Root-to-stem cooking is catching on among operators committed to using every part of the vegetable—including the peel, leaves and gnarly ends that usually get tossed in the trash. At Sweetgreen, a health-focused restaurant concept with 31 locations, the trend took the form of a limited-time vegetable-scrap salad on the late-summer menu at its four New York City stores.
Fresh facts
- A portion of the salad’s $8.60 price tag was donated to City Harvest, a New York organization that fights hunger.
- Food scraps that aren’t used in menu items are composted at each Sweetgreen location.
- 31 percent of food in the U.S. goes uneaten—about 133 billion pounds of food every year. - National Resources Defense Fund
- 6 billion pounds of produce are thrown out each year in the U.S. - National Resources Defense Fund