The Last Thing To Do Before Throwing Away Parsley Stems

Learning to become a low- waste chef in the kitchen means finding savvy ways to use all your food scraps. That includes the parts of food you typically wouldn't eat, like the stems from your parsley bundle. After you remove all the leaves from your parsley, you'll be left with a thin green stalk. To be a more resourceful chef, save these stems and repurpose them in a different step of your home cooking setup. Parsley stems are a good alternative for lemons when cleaning produce that can begin to brown quickly, such as apples or artichokes.

The parsley stems create acidulated water, which is slightly acidic water. This prevents oxidation of cut spots on your sensitive produce and helps keep them fresh and nicer looking for longer. To use this hack, rough chop your leftover parsley stems, add them to your bowl of water, and toss your produce in the water. You can leave the produce in for up to two hours depending on how long you need to stop the browning. Don't worry: Adding parsley stems won't impact the flavor of your dish. instead, it will create a subtle acidic element to add a gentle pop of flavor to your food.

You can also repurpose your parsley stems by adding them to your stocks and sauces. You can tie parsley stems together or into a multi-herb bundle to infuse your sauces and stocks with fresh herb flavor. Once your dish has cooked you simply remove the herb bundle and you are left with all the flavor of the herbs without having to worry about rogue leaves or flakes messing with the texture of your dish.

Parsley stems can also be blended into green juices and smoothies for an extra punch of nutrition. Parsley is high in many nutrients for a happy, healthy body, including vitamin A, vitamin K, and folate. When blended with other produce, the stems don't give off the sharp, bitter taste commonly found in parsley, so you get all the nutritional benefits without the overpowering taste. If you are still struggling to find a good use for your parsley leftovers, consider creating your own compost bin or finding a community compost bin near you. You can freeze produce scraps till you're ready to add to compost and the results create fertile, sustainable material to add to your plants or gardens.