Stop Food Waste
with Mindful cocktails
everyday is stop food waste day at La Maison Wellness & we are HERE FOR IT
We love to look at how we can be more sustainable in the glass because that’s also what being mindful is about! In celebration of international Stop Food Waste Day, we thought we’d share some tips about how we can be smarter about making cocktails and therefore kinder to our planet.
“Root to Flower”
Known as the ‘root to stem’ approach in culinary theory, trying to use every aspect of an ingredient (on the proviso that the rest of the plant is edible!) is the best way to avoid food waste, challenge your creativity & get the most nutrition from your Mindful Cocktail ingredients. A secondary benefit is it also saves £££ (happy planet, happy wallet… we say win-win!)
Shrub-a-dub-dub
At La Maison Wellness we love our homemade shrubs (check out our tasty Mindful Cocktail recipes- Festive Mimosa) Extend the life of leftover citrus juice from your cocktail, by making a zesty syrup or cordial; leftover peelings & fruit pulp from garnishes are always delicious (steep them in the sugar for a while before adding water to really extract the flavour); and you can play around with apple cider vinegar (bonus- it’s thought to lower cholesterol & improve digestion!) to make preservative and delicious “shrubs” or drinking vinegars.
Save those peels!
Next up is something known in the bar world as an oleo-saccharum, which is really just a syrup that uses citrus peels. Whilst these take a little more time, don’t be put-off by the fancy latin name as they are also suuuuper easy! Simply zest your chosen citrus (you want those beautiful essential oils from the skin without the bitter pith), which can be done easily with a standard vegetable peeler. Coat the peels in sugar & leave for a couple of hours, or ideally overnight until the sugar is damp with citrus oil. Remove the zests, add an equal volume of water & stir until dissolved- c’est tout! When it comes to oleo saccharums, classic sugar is usually your best bet; as it’s the magic of osmosis that we have to thank for the extraction of flavour… The good news is that your finished product will have such a beautiful, strong, zesty flavour that you won’t need to use a lot of it!
Fancy Ice Cubes
Freezing your own ice (rather than buying ‘pre-made’ bags from the supermarket) is an easy way to reduce the carbon footprint on your Mindful Cocktails! 🥶 Add you can add left-over herbs or fruit as a fun preservative trick; remember your “root to stem”- the flowers from herbs are often edible!
Dehydrated Garnishes
If you’ve got half an orange or lemon left over from a recipe, you can dehydrate it instead for pretty garnishes! Dehydrated slices of citrus, fruit or veg will keep for a while and are a fantastic addition to your Mindful Cocktail. Slice thinly & keep your oven on low.