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12 Foods You Can Re-Grow From Your Kitchen Scraps



Imagine an unlimited supply of the food, herbs and spices you usually use in your everyday cooking. This means you could save a lot of money in your groceries. I did my research and found out some foods are just very easy to regrow. They won’t even make us sweat. I started planting some these and now they are growing. Here are 12 foods that are so common and are so needed in our sautés, tinolas and adobos, so I believe it is not a bad idea at all to decide to plant these at our backyards or pots or recycled containers. We can even sell the produce if we have spare.


1. Ginger

Ginger is one of the main ingredients of Filipino dishes like tinola and adobo.  It is very easy to grow. You just need to keep a spare of your ginger, particularly the part with a bud on it. Plant the ginger root in a potting soil or in your garden. Wait until you see new shoots and new roots to harvest and use them again.

2. Onions

Onions are very easy to re-grow. Keep a piece of onion. You can wait until you see new sprout from it and plant in a potting soil or in containers like the 6-liter distilled water containers your babies drink. Make sure to cover the onions lightly with the soil and make sure, too, that they get plenty of sunlight. For green onions, place the part with roots in contact with water. Put this under sunlight and change the water regularly. Fresh greens will grow and you can cut it to use in your cooking.

3. Potato

Cut the potatoes into chunks. Make sure to include two to three eyes. Let the chunks dry for a couple of days. Skin them over and plant the peelings into a rich soil, about 4 inches deep, with the eyes facing up.

4. Sweet Potato

Bury the whole sweet potato in your garden area by covering it with a thin layer of soil.  Sprouts will come out. Wait for them to grow a few inches higher before twisting them off and planting them to your garden.  Another way is to cut the sweet potato into half and suspend it using toothpick above small glass of water. Wait for the roots and the sprouts to come out. Twist off the sprouts that are a few inches higher. Put the sprouts in a glass of water and wait for the roots to come out. Plant these to your garden.

5. Garlic

Use a couple of so of your garlic. Personally, I choose the bulbs which I see have little sprouts already starting to grow. Divide the bulb into individual cloves, keeping the papery skin intact. Plant the cloves 4 inches apart and about 2 inches deep. Make sure that the flat root side is pointing down and the tapered side is pointing up - otherwise the garlic will grow in the wrong direction. Cover the planted garlic cloves with soil and pat gently. Water the garlic regularly. Harvest when the tops turn yellow and begin to die off. 

6. Lettuce

Lettuce like pechay and cabbage are easily regrown from leftover leaves. Simply place the leaves in a container of water. Place this where it can get plenty of sunlight.  Mist the leaves regularly. After a few days you will see roots and new leaves starting to appear. You can then plant these to your garden.

7. Celery

Much like lettuce, celery is easily regrown from it scraps. Put the cut bottom portion of the celery into a container of shallow water. Put it in direct sunlight every day. After a few days, you will see new leaves growing. When this happens, transfer this to your garden pots.

8. Bean Sprouts

Bean sprouts are easily grown by soaking a small amount of beans into a glass of shallow water. Leave this overnight. In the morning, remove the beans to drain the water and put back the beans after. Repeat this method until you see sprouts from the beans. Use the beans when they have grown to a length you like.

9. Avocado

Avocado is planted from leftover seed. Since we live in the Philippines and our soil is already rich enough, you can directly plant it to your garden. Make sure to plant it where it gets plenty of sunlight. Water the plant regularly.  Another method is to suspend it to a glass of water. The water should rise up to about half of the seed. Change the water regularly. You can place it indoors. It may take time to grow the roots and stems. Wait for the stems to grow about 6 inches high and when this happens, cut the stem to about 3 inches and wait for leaves to come out. When leaves come out, plant the seedling to your garden.

10. Lemon Grass

If you like using lemon grass in your cooking, it is particularly more convenient if you this in your backyard.  Lemon grass is easily regrown by putting the leftover roots in a glass of water. Make sure it receives plenty of sunlight. You may change the water regularly to make sure it is clean. You will fresh new sprouts coming out. Plant the lemon grass with the new sprouts to your garden.

11. Pepper

You can grow pepper from leftover seeds of peppers you used in your cooking. Plant the seeds in a potting soil or in your garden. Peppers grow easily and fast even with less care.

12. Tomato

Keep the leftover tomato seeds and let them dry. Plant the seeds in a potting soil. Allow the seeds to grow a few inches higher before planting them to your garden.

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