What would your grandmother say if she saw you throwing out perfectly good vegetables? She’d tell you to get scrappy with scraps and make something delicious and sustaining for your family and friends.
That’s what Matriark Foods is doing for the food service industry. Making it easy to waste less food, save time in the kitchen, and add more healthy deliciousness to large-scale meal programs.
Matriark is tackling food waste by upcycling farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into delicious, healthy products. As one of Compass Group’s new diverse suppliers, Matriark is now available so that everyone can participate in our Stop Food Waste commitments through cooking with this impactful ingredient.
Matriark’s straightforward yet innovative approach helps ensure a sustainable food future by rescuing and repurposing perfectly good produce before it is unnecessarily tossed. Not only does this ensure that more of the food grown actually goes to feeding people, it also diverts methane, a toxic greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide that is released when food is left to decompose in landfills.
Upcycling is more than the next summer 2021 fashion trend. It is a movement that has jumped industries and firmly taken hold in the food world, with 60% of people looking to buy more upcycled food products.
“I saw a huge gap in the market for healthy, sustainable products targeting the foodservice industry, which is a missed opportunity when you think about the incredibly broad reach of institutional meals,” says CEO and Founder, Anna Hammond. “At Matriark, we believe in a world where no food goes to waste, and where all people have the right and the access to nutritious food. Working with chefs to get the best quality meals that are good for their clients and the environment is central to our mission.”
Matriark’s first product to market is a delicious vegetable broth concentrate made from a pureed mirepoix. It’s sold in 18 oz Tetra Pak cartons (which makes 2.25 gallons of broth when reconstituted) and can be used in everything from soup bases to salad dressings to sauces. Each case of Matriark’s Upcycled Vegetable Broth Concentrate diverts 10 pounds of vegetables from landfill and about 1 pound of methane from the atmosphere. The company also sells its broth in 7 oz cartons to ecommerce sites like Imperfect Foods and Hungry Harvest.
The broth also has a much lower sodium content than other leading brands, does not contain any unnatural juices or extracts, and has the added benefit of being made with actual vegetables versus the sodium and extracts in most available broth products.
Compass Group is proud to add Matriark to its growing list of impact-driven, taste-forward companies. For more on the company, go to www.matriarkfoods.com.
Try Matriark’s Upcycled Vegetable Broth Concentrate in this Farro Risotto:
Ingredients
- 3 oz low sodium vegetable broth concentrate Matriark
- 2 oz butter unsalted
- 5 oz fresh yellow onions diced
- 10 oz fresh button mushrooms sliced
- 3/4 oz fresh garlic cloves minced
- 1/8 oz fresh thyme chopped
- 13 oz farro dry
- 1.75 quart water
- 5 oz grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 6 oz frozen green peas
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Reconstitute Matriark Foods Upcycled Vegetable Broth Concentrate with water in a stock pot and bring to a boil, Reduce to a low simmer. Keep over very low heat.
- In a rondeau, heat the butter over medium heat until melted and lightly bubbling. Add onion and sauté over medium-low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Increase the heat to high. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes or until mushrooms have released moisture and softened, Add garlic and fresh thyme and sauté for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the farro and toast over medium-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring continuously.
- Add the hot Matriark Foods Vegetable Broth to the pot (reserve 2 cups of hot stock), stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a steady simmer, cover, and cook for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until the farro is tender and the risotto is thick. Season with salt and pepper.
- Fold in the Parmigiano-Reggiano and lemon juice and stir to combine. Fold in the thawed peas. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove the pot from heat, garnish with parsley and serve. Add additional stock as needed.
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