On Wednesday, Top Chef challenged the candidates in the area of eco-responsibility with a test based on food leftovers. Do you also want to take on this challenge? Our nutrition expert, Alexandra Murcier, advises you. On your spatulas!
It’s an unprecedented test, to say the least, that the “Top Chef” teams have come up with. A challenge on “food leftovers”, which surprised many Internet users and put some candidates in difficulty. And for good reason: they had to prepare 5-star dishes using food scraps and vegetable peelings. A “green” initiative that appealed to us.
The green box test
This Wednesday, May 1, some of the candidates had to be more inventive… by recycling leftovers from the previous test: already cooked shellfish, vegetable peelings or even small pieces of meat.
They had to face “the green box, their one and only pantry on this ordeal“, specifies the artistic producer.
A challenge launched by Italian chef Simone Zanoni, himself concerned about the environment. At the “George”, one of the restaurants of the Four Seasons George V hotel in Paris, he developed a technique for growing mushrooms using his customers' coffee grounds.
An innovative recycling system that the candidates had the chance to discover – and test – by harvesting said mushrooms during filming.
At the end of the test, the candidates had to present their dish based on oyster mushrooms – enhanced by the leftovers. A great initiative, which gave us ideas.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
How to reuse your leftovers?
If we tend to sulk or even throw away our food scraps due to lack of inspiration, this food waste must stop. It is entirely possible to concoct healthy, delicious and balanced dishes using leftovers!
- “For the rice, you can make Cantonese rice, adding canned peas and omelette or ham for example.“, explains Alexandra Murcier;
- “You can also use excess starchy foods (rice, pasta, etc.) to prepare cold salads the next day, by adding vegetables“, adds the expert;
- Another possibility: use “carrot or radish tops to make soups, or even to make hummus” ;
- “You can also use apple/zucchini or potato peels to make chips.“, specifies Alexandra Murcier;
- “When you cook a squash, you can set aside its seeds and then grill them and sprinkle them on your salads.“, indicates the specialist;
- “The greens of leeks are very interesting nutritionally because they are rich in vitamin B9: they can also be used to make soups,” explains the expert;
- “Carrot tops can be used, mixed with pistachios and olive oil to make pesto“, she emphasizes.
- Finally, “you can use the skin of lemons, mandarins and clementines to make chocolate orangettes – provided you clean them well to remove some of the pesticides, or ideally choose them organic“, concludes Alexandra Murcier.
Slide: 10 tips to stop wasting vegetable skins
