Turn your leftovers into delicious delights. From potato skins to carrot tops, our chefs share how to transform those scraps into tasty meals, saving you a few pounds while you help to save the planet.
If winter meal prep leaves you with plates full of potato skins and chopping boards full of carrot tops, you’re not alone. Particularly during the festive period, the UK can see a 20% rise in food waste with an estimated 20% of that coming from our tables.
All these thrown-away vegetable peelings, cheese rinds, apple cores, stale bread and leftovers end up in landfill, and harm the planet by emitting potent greenhouse gases.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Much of this so-called food waste is perfectly edible. While preserving scraps may seem like an extra chore, it can actually save you time and money.
Savour those vegetable scraps!
I love potatoes, but whether you are making soup, mash, dauphinoise or latkes, chances are you’re going to end up with a pile of potato skins. To save them from the bin, I like to slice the skins very thinly; I then give them a quick blanch in boiling water and cool them in ice. This gives you a couple of different options. Try roasting the skins in the oven, with salt and olive oil. Why not try some toppings like vegan Parmesan and diced spring onions? These make a perfect pre-dinner snack, ideal for guests. For a more decadent option, drizzle with BBQ sauce and top with vegan crème fraiche.
If you would like to incorporate your potato skins into a main dish, you can fry them, then blitz them in a food processor and sprinkle them on top of a casserole or tray-bake. You can even add extra diced onion and mushroom, which gives the mixture a strong umami flavour.
Top tip: Keep a saucepan nearby while chopping vegetables. Throw all the vegetable scraps into the pot and when you've finished peeling, fill it with iced water, add salt and simmer it until you have stock. You can store this in the freezer for soups and stews. Apple cores make a fruity addition – chop them up, remove the seeds and add them for extra flavour.
Chef Ollie says:
“To make a deluxe stock, I make my own stock powder with leftover scraps of veg, onion and garlic skin, together with any bits of leftover herbs etc. I save them all in a box in the freezer, then when I have collected enough for a couple of large trays, I spread the mixture out and put the trays in the oven on the lowest setting. I leave them for a couple of hours until the mixture is dehydrated, then chuck it into a blender and grind to a powder. I store it in an airtight jar. It’s great, because I know exactly what’s in the stock.”
Top tip: Blend cooked vegetables with a can of whole tomatoes to create a delicious sauce for pasta, chilli or curry.
Be adventurous with bread
In the UK, we throw away around 24 million slices of bread each day. That's a million slices an hour, or at least a million loaves a day! Most of the bread-based products you buy, like croutons or breadcrumbs, are easy to make at home.
The simplest way to transform stale heels or hardened loaves is into breadcrumbs; I recommend blitzing them in a food processor. This will give you enough for macaroni cheese or stuffed peppers and mushrooms. You can also combine those breadcrumbs with lemon zest and pan juices from roast vegetables, and use them to elevate a casserole. If you have extra bread, you can also use stale bread for croutons or make your own stuffing.
For a bruschetta-style starter, I like to slice old bread, toast it, then rub a clove of garlic over the browned side, topping it with a juicy tomato, roast aubergine or artichoke, and drizzling with olive oil. This becomes a quick, delicious snack or starter.
If you’re not keen on letting your food go to waste, you can even make a whole new meal using stale bread. Ribollita is an Italian soup that makes the most of stale bread, combined with beans, kale and other winter-time store cupboard staples.
And don’t underestimate how delicious a bread pudding can be. It can be made as a comforting dessert using fruitcakes and other sweetbreads, or croissants. Or it can be made as a savoury, using rye and brown bread – try topped with caramelised onions, olives, sun-dried tomatoes or mushrooms.
Get creative with carrot tops
Do your carrot tops always end up in the rubbish bin or compost? Did you know, you can substitute herbs with carrot tops – whether that’s in a sauce for roast veggies, or a pesto for pasta. If your recipe calls for parsley or coriander leaves/stems, you can swap half the coriander or parsley with carrot greens. You can even try finishing any festive carrot dish with thin-sliced tops and stems for additional flavour.
If you’re serving a roast for your festive dinner, I recommend transforming carrot tops into chimichurri, which can act as a delicious side sauce. Mince the carrot tops by hand or blitz them in a food processor, then combine them with olive oil, garlic, and grated onion. I like to do that the day before, or a little earlier in the day, to let it marinate to develop the flavours. It goes perfectly with our nut roast or Christmas stuffed cauliflower.
Eat well and waste less
Chef Alex says:
“You can make extra portions of most dishes to use as leftovers for lunches and even breakfast! When saving food, be sure to label it with a date. If you have too much too use up, freeze it for another day. I love to take leftovers to work as a packed lunch – perfect for rice or pasta salad.”
Alex adds that most cooked vegetables make a good base for a curry. He says:
“Make the sauce first then add the cooked vegetables so they don't fall apart.”
Top tip: Burittos can be created with leftover cooked rice and vegetables. Top the dish off with vegan sour cream and salsa.
Chef Justina says many people aren't aware that mushrooms don't need peeling, and that their stalks are highly edible.
“You can clean the stalks and use them in soups, stews and casseroles.”
She adds.
“The same goes for broccoli and cauliflower stalks, chopped and blitzed in a soup – they add extra flavour and nutrition.”
Justina is passionate about baking and loves to reuse the leftovers:
“My top tip is to save any cake trimmings and use them in crumble,” she says. “They're also very handy to use as decoration, or I use larger pieces in trifle.”
We hope you will take these top tips from our kitchens to yours. But we would love to hear about any of your own top tips for using leftovers and reducing food waste.
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