While pasta may be delicious, an unfortunate result of making it is a lot of wasted water - but in truth, there are some surprising things you can do with it. Clever uses for starchy water from boredomtherapy.com
When cooking pasta, it’s easy to feel as if you’re wasting water when you boil it and then immediately throw that water down the drain. While it may be your goal to conserve as much H2O as possible, there really isn’t much use for it once it’s been filled with starch.
At least, that’s what most people think. Thankfully, though, some people have figured out multiple ways to reuse that environmentally valuable liquid.
If you’re looking for nifty ways to reuse old noodle water when you’re done cooking, then look no further. Here we’ve gathered several clever ways to reuse the starchy stuff.
It’s no secret that pasta is one of the most popular dishes served around the world. While it may be delicious, an unfortunate result of our love of pasta is a lot of “wasted” water. In truth, there are some surprising things you can do with that starchy water. Try these tricks!
1. Use it to water your garden and flowers — While experimenting, some researchers discovered that you can use the leftover water from making pasta to help grow the plants in your garden. The high mineral content helps them to grow faster.
2. Use it to make your own pesto sauce — You have to be sure to do this with warm pasta water. This way, the water acts as a bonding agent and will give you that gooey pesto sauce that you long to put on sandwiches and pasta!
3. Make pizza dough and other breads — One of the benefits of reusing the pasta water is that it keeps some flavors and starch from the original pasta. This will help give your homemade bread an entirely new and distinctive flavor.
4. Soak beans and other vegetables — You’re going to thank yourself when you begin to soak your beans in noodle water overnight. That way, they become so much easier to soften up when you go to cook them the following day.
5. Use it to wash your dirty dishes — When you soak dishes in noodle water, the starch begins to dissolve and acts as an all natural cleaning agent. Yes, it even works if you use it on the most extreme of dirty dishes, so why not give it a try!
6. Use it to soak your aching feet — If you suffer from aching feet at the end of a long day standing then soaking your feet in noodle water is your best bet. Just warm it up to a comfortable temperature and the let the heat and minerals do the trick.
7. Use it to give your hair a new shine — If your hair has a tendency to look flat, you’ve come to the right place. Get your hair entirely wet with noodle water and let it soak for 1o minutes. Then, use your normal shampoo and you’ll be amazed at the natural shine.
8. Use it to steam more food — If you’re looking to steam some vegetables, which happens to be the most gentle way you can cook them, fill a steamer with the noodle water and let it work its magic. Now that’s a clever way to reuse the stuff.
9. Use it to make soup — It should come as no surprise that leftover noodle water will work as the perfect broth. Just think, you’ve already got all of that natural starchiness mixed in with all of that flavor. It can add a lot of complexity to an otherwise boring soup recipe!
Image: spaghetti cooking pot - clipartpanda.com