Zero Waste Cooking

We encouraged people to think outside the banana this week and eat the peel! 

Sarah from KESAB (pictured) ran free cooking demos at our Frewville and Pasadena this week using the humble banana peel as the hero ingredient in a delicious plant-based and zero-waste meal.

She prepped and cooked the usually-discarded skins and transformed them into a textural and flavour alternative to pulled pork (see Sarah’s recipe here.

Bananas generate large amounts of waste as the skin (which is about 35% of the fruit) typically ends up in the bin or compost but Sarah’s demo helped debunk the perception that banana peels are inedible.

She says they are not only edible but also jam-packed with nutrients. When we throw away the skins, there’s not just the loss of extra nutrients but also an environmental cost.

Everyone who attended our a-peeling sessions got the skinny on cooking methods, enjoyed tastings of the finished meal and received a fact sheet and recipe card.

Adelaide’s Finest is built on values which include community and environmental connection. We consider our footprint in all that we do and our Sustainability Plan demonstrates this. 

As part of ongoing sustainability efforts, we are also committed to sharing our learnings so regularly invite our valued community to learn new cooking tricks, explore how to fully utilise ingredients and avoid waste to achieve great taste! 

The free session was held in partnership with KESAB environmental solutions. 

As part of ongoing sustainability efforts, we enjoy hosting events in our stores which share cooking tricks, explore how to fully use ingredients and avoid waste to achieve great taste.   Stay tuned for future events.

Banana peel “pulled pork”

Ingredients: 

4 organic banana peels                          

¼ teasp ground cumin

2 teasp smoked paprika                                     

2 tblsp soy sauce or BBQ sauce

¾ teasp chili powder                                         

1 tblsp  maple syrup/honey (if not using BBQ sauce)

Method: 

Remove pulp from the inner of banana peels with a spoon. Julienne the peels into thin matchsticks. Heat a dry pan and cook spices until fragrant. Add spices to sauce/syrup and marinade peels for up to 24 hours. Pan fry peels in marinade for 15 minutes or until tender. Serve on leftover rice and vegetable salad.

Recipe guide notes: use organic bananas to avoid chemicals in the skin. To avoid the julienne cutting, boil whole peels in salted water for 5 minutes before cooling. Then you can scrape peels into threads with a fork.