21 Jun 2023
If you have perishing fruits and vegetables in your kitchen that you would normally throw out, try making smoothies, vegetable juices, and sorbets to reduce household food waste.
In the U.S., 40% of food is wasted, and much of this waste comes from households. Food waste in landfills contributes to methane emissions – a major climate change concern.
Want to be a part of the solution? The next time you have less-than-fresh fruits or vegetables, consider blending or juicing your produce before you send it to the trash or the compost.
Reduce Household Food Waste with Smoothies
Well-made and tasty smoothies contain at least these three major components:
- 1-1.5 cups of a liquid base,
- 1-2 cups of fruits and/or vegetables,
- a thickener
We recommend freezing the produce you plan on using in the smoothie to thicken the smoothie’s consistency.
Common liquid bases include water, pre-made juices (you can make your own to further reduce your household’s food waste!), or any kind of dairy or nut milk.
The bulk of the smoothie may come from leafy greens and/or frozen fruit.
Finally, the thickener might be 1 banana, ½ avocado, ½ cup frozen mango, ¼ cup ground oats, or ice cubes.
Blend and enjoy!
Reduce Household Food Waste with Vegetable Juices
Making your own vegetable juices, or green juices, from ingredients you have on hand is another great way to reduce food waste! Juicing allows you to mix and match produce that you already have in your kitchen in order to create your own recipes for great tasting drinks.
To get you started, we recommend choosing one ingredient from each of the below categories, using produce that you already have in your home.
| Base | Citrus | Leafy Veggies | Sweet Ingredient | Flavor |
| Cucumber | Lemon | Spinach | Apple | Ginger |
| Celery | Lime | Kale | Pear | Turmeric |
| Cantaloupe | Orange | Romaine | Carrot | Mint |
| Honey Dew melon | Grapefruit | Collard Greens | Pineapple | Parsley |
Remember, the goal is to use what you have in order to prevent food waste, not to plan a recipe and buy new ingredients. The ingredients listed above are only some examples and can be substituted with similar produce items.
Additionally, it is not necessary to create a juice using an ingredient from every aforementioned category; use what you have to create your own recipes or use the internet to search for recipes using the specific ingredients you do have.
Juice and enjoy!
Another Way To Reduce Household Food Waste with Vegetable Juices
Have a sweet tooth? Sorbets are another good way to reduce food waste!
Use the following recipe to make your own fruit sorbets.
- Heat 2 cups of sugar in 2 cups of water in a pot on the stove. Bring to a simmer and stir. Do not let this mixture boil.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, let the mixture cool.
- Juice 2 cups of fruit. This will become your sorbet’s flavor.
- Add the fruit juice to the cooled sugar and water mixture. Stir.
- Pour the mixture into a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer.
- Stir every 30 minutes for 2-3 hours, until you have a well-mixed, frozen sorbet product.
Serve and enjoy!
Show us what you made!
Share your waste-reducing smoothies, juices, and sorbets with us by tweeting us @OneThirdTeam.
If you have other food items you wish to donate, you can discover food donation programs in the U.S. that are helping to reduce food insecurity by diverting food waste to those in need.
Looking for more ways to reduce food waste at home?
We created the 30 Day Food Waste Challenge as a fun way to learn 30 new ways of reducing food waste in 30 days.
Feel free to start it at any time!
