PHOENIX — "For us, sustainability is what we do," said Jason Dwight, chef and owner of Persepshen.
Dwight has a passion for cooking but a high priority in his kitchen is sustainability.
"We get whole animals from organic pastures, we bring in an entire animal and go cut by cut on the menu," said Dwight. Everything in the house is used in his recipes.
"So, it's a sustainable cycle of utilizing the product," said Dwight, who wants to show Arizonans how to stop wasting food, save money and make their ingredients go further, starting with the meats they buy.
"We can feed our family of five, three different meals off of one chicken by utilizing every part," said Dwight.
Don't throw out the bones, give them a roast in the oven with carrots celery and onions. Dwight says that will create a rich stock that is full of nutrients and flavor. It can then be used for soups, sauces, gravies, or a drink.
Next up in the kitchen, "utilizing your greens."
“People think you have to use basil to make pesto but you don’t. You can use any green, so this is an arugula mixture that is a little wilted but still good, you can still use it. So, we start by putting that into the food processor,” said Dwight.
Next, add lemon juice, roasted garlic, parmesan cheese sunflower seeds, salt, sugar, pepper and olive oil. And voila - pesto made easy that you can use for a variety of meals.
“If you make a big tube of this, you can take little containers and portion it off and freeze it and just pull it out about 15 minutes before you need it and let it thaw out and you can use it for pasta, chicken, on a sandwich the list goes on and on,” said Dwight.
The final step to a sustainable kitchen is composting, which you can do yourself or team up with a local company to help you.
"You save your food scraps, they pick it up and then they turn that into good usable compost to use in the garden or on flowers or for your potted plants. It’s all full circle," said Dwight.
