Food thread! Favourite leftover dishes, avoiding waste, menu ideas.

[Ninkanink]

Thought I’d start a thread for everyone to post their tips and ideas on how best to use foodstuffs. Hoping it could be an easy guide as well for those who maybe aren’t so used to home cooking or using leftover foods, or understanding how best to utilise everything you have, expiry dates etc.

We have always been very conscious of food waste so we plan very carefully to use every scrap of food, it’s not hard, it’s just a skill one develops.

I’ll post some of my favourite leftover/using up bits meals and menus here and if anyone else wants to as well, please do!

My go to leftovers thing is to chop up all the random leftover veg end bits of cheese, ham, etc then add some eggs and make an omelette/frittata type thing. It looks a mess (especially if I break it flipping it over and it ends up scrambled..) but tastes fine and is very filling!

Lovely thread!
We’re going to have a try at some arancini later on with leftover risotto now we’ve finally be able to track down some elusive eggs!
Next on the list after that is some homemade pasta (first time to try it) with carbonara to finish off some leftover bacon and cream.
Yesterday we had a leek and potato pie to use some old spuds up and some odds and ends of cheese with some shortcrust from the freezer!
I find creating tasty meals from bits and bobs to be so soothing. Thank you for this lovely thread.

I have a cauliflower and 3 courgettes that need eating up so I'm making cauli & cumin fritters with yoghurt to dip, and cooking the courgettes with bulgur, onions and tomato which was on Sami Tamimi's instagram yesterday.

I've meal planned through to Wednesday without needing to leave the house for food. Apart from milk and bread, which my neighbour very kindly picked up for us and dropped round yesterday, we haven't been out of the house for food since...er...last Friday I think, so 9 days. We did get a fruit & veg box delivered mid-week though.

We make chicken and broccoli gratin to use up left over roast chicken.
It also uses up old bread and any broccoli lurking in the fridge. And any left over cream - it's an ideal Monday evening dinner of you've had a roast and dessert on Sunday

Basically dice up the chicken and put in an oven proof dish, break the broccoli into small florets and cook in boiling water for a few mins until bright green but not soggy. drain and add to the chicken. Season well with salt and pepper. melt 1oz butter and 1 oz flour in a pot and make a paste, cook this by stirring for 2mins over a low heat to cook out the flour, add 300mls chicken stock and stir very well to get rid of lumps,then add 150ml cream, double if you can, but regular is fine. Let it simmer for a few mins to thicken up slightly.

Make breadcrumbs using stale bread, season, add grated cheese and herbs - Italian or fresh thyme.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and broccoli, top with the breadcrumbs and dot with butter and a last sprinkle of cheese and bake till golden and crispy.

We serve with roast baby potatoes and green veg - doesn't strictly need the potatoes but it stretches it further.

we use left over cheese / meat such as ham to make an open tart.

if you have ready to use puff pastry, roll it out on a baking tray. We top with caramelised onion - sometimes a jar of onion chutney if we have it, sometimes we make it by slow cooking onions for AGES.

Score a small 1cm border all around the edge of the pastry, spread the chutney all over the pastry inside the border. Top with thinly sliced left over meat - baked ham works very well and you only need the scraps. Scatter any left over cheese and you can use a mix of whatever you have. Add any herbs you have lurking, dried or fresh - thyme or oregano etc

Bake until pastry is golden and crisp and the cheese is melted and bubbling.

@Ninkanink I take my hat off to you. You've really got this sorted! Amazing

More fantastic ideas thank you.
I’ve just gone through the cupboard to prioritise what to use up first and found some old sushi rice. Anyone know if this could be used in place of normal rice? Or any meal ideas besides sushi?

I don’t use sushi rice so I haven’t any recipe to personally recommend, but I think I’d do something like this:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sushi-rice-bowl-beef-egg-chilli-sauce

@Ninkanink thank you, I was just looking at the same recipe! It’s quite versatile I will give it a try.

With leftover chilli or bolognaise, we do a "leftovers on toast" with. We've always done it but it's especially great now that there's no pasta on the shelves.
Make toast, cover in mayo, layer of cheese, load of chilli/bolognaise on top.

Yum!!

I wasn't sure how much would be in the shops today so am doing use up my cupboards this week.

Today is random stuff pilaf. I've made chicken stock but could easily have been a stock cube. Will be using the random packet of wild rice I bought for something and that has been lingering in the cupboard for >1 year ever since.

Rice + frozen peas, frozen edamame beans, frozen spinach - both found lurking when I defrosted the freezer last week - all with chicken stock. Plus roast sweet potatoes and carrots I already had.

@Furble sushi rice is sticky and so I'd thought could be used instead of risotto rice or pudding rice but not normal rice.

If you’ve room you can freeze cheese and just use the handfuls of mix for whatever.

I’m so out of freezer space.

Today I made a soup which we will have tomorrow. It used up some of the stumps of today's broccoli and cauliflower , half an onion , a few chopped up droopy spring onions , a couple of potatoes, a few chopped herbs . Cook off until soft ( I forgot I also used a stock cube ) and then blitz until how we like it.

Great thread. Thanks all!

Hmm. Wild rice turned out to be labelled Best Before March 2019.

I'll not tell DH

We're having buckwheat tomorrow. I think that's been in the cupboard even longer

this is a geat thread thanks. freezing cheese is a revelation to me.
I've found I'm having smaller portions too, which isn't a bad thing.And I have been using lots more frozen stuff so I can avoid the shops for as long as possible.

I've got so many carrots I need to use up - any ideas?

Coleslaw
Carrot cake
Carrot salad (grated with lemon, cumin, sultanas etc)
Carrot soup
Mashed (possibly with other root veg)

Carrot cake!

Or,

Fresh:

Coleslaw

Crudités with houmous/dips

Old school carrot, apple and raisin salad

Or,

Cooked dishes:

Stew/pie (in the gravy as usual)

Carrot and swede mash

Carrot/swede/parsnip topping to a spiced cottage pie

Or,

Dice up quite small, along with celery and onion/leek if you have any to spare that you won’t get around to using)and freeze to use later for soups/stews/pasta sauces.

Twinkle Asian style slaw as a side (grated carrots with an Asian style dressing).
Grated carrot (can add cabbage).
1tbsp soy sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1tbsp white vinegar or similar
1tbsp olive oil
1tsp honey or sugar

Or, my absolute favourite:

If you happen to have a celeriac you could make a carrot and celeriac remoulade. Very fresh and tasty and is a great accompaniment to beef, pork and lots of other things.

Thanks for the tips!

This is a great idea for a thread. I'm sure I'll be back at some point for suggestions.

@Furble for your sushi rice, have you ever had okinawa taco rice? Basically it's a japanese rice bowl meets a taco bowl. Here's a good recipe: www.justonecookbook.com/taco-rice/

(NB: if you don't have all the individual spices, taco seasoning is the same as chili con carne seasoning, or any kind of mexican seasoning blend.)

Any ideas for pearl barley or quinoa that isn't either "soup" or "cook it up and make a salad" gratefully received!