A home chef is showing the world how to make use of the hard-to-reach peanut butter left in a near-empty jar.
Popular Instagrammer Carleigh Bodrug (@plantyou), who boasts 3.4 million followers and is a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, has uploaded a Reel that shows a creative way to prevent both peanut butter waste and plastic waste.
"Never throw out an empty peanut butter jar," she says.
The scoop
The video begins with Bodrug holding a used peanut butter jar with only the remnants of the creamy substance on the edges.
She then instructs viewers to fill the mostly-empty jar with soy sauce, maple syrup, rice vinegar, sriracha, ginger, and lime juice.
"My favorite way to serve this up is in a peanut noodle salad," the plant-based chef says.
How it's helping
Throwing away food is not only a waste of money, but it can also have dire consequences for the planet. In fact, up to 10% of global planet-warming gas pollution is the result of food that goes to waste, according to a UN report cited by the World Economic Forum.
Food must be transported by way of trucks and ships, which burn fuels that release gases into the air and heat the planet. Transportation accounts for about 6% of the gases produced by the food industry that are changing the Earth's climate, per Our World in Data.
Another benefit of this food-saving hack is that it reuses the containers that hold the peanut butter. This slows the amount of trash that ends up in a landfill or the environment, which is helpful since only about 5% of plastic in the U.S. is actually recycled, per a Greenpeace report.
Also, well-made peanut butter sauce can spice up food in some amazing ways.
What everyone's saying
"Would never have guessed this," one commenter wrote.
"Let no peanut butter go to waste!" another added.
One commenter provided an interesting alternative to preventing peanut butter from ending up in the trash bin. "I wedge the almost empty peanut butter jar in the trees out in the backyard for the birds and the chipmunks [and] the squirrels absolutely love it, but that sauce absolutely sounds delicious."
"Too bad it takes me 172 years to finish a peanut butter jar. Otherwise this looks tasty!" another person wrote.
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