Scrap cooking: how to turn your leftovers into a delectable delight

From carrot tops to potato peels, chefs share how to help reduce landfill by diverting scraps from the trash to your plate

If holiday meal prep leaves you with plates full of potato peels and cutting boards full of carrot tops, you're not alone. The US sees a 25% increase in waste during the holiday season - 21% of which comes from our kitchen tables. Just on Thanksgiving, Americans toss a whopping 305m pounds of food. And all these cheese rinds, apple cores, vegetable skins and crusty week-old leftovers that make their way to landfills are harming the planet by emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas. According to one estimate by the UN Environment Program, if food waste was its own country, it would be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Much of this so-called food waste is perfectly edible.

Recipe: roasted potato peels

Recipe: carrot top chimichurri