9 Kitchen Scraps for Regrowing Vegetables, Reducing Food Waste and Saving Cash

Find a new home for your kitchen scraps.

Natural Beauty Industry Expert Sara Novak |

Sep 10, 2024

7 Kitchen Scraps for Regrowing Vegetables and Reducing Food Waste — Credit: Kristen Kaethler on Upsplash

We’re cooking more than ever before, and since you can’t just go to the grocery store on a whim, most of us are ordering our food (thankfully, these food delivery services are upping the game in a big way) and stocking the fridge with hardy vegetables that don’t spoil. But we can do more. In the age of COVID, food waste isn’t an option– even scraps need to find a new home.

If you’re a fan of the more contained garden, these are some of our favorite gardening kits. But if you’re looking for ways to use what you already have, many food scraps have sprouting potential. This list includes vegetables that cultivate so well you may never need to buy them again. It’s an easy way to reduce food waste and save money all at the same time.

1. Potatoes

You’ve seen them sprout, so you know there’s potential. The eyes that begin to sprout after a week or two are the key to regrowing potatoes. Cut a square about two inches deep around two of the biggest eyes on your potato. Next, let them sit in the sunlight for a few days, until they really dry out. This prevents mold once you replant them. Plant them eight inches deep with the eye facing up, and bam, kitchen scraps become garden bounty.

2. Celery

Celery is simple to regrow. All you do is cut off the bottom of the celery about an inch or two from the base and place it in a bowl of water with full sunlight by a window. Once it starts sprouting, you can transfer to the garden.

3. Green Onions

Green onions are some of the easiest plants to regrow. Simply cover them with topsoil in a sunny position in your garden. You can keep doing this over and over again and save money on onions at the grocery store.

4. Leeks

Just take the base of a leek and cut straight across. Cover with water and leave on a sunny windowsill for a week or so. Once they start sprouting, you’ll have fresh leeks all over again.

5. Fennel

Take the leftover fennel roots and place them in a small container filled with water. Keep on a sunny windowsill, as you did the leeks. You can plant in the ground if you’d like, but you don’t need to for success. Just make sure that you change the water every week.

6. Lemongrass

This delicious, aromatic plant is easy to grow at home. Simply add the root ends to a jar of water and place in a sunny spot. In a week or so, the plant will start to sprout again. Transplant to a pot and let it grow. Harvest stalks once they’re about a foot tall.

7. Ginger

Ginger is one of my favorite ingredients and it makes a beautiful house plant. Plant it in potting soil and watch it sprout. Once it grows large enough, you can chop off a piece and use it in your favorite recipe. Just repeat the process and you’ve got fresh ginger again and again.

8. Onions

Onions are also really simple to regrow. Simply place the root end in a jar of water. A stem will sprout from the bulb and then you can replant it in your garden. Keep them going continually in your kitchen.

9. Garlic

Again, if you’ve left them in the pantry too long, you’ve seen them sprout. And that’s no reason to throw them away. Instead, just like onions and green onions, place the root end in water and watch it grow like a Chia Pet.