Most food waste doesn’t come from big mistakes. It comes from small decisions. A carrot that feels a little soft. Half an onion you forgot about. Vegetables that are still fine, just not exciting anymore.

This is where soup quietly saves the day.

Instead of throwing those vegetables away, I use them once a week to make roasted vegetable soup. It clears out the fridge, reduces food waste, and turns odds and ends into something warm and genuinely good.

With Nutrify, the process stays simple. Roast what you have, add stock, stay under the fill line, and press soup mode. No extra steps, no overthinking.

A Realistic Way to Practice Zero Waste Cooking

Zero waste cooking can sound intense if you let it. Root-to-stem rules. Perfect planning. Saving every peel.

In reality, it often looks like this. You open the fridge, pull out the vegetables that are on their way out, and decide to use them instead of ignoring them.

Soup works because it doesn’t ask much from you. Vegetables don’t need to look good. Flavors don’t need to be precise. Everything blends together and gets better as it cooks.

Roasting first makes a difference. The vegetables come out sweeter, measuring doesn’t matter, and the soup tastes like something you meant to make, not something you threw together.

Older Vegetables Are Exactly What This Is For

This isn’t a recipe for perfect produce. It’s for the vegetables that are already in your fridge.

Slightly soft carrots, zucchini that’s lost its shine, leftover onion halves, a piece of sweet potato you never used. If it’s still safe to eat, it probably belongs in soup.

I usually add stock instead of water. Chicken stock if that’s what I have. Mushroom stock if I want to keep it plant-based. I start with less than I think I need, then add more until it hits the hot fill line.

That’s it.

One Small Habit That Actually Reduces Food Waste

This isn’t about doing zero waste cooking perfectly. It’s about doing one thing consistently.

Once a week, soup clears out the fridge. Vegetables get used instead of tossed. Food scraps shrink without effort. Dinner solves itself.

When cooking feels easy, it happens more often. And when it happens more often, food waste drops without you having to think about it.

Zero Waste Roasted Vegetable Soup

(For Nutrify’s 800 mL Hot Soup Capacity)

Ingredients

2 to 2½ cups older or leftover vegetables
(carrots, onions, zucchini, bell peppers, cauliflower, sweet potato)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
Any herbs you have, thyme, basil, oregano work well but experiment with it
1½ to 2 cups stock
- Chicken stock
- Mushroom stock for a vegan option

Optional

Olive oil or plant-based cream for finishing

Method

Heat oven to 425°F (220°C).
Roughly chop vegetables and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs.
Roast for 25 to 35 minutes until soft and browned.
Add vegetables to Nutrify.
Add stock starting at about 350 mL (around 1½ US cups).
Add more stock only if needed, stopping at the Hot fill line (800 mL / about 3.4 US cups).
Select soup mode and let it cook.
Taste and finish however you like.