A home cook is sharing an authentic recipe for making pesto, which also prevents food waste.
Instead of throwing out carrot tops, which most carrot growers do, they can be put into a blender, along with other ingredients, to make this delicious homemade pesto sauce.
The scoop
The Reel was uploaded by Maria Watkins (@livingplanetfriendly), whose Instagram channel is closing in on 60,000 followers as of the time of writing.
"So much tastier than store bought," Watkins says.
The video starts with the narrator chopping off the stems of what appear to be some garden-grown carrots.
"I start by washing the carrot tops really well," she says while holding the leaves under the sink and rinsing them off.
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She then adds basil leaves to the mix and places everything in a blender before adding a cup to a cup and a half of cashews and two heads of garlic.
She also adds the juice of a lemon, some salt and pepper, along with olive oil and water before blending all the ingredients together.
Watkins then pours the mix into an ice cube tray and places it into the freezer for future use.
"It freezes so well, and to make it just pop it in a hot pot with cooked pasta and stir until dissolved! Add water if you want thinner pesto," she adds.
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How it's helping
Hacks like these help to prevent food waste, which is a bigger problem than many people appreciate.
Saving food carries the obvious benefit of saving money, and making your own homegrown pesto is an excellent way to prevent breaking the bank on food. On a broader scale, around 30-40% of all the food produced in the U.S. ends up in the trash bin. This translates to around 119 billion pounds of food each year.
Unfortunately, food waste is an environmental problem that goes largely unnoticed.
For one, food needs to be transported in vehicles that release planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. These transportation-related gases account for approximately 6% of the total air-polluting gases produced by the food industry.
Also, food production requires lots of land, which means enormous amounts of trees are chopped down to make room for farming. Trees absorb harmful pollutants, and their reduction leads to an increase in the toxic gases present in the air, which means the planet warms even faster.
What people are saying
One commenter showed their enthusiasm, writing, "I made this and it's sooo delicious."
Another asked if "carrot tops have a basil-y flavor to them?" while others were intrigued by the poster's reusable stasher bags.
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