How To Regrow Vegetables From Leftover Produce

You don’t need a big outdoor yard to grow some vegetables at home. Many times, you don’t even need to buy seeds and seedlings! 

With a few vegetable scraps, some glass jars and a small bag of potting soil, you can grow your own kitchen pantry staples right at home! 

What can you grow from vegetable scraps?

Basil

Fresh basil can be hard to come by, and many store-bought basil plants are not made to last. Luckily, though, if you have a sprig or two left over after using up that little plant, you can grow some roots right off the stalk using nothing more than a glass of water.

To be able to regrow a healthy basil plant, you’ll need to make sure that your remaining basil stem is at least four inches long and that it still has a couple of leaves on the top. Place the stem in a glass jar and fill with water, but not so full as to touch the leaves. Put the jar in a bright, indirectly-lit area and wait for roots to grow! Once the roots grow at least an inch, you can pop the plant into a small pot with soil and voila! You have a basil plant!  

Beets, carrots, turnips & parsnips

These four root veggies all have leafy tops and root-y bottoms, so they will all sprout and grow the same way. 

While you can’t grow the root parts of these veggies unless you have a seed and enough soil, you can regrow the delicious greens in less than a month right in your kitchen.

Reserve the top inch and a half of the vegetable (the part that’s connected to the leaves) and place it cut-side down in a shallow bowl or tupperware with enough water to submerge half the beet. The greens will have to be cut off already, of course. 

After a few days or maybe a week, small green shoots will start popping up from where the leaves once grew. These will continue to grow and, after enough time and enough water changes, they’ll be long enough to harvest and use in a salad, on a sandwich or in a pasta. 

Eventually, you’ll have to plant the base into soil so that you can harvest the greens more often. 

Celery & fennel

Celery and fennel have similar structures and, as a result, can be regrown in much the same way.

Both vegetables have a bulb from which both the roots and the stalks grow. If you have that base, plus at least an inch or two of stalk ends, then you can place the bulb in a shallow dish of water and roots will start to grow. 

Now, these greens aren’t going to grow back to their original height in that shallow plate, but once the bulbs have enough roots you can plant it into a soil pot and keep it growing. 

Ginger

Ginger is already a fully-grown root, and regrowing it is as easy as sticking it straight into a pot of soil! 

Make sure your piece of ginger is large enough that it has at least a few little nodes on it, then place the root in the soil node-side up. Keep the soil moist, and eventually green shoots will spring up out of the soil. More new shoots will mean more new root growth which can be harvested as soon as you feel ready!

Bonus tip: you can also do this with turmeric root!

Green onions

Bunches of green onions already come with root systems attached to them, so all you need to do is put the stumps of your used onions into some soil. After a while, new shoots will start springing up from the old ones, and you can keep growing, harvesting and regrowing to your heart’s content!

Potatoes

Potatoes will outlive the human race, we’re sure of it. 

Or, at least, they don’t need a whole lot of human intervention to grow. 

Potatoes can sprout roots anywhere from plastic bags to boxes to dark cabinets and more. If you put potato quarters in soil, then the little nodes — or “eyes” — will sprout in time. You’ll have to re-pot the plant into a larger pot or a grow bag once the plant is taller, but eventually the plant will die and you can harvest the potatoes under the ground. 

This method will work for other tuber-type vegetables with eyes, so give those a go, too!

There are so many types of food you can grow from your leftover vegetables, and it’s a great way to reduce food waste at home, too. Whether you have a balcony, a patio, a windowsill or nothing at all, you can find something to grow right in your own kitchen. 

Have fun!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/Vitamin