Veggie Peel Bhajis - Zero Waste Fritters from Veg Scraps

Keep a bag in the freezer for parsnip skins, onion ends, carrot bits and leek tops, and in a fortnight you have the makings of these. Crisp, golden, properly spiced fritters, made entirely from the parts of the vegetable most people put in the bin. Everyone at the table fights over them. Let's fry!

Why These Veggie Peel Bhajis Work

The freezer does the job salting normally does. In a classic onion bhaji you salt the onion to draw the water out and soften it. Scraps that have been frozen and defrosted come out limp and pliable on their own, so that step disappears entirely.

Peelings hold more flavour than you think. Parsnip skin, onion ends and leek tops are the same vegetable as the bit you kept. They were never inferior, they were just the wrong shape.

A little grated pumpkin binds the whole thing. It is starchy enough to hold the mix together and sweet enough to balance the spice, and it is usually the other thing going soft in your cupboard.

The spices are doing the real work. Curry powder, garam masala, turmeric and nigella seeds mean nobody is tasting scraps. They are tasting a bhaji.

Nothing is bought for this. The whole dish is peelings, a tired chilli, some flour and the spice drawer.

Recipe Details

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Makes: About 12 fritters, serving 4 as a snack
• Difficulty: Easy
• Special Equipment: None, a frying pan or a deep fryer, whichever you have

The two things that go wrong here are both about water and both are easy to fix. Defrosted scraps hold a surprising amount of liquid, so give them a proper squeeze in your hands before they go anywhere near the flour, or the batter thins out and slides off. Then keep them small and flat in the pan. A thick bhaji browns beautifully on the outside and stays raw and doughy in the middle, which is the single most common failure with anything fritter shaped. This is also the dish that made me start the freezer bag in the first place. In New Zealand cafes and restaurants, research for WasteMINZ put food waste at around 24,375 tonnes a year, and 60 percent of that is preparation waste, the trimmings and peelings that come off before anything is even cooked. Professional kitchens are set up to churn that out. Home kitchens quietly do the same thing on a smaller scale, and a bag in the freezer is the whole solution.

Ingredients

• About 500g mixed frozen veg scraps, defrosted (parsnip skins, onion ends, carrot bits, leek tops)
• A handful of pumpkin, grated
• 1 chilli, sliced
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• Pinch of turmeric
• Pinch of chilli powder
• 1 tsp nigella seeds, also sold as onion seeds
• Salt and plenty of black pepper
• Water, to mix
• Oil, for shallow or deep frying

How to Make Veggie Peel Bhajis

1. Defrost your scraps. Straight from the freezer bag, let them thaw completely. They will come out soft and floppy, which is exactly what you want and is the job that salting onions normally does.
2. Squeeze them out. Take handfuls and press the water out over the sink. This is the step people skip and it is the one that decides whether the batter clings.
3. Chop and grate. Cut the scraps down to a rough, even size, grate in the pumpkin and slice the chilli.
4. Mix the spiced flour. In a separate bowl combine the flour, curry powder, garam masala, turmeric, chilli powder, nigella seeds, salt and a good amount of pepper.
5. Bring it together. Tip the veg into the spiced flour and add water a splash at a time, mixing, until you have a thick, dollopable batter that coats everything. It should hold its shape on the spoon.
6. Heat the oil. Enough for a shallow fry, over a medium heat. Drop in a little batter to test it, and it should sizzle straight away.
7. Fry them small and flat. Spoon in dollops and press them down slightly. Fry until deep golden and crisp on both sides. Do not crowd the pan.
8. Drain and season. Onto kitchen paper, salt them while they are still hot, and eat them immediately.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Made entirely from scraps: Peelings, ends and tops, nothing bought
• The freezer does the prep: No salting, no waiting
• Properly spiced: Curry powder, garam masala and nigella seeds, not a hint of curry
• A snack or a side: With a dip and a beer, or alongside a curry
• Endlessly flexible: Whatever is in the bag is the recipe

Chef's Tips for Veggie Peel Bhajis

Start the freezer bag today. Onion ends, parsnip and carrot peel, leek tops, the woody bit of a celery stick. Everything goes in as you cook through the week, and by the time the bag is full it has softened itself.

Squeeze the scraps hard. Defrosted veg is full of water. A batter that looked perfect will loosen the moment wet veg hits it, and then nothing crisps.

Keep them small and thin. The middle is what catches people out. A big thick fritter goes dark outside before the centre has cooked at all.

Do not crowd the pan. Every fritter you add drops the oil temperature, and cool oil means greasy rather than crisp.

Season the moment they come out. Salt sticks to hot oil and slides off cold fritters. It makes a genuine difference.

Taste your batter before it meets the veg. Spices vary enormously in strength. A curry powder that has been open two years needs a good deal more than a fresh one.

Use the starchy scrap you have. Pumpkin is what I had. Potato, kumara or parsnip all do the same binding job.

Substitutions & Variations

• No pumpkin? Grated potato, kumara or parsnip binds just as well
• No nigella seeds: Cumin seeds or mustard seeds give a different but equally good crunch
• Chickpea flour in place of half the plain flour makes them closer to a traditional bhaji, and crisper
• No chilli? Leave it out entirely, or a pinch more chilli powder
• Deep fry them if you have the oil, for a rounder, puffier fritter
• Add fresh herbs at the end, coriander or mint stalks chopped fine

Storage

Best eaten fresh: Straight from the pan, while they are still crackling.

Fridge: They will keep a day but go soft. Reheat in a hot oven or air fryer for 5 minutes to bring the crisp back, never the microwave.

Freezer: Not for the cooked fritters. The raw scraps, though, are meant to live in the freezer and that is the whole point of the recipe.

Avoid: Stacking them while hot. They steam each other and the crispness goes in minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What scraps can I actually use? Anything you would eat if it were cut differently. Parsnip and carrot peel, onion and leek ends, celery bases, cabbage cores, broccoli stalks. Not onion skins, not garlic papers, and nothing that has gone slimy or mouldy.

Do I have to freeze the scraps first? No, but it genuinely helps. Freezing ruptures the cell walls, so the veg defrosts soft and pliable without the salting step. Fresh scraps work if you salt them for twenty minutes and squeeze them out.

Why did my bhajis fall apart in the pan? Too much water in the veg, so the batter never gripped. Squeeze harder, and add a spoon more flour until the mix holds its shape on the spoon.

Why are they raw in the middle? They were too thick. Press them flatter and they cook through in the same time it takes the outside to colour.

Can I bake or air fry these instead? You can air fry them at 190C for about 12 minutes, turning once, with a good spray of oil. They will be drier and less rich than the fried ones, but still very good.

How long can I keep a bag of scraps in the freezer? Three months is a sensible limit for quality. Keep adding to the same bag and label it with the date you started.

What do I serve them with? A yoghurt and mint dip is the classic. Mango chutney, a herb dressing, or nothing at all with a beer.

Can I make the mix ahead? Not once the flour is in, because the veg keeps releasing water and the batter loosens. Chop and squeeze the veg ahead by all means, and mix the spiced flour separately, then bring them together when the pan is hot.

You Might Also Like

The Food Waste Banquet - The full trash to table feast these came from, with every recipe in it.

Fritto Misto with Curried Aquafaba Mayo - The other fried scrap dish from the same banquet.

Fridge Raid Salad with Herb Stalk Dressing - The fresh, sharp thing to eat alongside them.

Veggie Samosas, Air Fryer or Deep Fryer - More spiced veg, wrapped and fried.

Don't Throw That Away, Zero Waste Recipes for Every Kitchen Scrap - The full guide to using up everything.

Start the bag this week. It costs you nothing, it takes up no room, and the first time you serve these to someone and tell them afterwards what is in them, you will see exactly why I keep going on about it.

Enjoy!

Del x

Crisp, golden, properly spiced fritters made entirely from a freezer bag of vegetable peelings, ends and tops.