How to save the food that keeps rotting at the bottom of the fridge

Many of us aim to do one grocery shop a week, where we stock up on fruits and veggies that will hopefully last until the next shop.

Sadly, some of our shopping aspirations are left rotting in the crisper by the week's end.

Think sad-looking fennel, rotting pomegranates, flaccid spring onions and unfinished bags of spinach gone slimy.

Reducing your food waste is one way to help steady the household budget. Fruit and vegetable prices have risen by 7.3 per cent over the last 12 months, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Research from the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre says each Australian throws away around $1,000 in food per year.

So eating everything you buy will mean dollars well spent.

Nutritionist and dietician Susie Burrell gave some tips to ABC Radio Sydney to help make your groceries go further.

Store properly at the time of purchase

Most vegetables can be frozen, including kale, fennel, garlic and celery.

The key is to freeze what you will not use immediately with proper storage so the goods do not spoil.

This is Ms Burrell's suggestion with celery: "If you know you only need two stalks, make that concerted effort when you first buy it to cut it [and] store it correctly.

"You have to wrap them, you have to cut them, you need to package them correctly so they store well."

"I'll get two or three soups out of it. So I'm not going in repeatedly buying core ingredients that are really expensive."

For keeping celery fresh longer, Ms Burrell suggests wrapping stalks in a damp cloth or sealing them in a plastic container in the fridge.

Just add water

When celery starts to shrivel up in the fridge, try standing them up in a glass of water rather than sending them to the bin.

Shrunken and limp celery has simply lost its moisture, and can be brought back to an ideal firmness. 

"Some leafy greens will also come back by adding water, usually by soaking them in an ice bath or cold water in a bowl," says Janice from Sydney.

Ideas for eggplant

Eggplant is one vegetable that can spoil fairly quickly, particularly once cut.

Kate from Terrigal texted ABC Radio Sydney to say she always intends to use her eggplants, fennel and celery in some exotic dish, but generally runs out of time to do so. They therefore rot in the fridge before she can use them.

Ms Burrell says you don't need to do a lot with eggplant to make it work. 

She suggested this simple recipe for an eggplant stack:

1. Slice the eggplant.
2. Roast it with extra virgin olive oil.
3. Add other vegetables you have such as capsicum, zucchini and Spanish onion.
4. Add haloumi or feta for flavour.

"Fennel can be chopped up to have with steaks, or thrown in with rocket and tomatoes to make a fennel salad," Walter from Sydney also says. 

Try preserving

If you start to notice your fruit and vegetables getting old, one option is to preserve them.

Preserved foods, when stored correctly in sterilised jars, can last for months.

Try out this pickling recipe for any leftover vegetables you haven't yet cooked up, which uses only white vinegar, water, sugar and salt.