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

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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!

Thank you so much - deffo going to try fishcake option and on toast for lunch !

www.theguardian.com › ...
Tinned sardine recipes | Readers' recipe swap | Life and style | The Guardian

Some nice sardine ideas here

I can't believe they swapped quorn for fruit?? How random!

Stewed fruit and custard? Love the sound of the trifle, soak the ginger biscuits in rum, then fruit and then the custard?

For the sardines my eldest used to love just simple sardines on toast as a toddler! Won't touch them now though.

I've got a sad cauliflower that I need to use up. Thinking cauli cheese soup maybe? Unless anyone had any better ideas? Just trawling through the good food app and nothing is inspiring me!

I love sardines with a bit of chilli on pasta. It’s actually a proper thing. Works best with sardines in olive oil.

@Graphista - once the fruit defrosts, it doesn’t look that scary in terms of volume. I love the ideas.

I have several oranges and a lemon which are fast drying up due to me taking the zest off them...

Any ideas? Did a quick google and didn’t come up with much.

@cricketmum84 - I’ve taken to oven roasting cauliflower florets.

I toast cumin and coriander and grind up, then mix with Some oil into a paste/ thin sauce. Drizzle over cauliflower florets. Bit of salt. Bung in hot oven 15-20 mins.

@cricketmum84 i did a lovely cauli curry upthread and then used the remaining florets grilled in an orzo salad. Both were so nice I’m contemplating doing the exact same this weekend

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cauliflower-curry

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/charred-cauliflower-lemon-caper-orzo

Plan for the day is a leek tart as I’ve got three very tired looking leeks to use. I’m defrosting some double cream to use for it, first time using defrosted cream so that’ll be interesting. The recipe needs yolks so I’m thinking of making a roulade with the whites which can be filled with some of the extra cream and some frozen raspberries.

My weighing scales have arrived, cue much excitement so I hope to do little other than cook this weekend!

Found a coconut flour recipe whilst browsing this morning. Coconut flour pancakes, recipe attached.

I have several oranges and a lemon which are fast drying up due to me taking the zest off them... If you can't think of anything else, juice them and freeze the juice for future use?

Sad mushrooms, very sad spinach and eggs used up in a gorgeous early brunch with a little added garlic and chilli. Gorgeous!

www.lavenderandlovage.com/2020/02/boozy-bitter-marmalade-blood-orange-pancakes.html

How about something like this for the oranges?
Or the orange cake where you boil the whole orange and blitz it into the batter?
Lemons - lemon curd, lemon tart, lemonade, lemon chicken, lemon and gingerctea?

Asparagus, leek and cavalo nero on toast. No pine nuts so used flaked almonds from the baking cupboard. Worked really well. I overcooked dh’s poached egg but overall, a happy Saturday brunch.

cricket loving the look of your brunch too.

For that cauliflower, I’d recommend curry. Basically any curry sauce.

If you’re feeling adventurous and have the right stuff in, these cauliflower wings are the most popular thing I’ve ever made! You can use dairy milk etc- they don’t have to be vegan.

www.bosh.tv/recipes/cauliflower-buffalo-wings

Whole baked cauliflower with something like butter and any herbs, or pesto etc is really easy and tasty.

Cauliflower soup is a staple here too.

Roast cauli is my favourite thing to do with a cauli! Or (as a low-carber in a prev life) I'd grate it and microwave for a few mins for cauli rice/couscous substitute. I've also boiled and blitzed it as a sub for mash.

Sardines - I was actually thinking yesterday of making a cross between fishcake and gratin bake with a couple of tins of sardines/mackerel and mash. DP bought 7.5kg of potatoes a couple of weeks ago, which I need to use up as they are sprouting now.

How about layering mash/fish/onions/mash and baking? Kind of a tuna bake with sardines and potatoes? Would it work? I can't find any sort of recipe.

Staffordshire oatcakes with bacon, mushrooms and cheese.
I pretend the oats cancel out the saturated fat!

www.viva.co.nz/article/food-drink/sardine-and-potato-bake-recipe/

Sardine / potato bake

@ptumbi oh yes I love cauliflower rice and cauli mash!

I've actually got 2 to use as it came in my veg box two weeks in a row and their veg literally lasts forever! I may mash one and freeze in individual portions and then roast the other with some Indian spices?

sugarcherry

I'd like the beer bread recipe please.

( am a shameless plagiarist when it comes to lovely food!

Re the zestless oranges - you could make caramel oranges:
Slice the remaining pith off the oranges then slice them horizontally, removing any pips as you go.
Make a caramel with sugar and water - there must be proper recipes with actual amounts on the internet. I dissolve some sugar in some water and, once it's dissolved, boil until it turns golden brown.
Watching like a hawk all the while because if I had a penny for every caramel I'd burned, I'd have about 15p.
Pour the caramel over the orange slices and chill.

The pan will look worrying if you've not made caramel before, but just soak it until the sugar dissolves.

I'd just squeeze the lemons and keep the juice in the fridge, using as needed.

I'm having a bash at beer bread too.
I have some oak smoked malted bread flour I once bought on a whim, I think beer and smoke cpukd be a nice combination

Thinking of making some flapjacks later. I have butter, brown sugar, golden syrup, oats. Could I substitute museli for some of the oats? I don't think anyone wants to eat it as cereal whereas they love porridge for breakfast. Trying to use bits up where we can.

@angelcakebananabrain - some more nduja ideas, you can break into nuggets and throw onto any traybake, eg chicken thighs and cauliflower, or halve peppers and roast them with the nduja dotted inside and then break some balls of fresh mozzarella (burrata, if you can get it!) over the top. Also nice in pasta, eg with fennel and olives, or just with tomato sauce.

Yes you can substitute muesli without any worries at all.

Muesli is lovely in flapjacks. I’ve also used it on top of an apple crumble and in cookies.

I am making chana dal. It has been simmering for 2.5 HOURS (I also presoaked for an hour, doesn't seem to have helped). It was supposed to be for lunch, ha ha ha.

The dal is now breaking a little bit if I bash against the side of the pan, but still chalky and not creamy yet. Good thing I didn't follow the recipe which called for 30 minutes!! They would still have been hard enough to break a few teeth.

Good thing I didn't follow the recipe which called for 30 minutes!!

🙂

It's like onions, isn't it?

"Fry the onions for 10-15 minutes until soft and golden"

And the rest...