Simple Recipes to Reduce Food Waste and Use Up Those Pesky Leftovers – Part 1

Simple recipes to use up leftovers are all over the internet, but they’re often pretentious, overly-complicated, and require three months in a culinary school to pull off. Not this list. Let’s face it, if you were going to go to the effort of crafting a wellington or attempting a soufflé, you’d set out with a clear plan and a pin-point shopping list, not worrying about the courgette that’s been in the bottom of the fridge for two weeks.

My little list here is designed for the average home cook with the most rudimentary set of culinary skills and equipment. Simple recipes to use up those pesky anomalies lurking in the back of your fridge so you can rustle up something quick, easy and delicious.

Food waste is a growing problem facing the entire world. We need to take personal responsibility for the food we waste, rather than fretting over which governmental legislation would be best suited to eliminating the appalling amount of produce wasted every year. (That’s for another article)

Each person can do their part by reducing the amount of food we throw in the bin every week. We all do it – we’re all guilty. We put these peppers, sweet potatoes and asparagus in our shopping trolley each week with the best of intentions. “That’ll be nice in a curry,” we tell ourselves. But these once vibrant aubergines and chilis often shrivel into obscurity as we turn up our collective noses and reach for the sausages.

• How environment-friendly is Ireland?
• How to grow food at home

Soup

Everybody has potatoes, rice, pasta, or flour loitering somewhere in their kitchen. But  for those of you who don’t have one of these starchy, base ingredients, here’s a recipe to put a smile on any face.

Ingredients

Literally whatever vegetables you have in your fridge. It’s best to have an onion, but not necessary. Anything you have lying around, taking up space, will do – carrots, celery, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli, whatever. Some vegetables, like onions and leeks, better lend themselves to soup than, say, avocados or cucumbers, but it’s really hard to go wrong.

Method

Final tip: If you have some stale bread, dice it and toss in a pan with some olive oil, salt and garlic. Hey presto, croutons!

Frightening Facts on Food Waste

Stew

Stew is so simple and versatile yet so delicious. This recipe is carnivorous in nature, but if you’re vegan, vegetarian or simply don’t have any meat in your fridge, don’t worry, veggie stew is just as delicious.

Ingredients

• Whatever meat you have will do; beef or lamb work best, but chicken, pork, or even sausages will all work.
• Any vegetables you need to use will work perfectly well in this stew.
• Tomato Purée, stock cube, bay leaf  (if you have any)
• Alcohol (preferably wine but beer also works {darker the better})

Method

What to do with my food waste

Pasta

This is the quickest and easiest way to consume any vegetables tinkering on the brink of the compost bin.

Ingredients

• Pasta
• Meat (don’t waste the steak, use sausages, bacon, mice, chicken or fish)
• Any and all vegetables
• Cheese
• Milk or cream
• Wine or beer
• Tomato purée

Method

Stopfoodwaste.ie – Food Waste in Our Homes

Jambalaya

Don’t be unnerved by the name, this is just a basic, generic recipe which I could just as easily have called “fried rice” or “biryani.” It’s just rice, veg and meat. Rustic, hearty, healthy, delicious.

Ingredients

• Rice
• Meat (don’t waste the steak, use sausages, bacon, mice, chicken or fish)
• Any and all vegetables
• Wine or beer
• Tomato purée

Method