Did you know that global food loss and waste amount to between one-third and one-half of all food produced? In the United States alone, 40 percent of food gets tossed every year—and that amounts to $162 billion in waste annually, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. While food waste is a global systemic issue, there are things that we can all do at home to minimize our personal food waste: creating efficient grocery lists, saving food scraps to make your own broth, or composting are a couple of examples of how you can have an impact on an individual level.

Every couple of weeks Nick and l make vegetable broth. We’ll take our vegetable scraps and freeze them for broth. We eat a limited amount of meat so don’t have bones very often, but when we do, we save those as well for bone broth.

Broth, also known as bouillon is a savory liquid made of water in which bones, meat, or vegetables have been simmered. It can be eaten alone, but it is most commonly used to prepare other dishes, such as soups, gravies, and sauces.

With a rich history, Broth has been an integral part of both eastern and western cooking traditions. In the east, More than 2,500 years ago, in Chinese medicine, bone broth was used to strengthen the kidneys and support digestive health. It subsequently became a staple of traditional Asian meals, and nowadays it is frequently used as the base for various Chinese, Korean and Japanese soups. Alternatively in the west, "Broth" was noted in a fifth-century book of Roman recipes.

I’ve paired our vegetable broth recipe with the work of Abraham Mignon. Mignon was a still-life painter, best known for his lush compositions, Mignon developed a distinct style marked by precise detail and drawing.