12 Vegetables You Didn't Know You Could Eat and Grow Again
The magic of Mother Nature.
Before you throw those dinner scraps in the trash, wait! Your less-than-tasty stalks, roots and leaves are actually the key to growing more of your favorite veggies at home.
Romaine Lettuce
Eating salad is about to feel way more satisfying after growing those healthy greens on your own. Just stick your unused root in soil, leave it on your windowsill near sunlight and water and you'll see leaves popping out of the center in no time.
Onions
After chopping the bottom off of your onion, let it dry for a couple of days. Then create an indentation in a pot of soil so your dirt can cradle the onion end. You'll need to harvest the onion as they grow before chopping them up for your fresh salsa.
Basil
Caprese lovers, this is for you: To regrow this herb, strip the leaves off of 3/4 of the stem, then place it in a glass of water. Change the water every few days and watch as roots start to form. After roots reach two-inches long, you can plant them in soil and grow as usual.
Celery
To grow new stalks of this staple vegetable, submerge the base of it in water for three days. Once leaves start to grow in the middle, plant it in it's own container, allowing the leaves to stick out of the soil, and care for it like any other plant.
Bok Choy
Since this vegetable is so similar to celery in shape, it's grown in the same manner (submerged in water, face up). But these bloggers found it grows even faster than celery and transferred it to a new container after about a week.
Scallions
Since these onions are just like any other bulb plant, you can grow them in a cup of water. Just make sure you cover the bottom of the bulb. The green shoots will re-grow in around 10 days.
Carrot Leaves
Now, this doesn't grow carrots, just the leafy greens up top, which some people like to sprinkle into salads. To do this, set aside about two inches on the end of your vegetable and submerge half of it in water in a shallow saucer. Leave it by your windowsill and in one to two weeks the green leaves will flourish.
Garlic Sprouts
Chances are you've pulled a bulb of garlic out of your pantry that already started sprouting inside of it. The next time you find this, place the bulb in a clear cup and add just enough water to touch the bottom of the clove. Leave it by your window and watch as more sprouts develop.
Lemongrass
This fresh ingredient is common in Thai and Vietnamese dishes, but isn't always easy to find in supermarkets. That's why regrowing it at home, by placing stalks in a cup that covers half of it, then replanting them once roots form, is a genius plan.
Ginger
If you love adding a chunk of this stuff to your morning smoothies, you need to try this trick. Just pick out a few rhizomes that have buds growing on them, then plant them in soil and after a few months you'll see sprouts shooting out of the soil.
Sweet Potatoes
Grow your own sweet potatoes at home by placing the end of one into a jar, a couple of inches off of the bottom. Soon roots will start to grow on the bottom. Once the growth is a few inches long, remove them from the potato and plant in soil like you would in any other vegetable garden.
Pineapple
Even though you probably look forward to tossing these prickly leaves, they're the key to growing more citrus fruit. Submerge the crown of your fruit in water. After around three weeks, you'll see root growth, then plant said growth in soil and after a couple of months you'll have a new pineapple plant.
Potatoes
If you forgot to eat your potatoes before they were past their time, grow new ones. All you have to do is chop them up into chunks and plant them in a container garden, which you can make out of a double-thick paper bag like this blogger did.
Mushrooms
Use the mycelium on your mushrooms, a.k.a. the white almost furry-looking fibers along the stalk of your vegetable, to regrow this superfood. Just add it to a brown paper bag filled with moistened bedding, let it sit for three months and afterwards you'll have new mushrooms for your salads.
Avocado
Hold onto the pit the next time you make guacamole if you want to grow a new one. All you have to do is use toothpicks to hang hang your pot over a cup of water with the base of the pit touching the water. Once roots start growing, add potting soil to the water to help your avocado thrive.
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