Cook­book

Waste Not, Want Not

  • Review
By – May 5, 2019

There is so much food waste in the Unit­ed States. A Wash­ing­ton Post arti­cle states that $165 bil­lion worth of food gets thrown away annu­al­ly. Yaf­fa Fruchter, who grew up cook­ing with her moth­er and grand­moth­er, offers read­ers cre­ative options for serv­ing left­overs. She begins with a les­son about food safe­ty, includ­ing tips for orga­niz­ing the refrig­er­a­tor and freez­er, safe stor­age con­tain­ers, and what can be safe­ly saved and reused. She then pro­vides a mas­ter recipe for chick­en soup, which includes a large vari­ety of veg­eta­bles that can be saved and used in oth­er dish­es. These veg­eta­bles are used in more recipes, such as veg­etable pat­ties, but­ter­nut squash soup, Tsimmes, and Moroc­can car­rots. Fruchter devotes chap­ters to chick­en and turkey, cholent, rice and pas­ta; fish and dairy; fruits and veg­eta­bles; and chal­lah bread and cake. These chap­ters pro­vide vari­ants on casseroles, bourekas, frit­tatas, and kugels that incor­po­rate left­over ingre­di­ents. She con­cludes the book with tips on man­ag­ing the pantry, using ingre­di­ents before they spoil, sub­sti­tu­tions, spices, and kitchen safe­ty. All the recipes are kosher and inex­pe­ri­enced cooks will find it useful.

Bar­bara M. Bibel is a librar­i­an at the Oak­land Pub­lic Library in Oak­land, CA; and at Con­gre­ga­tion Netiv­ot Shalom, Berke­ley, CA.

Discussion Questions