Chef Graham’s favourite root to stem hacks

Sick of seeing waste in your kitchen? If there was another way to minimize this waste, drive your kitchen’s dollar further and enrich your menu with interesting flavours – would you want to know about it?

Great, because we sat down with Experienced Chef Graham Krueger, Group Executive Chef at Wests Leagues Club, to get his thoughts on how to be a zero waste chef. Here are his hacks.

1. Thinly slice broccoli stems and throw them in a wok to bulk up stir fries.

2. Every part of the pumpkin is edible. Chef Graham’s kitchen roasts the seeds and also uses them as a garnish for a quinoa pumpkin salad. The flesh trimmings then get boiled down into a puree, which goes into a barramundi dish.

3. Utilise the tough outer leaves of red cabbage by boiling them and, once softened, using them to make little parcels or dumplings.

4. Raw broccoli leaves and the leaves of imperfect brussels sprouts make a great addition to a salad mix.