going bad. I often toss it with pasta. It's a little lighter and fresher tasting than spinach.
Yay to this post! I saute fresh spinach all the time and I've been wondering if it would be just as yummy to use not-so-fresh spinach, but the slime factor grossed me out. Nice to hear that it will work
Thanks for the pesto suggestion, great idea! I've actually been on a pesto-making tear lately--but my basil plants are a little picked-over at the moment. Now I know what I'm doing with that unfinished package of arugula! :D
For me it used to be onions and potatoes, I just wouldn't use them up in time, but now I make a big pot of caramelized onions and bake off all the potatoes - no waste. Fried baked potatoes with veggies and/or eggs I'll eat anytime.
With greens, I grow a lot of my own so have less waste since they stay in the ground until I need them, a few more ways I've found to use them up (especially arugula) is in scrambled eggs, soup, added to pesto, added to a goat cheese & herb spread, and tossed at the last minute into boiled or roast potatoes.
I can't find it now, but Serious Eats posted a wonton recipe a few months ago that used greens and I've been making that often. My CSA box often includes a head of lettuce, plus a bag of mixed greens, and that's a lot for two people to get through in a week.
I do this all the time! It's why I particularly like arugula: butter lettuce, lamb's ear, spring mixes wilt so quickly. Arugula holds up so nicely. And if we don't finished our dressed salad, I toss the leftover salad into a pasta dish, I saute it (the olive oil is already on it!), or toss it with herbs into the blender for a dip or "pesto" if nuts and more olive oil are added.
Mmm, yes! I also sometime put greens --- say, a big handful of greens per serving --- into the colander while pasta is cooking. I drain the pasta right over the greens, which wilts them a bit, then toss the pasta and greens (and the bit of pasta water still clinging to them) right back into the pan with some olive oil and garlic. Tossed with a bit of Parmesan or some slivered nuts, this is a wonderful dinner!
I'm a serious offender when it comes to neglecting salad greens in the fridge, so I do this all the time! Usually I have baby spinach on hand and I'll squeeze in some lemon and add fresh nutmeg. So good! And I've heard that a quick trip around the pan allows the greens to retain more vitamins than they would otherwise with other cooking methods.
I LOVE sautee'd greens with my eggs in the morning. Wilted frisee with balsamic (like a frisee au lardon -- without the lardon) is the best, but arugula is great, too. Recently I've been experimenting with dandelion greens, sauteeing them in olive oil until their just crisping around the edges, then tossing with a little balsamic and sea salt and topping with a fried egg. Delicious.