What To Make with Common Food Scraps, According to Max La Manna
The low-waste chef and cookbook author has savvy ideas for things many of us wouldn’t think twice about throwing out.
Photo courtesy of Max La Manna
Got a half-eaten carton of blueberries in your fridge? Bought parsley for a specific recipe and don’t know what to do with the rest of it? Before you throw that banana peel away, think twice. What if you could turn those food scraps into something delicious?
As someone who studied the environment and previously worked for nonprofits addressing food insecurity, I’m always looking for ways to be more sustainable and reduce my impact, and I’m not the only one. According to the Pinterest 2024 Trends Report, upcycled foods are on the rise and searches are up for recipes made with food scraps.
Low-waste chef and cookbook author Max La Manna knows all about this. Max has been around food his entire life and worked both front and back of house in restaurants. “There’s people [whose] love language is food, and that’s definitely mine,” he says.
Originally from Waterbury, Connecticut, his passion for sustainability was sparked when he was living abroad in Sydney, Australia and noticed plastic and debris floating by while swimming at the beach. “Australia’s remote. I [thought] if it’s reached this place, then it’s everywhere.”
He wanted to do something that would make a greater impact and knew the perfect place to start – the kitchen – where he spent all his time. From there, he slowly started making changes. “Once you learn it and once you understand it, there’s no going back,” he says.
Fast forward to today, Max is a plant-based chef based out of the U.K. and author of two cookbooks focused on reducing food waste. He’s never preachy about his way of eating but instead hopes to inspire others through his cooking and his recipes. Reducing food waste doesn’t have to be hard, and he encourages people to frame it a different way.
“I think the one thing we need to wrap our minds around is we are working to earn money to then spend money on food to then bring that food home. Roughly a third of the food we bring home we throw away and waste. Every year the average household in America wastes around $1,500 to $2,000 of food that could be consumed. That’s a holiday.”
He emphasizes that it’s not just the food that’s being thrown away. It’s the money, labor, packaging, transportation, energy and natural resources that went into making that food. But don’t fear, there are easy ways to reduce waste that don’t require much thought. Some of Max’s tips include shopping smarter, making a list before going to the grocery store so you only buy exactly what you need, storing food properly and using the freezer.
“The freezer is an incredible invention. I wish I invented the freezer because you can freeze practically anything, and it will extend the shelf life. A lot of us think we’re going to get to [food] in time. The best thing is to divvy up what you have.”
Fancy gadgets aren’t necessary either. “I see these avocado helpers, like we don't need that. We don't need to buy more in order for us to waste less,” Max says.
There are also apps like Too Good To Go which allow consumers to buy meals or items that businesses would otherwise throw away at the end of the day at a discounted price. Many certified upcycled brands have emerged that utilize ingredients that wouldn’t make it to stores or be thrown away into new products. Take for example Matriark which makes tomato sauce from surplus tomatoes, or Toast Brewing which makes craft beer from surplus bread.
Max’s passion for these issues harks back to when he was younger growing up next to a soup kitchen and seeing people wait in line for food every day. “I think why I do what I do is because I’ve seen it from an early age. It really pains me when I see people throw away food because there’s all these valuable products for us as consumers to shop smarter and ways we can make sure that food goes to the max.”
He came out with his first cookbook, More Plants Less Waste, in 2020 with an emphasis on setting the foundation for reducing waste at home. “It shows zero waste recipes, how to use the entire ingredient but also ways to reduce waste not just in cooking. You can make a body scrub using coffee grounds. You can use banana peels to make a tea to feed your plants. You can use pulp from juicing vegetables and fruits to make biscuits for dogs.”
His second cookbook, You Can Cook This, which launched in 2023 was inspired by surveying his online following and asking them what foods they waste most. From this, he took the top 30 responses and designed recipes around those ingredients. Each one also includes helpful tips on how to store food properly and how long that dish will last in the fridge and freezer.
“You Can Cook This, it’s a play on words. You, Alex, can cook this like motivating you to get in the kitchen and cook but also saying to the person who’s reading this that you can cook this ingredient. If you're someone who throws away this ingredient, you have the opportunity to cook it. You paid for it, now cook it,” Max says.
Photo courtesy of Max La Manna
While he says choosing a favorite recipe from the book is like asking a parent to choose their favorite child, Max shares two of his current faves. “For me it has to be crispy smashed potatoes with a spicy lemon mayonnaise. The inside is a little bit soft, outside is crispy and crunchy. It has loads of herbs and pickled onions so there’s a lot of texture and well-balanced flavors throughout. Then probably my all-time favorite is my tofu butter chicken … I don't think a lot of people utilize tofu or know how to cook tofu. For me, it's a blank canvas. So you just need to know how to prep the ingredient and then add the flavors and spices you need to create something really wonderful and delicious.”
Photo courtesy of Max La Manna
As Max demonstrates in the book, the same goes with many typical food scraps. So I asked what he would do with the following:
Carrot tops?
Make a pesto, chimichurri or even fry the green leaves for a lovely crunchy garnish.
Photo courtesy of Max La Manna
Banana peels?
Bananas [peel and all] can be blended entirely to make a batter for any sort of cake. Or you can use the banana peel to make bacon by frying it in spices, soy sauce or tamari. I have a recipe in my new book where I make a BLT sandwich and the B stands for banana peel obviously.
Potato skins?
I think you just keep them on. I mean I don’t know why we’re peeling them. They’re a great source of nutrition. But if you do tend to peel them, one tip is to submerge them in ice cold water. They will crisp right up. Drain the water and then put them on a baking sheet. Add some spices, throw them in the oven, and you’ll discover a new favorite treat.
Broccoli stems?
My favorite. I usually peel and cut the woody stem of the broccoli, compost that, but then I like to eat the rest. I just chop it up with the florets and steam them. Or you can grate the broccoli stem so you can make fritters out of it.
Stale bread?
Bread, I think could be utilized at any meal. So you can make French toast, or you can make pangrattato, which is like a bread crumb. Over here in the U.K., they have a bread and butter pudding. The one tip I [have] for stale bread if the loaf is not moldy is literally take the bread, run it underneath the faucet for like one or two seconds under some water. Then place it onto a lined baking sheet and bake it in the oven on a low heat for a few minutes. And the bread will literally come back to life. You could squeeze the bread and it'd be brand new again.
Berries that are about to go bad?
If they’re going moldy really quickly, I would halve the carton. You know you're going to consume most of them right away before the next half goes moldy. So take that first half when you get home, give it a wash and rinse, and then place it in a bag in the freezer. Then you can use them for a smoothie later on or you could stew them on the stove and make jam.
Herbs that are wilting?
As soon as I get home, I like to put the stems in water and just keep them out. It’ll be a nice, lovely bouquet. You can keep them in the fridge, or you keep them on your windowsill depending on the season. But this will keep the herbs staying fresh a lot longer.
And finally corn cobs?
What I tend to do is make a stock. I keep them in my freezer and when I have a big bag full of the corn cobs, I just simmer some water, maybe add some salt, peppercorns and make a nice, lovely stock.
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