One person's trash is another person's treasure — or, in this case, "liquid gold," as TikToker Ava (@glowwithava) showed in a creative hack.
The scoop
The creator prefaces the video by noting their hatred of food waste and proudly declaring, "Immigrant family rise up" as a reason for that. Ava continues by saying, "Life has been exponentially better since learning how to make this broth."
@glowwithava best way to use up trash for your skin & immunity 🥬🍅🍆🫑🧄🫚 Ingredients: - 1 tbs olive oil or ghee butter (i do both) - 1 yellow onion, chopped - 5 cloves garlic - 1 freezer bag full of veggie scraps (onion ends, leftover herbs, broccoli stems, squash skins, mushroom stems, radish ends, celery ends) - 10-12 cups water - 3 bay leaves - Thyme leaves - ½ teaspoon ginger powder - ½ teaspoon salt & pepper Instructions: 1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add in onion and garlic and saute until it begins to brown. Add all veggie scraps, water, bay leaves, thyme, and seasonings. 2. Bring to simmer and cook for ~45 minutes until broth is rich in flavor. Strain out veggie scraps and store in containers. Use within one week. #veggiebroth #foodscraps #nowaste #brothrecipe #foodforjelloskin ♬ original sound - AVA
To do so, freeze your unwanted vegetable scraps, including mushroom ends, celery ends, potato skins, and spinach. The base consists of olive oil and/or ghee butter, a chopped yellow onion, and five cloves of garlic that Ava cooks before adding water and the scraps.
Ava makes it extra tasty by adding whatever seasoning is lying around, including bay leaves, thyme, Chinese herbs, star anise, ginger powder, salt, and pepper. The seasonings and scraps cook for 45 minutes before Ava strains out the veggies and stores the broth in containers to be consumed within a week.
"The beauty is it tastes different every time I make it because of the scraps I have," Ava reveals. "It's so hearty and warming, and I swore to myself I'll never buy vegetable broth outside going forward when I can make liquid gold out of this trash."
"So save the planet, save your money, and boost your immunity," Ava concludes.
How it's helping
Ava's hack is another way to do more with leftovers, even seemingly unwanted ones such as veggie scraps. This hack and similar ones help cooks save money by avoiding purchasing items at the store.
It also cuts down on food waste, which Feeding America says tallies up to 92 billion pounds of food in America annually, valued at a whopping $473 billion.
Composting is another option for people who want to make sure their excess veggies and fruits don't go to methane-producing landfills.
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Saving money 💰 There are also health benefits that Ava references, including boosting your immunity and skin health.
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What everyone's saying
Commenters on TikTok were overwhelmingly supportive of Ava's hack.
"This is so genius," one wrote.
Another shared: "So smart!! I already use bones to make broth, should save the veggie scraps too!"
A user went even further with an enticing idea for a follow-up meal.
"I throw whatever's left in the fridge in and add tom yum paste to make soup noodles," they revealed.
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