Carleigh Bodrug, social media star and author of PlantYou: Scrappy Cooking (Hachette Go, Apr.), spoke with PW about the benefits of plant-based eating, the dangers of cherry pits, and why you should use lemon peels in your next pasta sauce.
You’re known on social media to your millions of followers for your “scrappy cooking” series. How did it inspire this cookbook?
Thirty to 40% of the entire U.S. food supply finds its way into landfills, much of this stemming from household waste. Unfortunately, when food waste decomposes in landfills, it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
When I learned these statistics, they just about stopped me in my tracks! One of my largest motivations for going plant-based is the environmental implications of animal agriculture, so it only made sense to talk about food waste as part of this broader conversation.
Not thinking too much about it, I threw up an orange-peel candy recipe on social media one day and called it “Scrappy Cooking,” only to come back to it a couple hours later to see the video had millions of views. People were fired up over talking about food waste and what they could do in their kitchens to mitigate it. It was then I knew my second cookbook had to have a low-waste focus to help people not only reduce their food waste but also save money and eat healthier.
The cookbook has more than 150 vegan recipes—almost entirely oil-free and focused on whole, plant-based foods. What makes these recipes good for our bodies and the planet?
Plant-based and low-waste cooking go hand in hand, and the recipes in Scrappy Cooking are meant to enable readers to apply these meals to their lifestyle seamlessly. Every recipe in the book is made with whole, plant-based ingredients you can find at just about any grocery store.
Not only is eating more plants and fewer processed foods great for your health, but it’s often by default more affordable. It goes without saying that plants almost always carry a dramatically lower environmental footprint than animal products do, and when you pair this with reducing waste, you have a winning combination.
There are about 26 recipes that are earmarked with a “Kitchen Raid” badge, to indicate that you can use up just about any vegetable, grain, or bean that’s starting to overstay its welcome in your fridge or pantry. Additionally, there is a helpful visual index in the front of the book that lists some of the most commonly wasted foods and links to corresponding recipes where you can use them up!
Scrappy Cooking is really meant to empower readers to fall in love with cooking with plants and put the well-intentioned veggies they buy each week to good use. If you embark on a low-waste, plant-based lifestyle, your body, the planet, and your wallet will reap the benefits.
You describe this cookbook as one you can lean on when you’re trying to use up everything in the fridge, whether it’s turnip tops or chickpeas. Anything you won’t cook with?
There are a couple of scraps that are a no-no in the kitchen. The one that comes to mind first is cherry pits. Cherry pits can contain cyanide, which is poisonous. It’s not an emergency if you swallow one, but if someone were to grind up the pits and eat a bunch, we might have a problem!
There are recipes here for an array of goodies—from a Microbiome Bowl to sustainable sweets like Hot-Chocolate Cookies. What are your favorites?
I absolutely love my Lemon Peel Pasta recipe. Knowing that you can use up food scraps from something as common as lemon peels and turn them into a creamy plant-based sauce that tastes gourmet is, in my opinion, pretty incredible. It’s a super simple recipe and 100% low-waste—perfect for a weeknight meal or a date night.
Another favorite of mine is Common Ground Granola, which I love adding to smoothie bowls or coconut yogurt. Imagine luscious chocolate tahini granola with a hint of coffee flavor, thanks to spent coffee grounds! It’s packed with fiber and tastes delicious.
