Buy the wonky veg and the surplus box on purpose
Curvy carrots, knobbly spuds and 'best before today' boxes cost less, taste the same, and stop perfectly good food being thrown away for looking wrong.
Supermarkets quietly reject a huge share of the harvest before it ever reaches a shelf, not because anything’s wrong with it, but because a carrot forked into two legs or a courgette grew a gentle curve. That fruit is graded out, and a slice of it is simply ploughed back in or sent to landfill. Buying it on purpose is one of the rare green habits that costs you less, not more.
The taste is identical — a knobbly potato roasts exactly like a smooth one, and a “best before today” loaf makes flawless toast tomorrow. Schemes like Too Good To Go, SirPlus and various wonky-box deliveries exist precisely to redirect this surplus to people who’ll cook it, turning a loss into a cheap dinner.
The honest catch is that surplus shopping rewards flexibility. A magic bag or a veg box hands you what’s spare, not a tidy list, so it suits cooks who’ll happily improvise a soup over those who plan every meal to the gram. Start small: grab one Too Good To Go bag, or reach for the wonky range once a week. You’ll spend less, waste less, and slowly stop expecting your dinner to look like a catalogue.
How to do it
- Look for the 'wonky', 'imperfect' or 'rescued' veg lines in the supermarket — often a cheaper boxed range near the regular fruit and veg.
- Sign up for a fruit-and-veg box scheme that delivers surplus or odd-shaped produce, such as Etepetete or SirPlus, if one operates in your area.
- Install Too Good To Go and grab a 'magic bag' from a local bakery, grocer or supermarket near closing time — often a third of the usual price.
- Check the reduced-to-clear shelf for items dated for today or tomorrow that you'll actually cook this week.
- Plan meals that don't care about looks — soups, stews, roasts, traybakes, smoothies and sauces all swallow up wonky produce happily.
- Use the bendy and bruised bits first; freeze or batch-cook anything you can't eat in time.
Pro tips & pitfalls
- A box can land you ingredients you didn't choose — keep a few flexible recipes (frittata, stir-fry, minestrone) ready so nothing stalls in the drawer.
- Wonky veg is often dirtier or less waxed because it skipped the cosmetic sorting — a quick scrub, not a peel, keeps the nutrients and saves more waste.
- Too Good To Go bags are a lucky dip; if you're feeding fussy eaters, pick a bakery or grocer over a restaurant so you know roughly what's inside.
What it's good for
Good for the planet
- Cuts waste Around a third of food grown never gets eaten, much of it rejected for shape or size — buying the rejects keeps edible produce out of the bin.
- Cuts CO₂ Food binned at the farm or shop still cost water, land, fuel and fertiliser to grow — eating it instead means that footprint actually fed someone.
Good for you
- Saves money Wonky lines and Too Good To Go bags typically run 20–50% cheaper than the cosmetically perfect equivalent, often saving €10–20 a week.
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