ZERO FOOD WASTE + A GREAT SOUP

A display of cut-price veggies at my favorite supermercado caught my eye. Produce marked way down was tagged “Desperdicio Alimentario Zero”—“zero food waste.” I bought a pack of eight medium-sized tomatoes (about 2 pounds) for 99 centimos. The tomatoes were of three different varieties. All were perfectly ripe. None were rotting. All had imperfections of one sort or another, mainly blemishes on the skins. 

Many food retailers have joined the campaign to reduce food waste. The AECOC (Asociación de Empresas de Gran Consumo), which has more than 650 affiliates, has launched a campaign to increase awareness of the need to reduce waste at every step of the food supply chain, from the primary sources (farms and livestock), to manufacturing and packing, transport and storage, distribution and, finally, to us, the consumers. 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization calculates that a third of food produced world-wide is wasted—crops that rot in the fields, produce rejected for imperfections, glitches in the supply chain, and, yes, the broccoli your kid refuses to eat, the leftovers from restaurant meals, the milk you overstocked that reached expiry date. Most food that winds up in the garbage can is perfectly edible.

Wasting food has both environmental and economic consequences. It contributes to global warming because rotting food in landfills creates methane. Wasted food globally represents an estimated $1 trillion of value annually.   

I´m doing my small part, starting with soup. 

This white bean and vegetable soup (from Simple Real Food by Amanda Cushman) is finished with a dollop of pesto sauce. I used "zero waste" blemished tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes in the soup. 

I make soup at least once a week. This week´s soup comes from Simple Real Food by Amanda Cushman, an American chef, caterer and cooking school teacher who has recently moved to València, Spain. The book’s recipes, including a vegetarian chapter, range from Asian to Mediterranean, a mix that is just my sort of cooking. 

The recipe, White Bean and Vegetable Soup with Pesto, has a couple of surprise techniques. One, part of the beans (canned) are pureed to make a thick soup, and, two, a whole cup of white wine lifts the flavors of vegetables to another level.

My own touch was to substitute those “zero waste” tomatoes for the canned ones that Amanda calls for in the recipe. I used up some green beans that had been lurking in the fridge too long. Because I had no fresh basil, I made a pesto substituting kale for the basil and walnuts for the pine nuts.

White Bean and Vegetable Soup with Pesto

Sopa de Alubias y Verduras con Salsa Pesto

(Recipe excerpted from Simple Real Food by Amanda Cushman)

(To use fresh tomatoes in place of canned for sauce or soup: Cut out the stem ends of the tomatoes and cut an X in the skin. Place them in a circle on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on “high” for 2 minutes. Rotate the tomatoes and return them to the MW. Microwave on high for 2 minutes longer. Allow them to set in the closed MW until cool enough to handle. Pull off the skins. Chop or puree the tomatoes, as needed in the recipe, in a blender or food processor.)

2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 carrots, diced

1 cup dry white wine

Salt, pepper to taste

1 (28-oz.) can tomatoes with juices, chopped

½ pound green beans, trimmed, cut into ½ -inch diagonal slices

1 medium zucchini, diced

Pesto Sauce

2 cups loosely packed basil, washed, dried

3 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

½ cup Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt, pepper

Reserve ½ cup of the beans for later. Puree the rest of the beans in a processor with 1 cup of the broth.

Transfer the bean puree to a stockpot and stir in 2 cups of the broth. Heat the soup base over medium-high heat until simmering, season with salt and pepper. Cover and continue to simmer over low heat.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large  high-sided saucepan over medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic and carrots until slightly browned, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and deglaze the pan over high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper, the remaining cup of broth, tomatoes, green beans and zucchini and cover, simmer another 10 minutes. Add to the stockpot with the bean puree. Bring to a simmer and cook until all the vegetables are softened, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the reserved whole beans and salt and pepper to taste.

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For the pesto, combine the basil, garlic, pine nuts and cheese in a blender or processor and process until smooth. Add the oil gradually while the machine is running, season with salt and pepper to taste. If the pesto is too thick, add a little water. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Heat the soup before serving and garnish with a dollop of the pesto. 

Alternatives: Chick peas, navy beans or white beans can be used in place of the cannellini beans.

This version of pesto is made with kale instead of basil, walnuts instead of pine nuts.

Amanda Cushman, who is now based in València, Spain, gives private cooking classes locally and by Zoom. For more information, see her web site A culinary journal and online cooking classes from Chef Amanda Cushman . To order a copy of Simple Real Food, e-mail her at amandascooking@gmail.com

More recipes with energy-saving ideas: 

Eating at Kilómetro Cero

Eat Sardines, Save the Planet

What to Cook When the Electric Bill Soars

More Soup Recipes: Ready for Soup

At the village market, ripe bananas priced 50% off, displayed with a photograph of the village patron saint, Virgen de la Peña.