Leftover ingredient meal ideas please

[Summerhut2025]

Hi

I often see people on here say they made a meal from leftovers, can anyone recommend a good FB group or site with ideas on how to make two different meals from one set of ingredients?
Or any ideas from what you do yourself?
2 people and we like all meats and white fish.
Just looking to get more from my meal spend and less waste.
I look to cook meals that take no longer than 30/40 minutes and not really into batch cooking due to limited space in freezer.

Thanks in advance.

Try Mob, they have great recipes and they have batch cooked recipes that you can use in a variety of ways!

https://www.supercook.com/#/menu

Try this website! You put in the ingredients you have and it gives you recipes to use them up.

It depends on the leftovers. Left over roast lamb I would shred and fry up with peppers and onions and have with pitta breads, salad and hummus. Chicken can go in a pasta sauce, soup or with noodles. Pork I usually put into a fried rice or a spicy Thai style omelette, or make a rice noodle salad with grated carrot, cucumber loads of coriander, mint, chili and lime juice. I don't usually have leftover fish, but I would probably make fishcakes.

Or just sandwiches/Toasties. I love leftovers!

Call me lazy but I do my meal plans and leftovers based meals with ChatGPT.

If you can find the book, there was a series about 10-15 years ago called Economy Gastronomy that took one main ingredient and made a few meals out of it. With leftover chicken, I tend to do risotto or fajitas tho anything that allows you to make a sauce and add cooked chicken is fine. Also, it’s nice in baguettes or sandwiches and it also works well in fried rice dishes. Tbh, most leftover cooked meats do well in a fried rice dish.

Somehow that hadn't crossed my mind! I don't use ChatGTP, this could be an easy way to see what the fuss is about 🙂

We do this a lot. I'm not on Facebook so can't help with a group but some of the easy things we do are:

Spag bol or chili con carne one evening, the leftovers are then used as a jacket potato filling the next evening.
Chicken fajitas, leftovers will go with rice then next evening, similar to a stir fry.
Roasted Mediterranean veg will get turn into part of the filling for quesadillas.

Bloody Nora! ChatGTP isn’t bad at all!!!!

Thanks @FastFood 😊

Try ChatGPT, just put in your leftover and it will give ideas

If you tell me what you have leftover I can recommend something to make

I think using leftovers to make a second meal is different from what you are asking.

I use leftovers all the time, but for me cooking 2 meals with the same ingredients for me is still the same amount of work. Using leftovers means less work because the meat / veggies etc are already cooked so can be used for quick meals.

Things I make regularly:

• large roast chicken on Sunday with veggies etc, then I use the leftover cooked meat to make a chicken soup / quick chicken pasta veg dish / coronation chicken for sandwiches...
• chilli con carne with rice, and use the left over chilli (easy to freeze) to make a filling for tacos with different toppings.
• white fish or salmon leftovers (if I cook a whole fish rather than fillets), can be mashed with cream cheese, lemon and herbs to make a filling for sandwiches
• any leftover rice and ham often end up in an egg fried rice

During the heady days of Grocery Roulette in lockdown, I got in the habit of typing whatever random stuff turned up in the delivery into Google with the word "recipe" added.

I still do it sometimes when I have leftovers and it's been pretty useful.

If you think of bases, so mince with vegetables in is the base of savoury mince, spaghetti and chilli. Start with savoury rice, then spaghetti and then chilli. Three meals from one base.

Joints are great as you can use the meat in any way you’d use fresh really. Curry, stew, risotto, rice dishes in general, rissoles, pasta or whatever you want. So buying a joint 2-3 sizes bigger and only serving 1/3 will see you though days easily.

Curry can be eaten a second time with a potato top, you could bulk it out with coconut cream, lentils or tomatoes and then add cubes of potatoes covered in Bombay potato mix and bake it in the oven until the potatoes are cooked.

Salmon (is that a white fish type?) you could buy a pack of four or a side and cook it (I like it done in a parcel with lemon, wine and herbs). Day one with new potatoes and vegetables. Day two in a pasta sauce. Day three in fish cakes.

OMG I use chatGPT for all sorts, don't know why I didn't think to ask about this also haha, thank you

Thanks everyone else for the ideas also, i've made a note! :-)

Cook a roast on Sunday. On Monday make curry/sweet and sour pork and rice/soup/cold meat and bubble and squeak from the leftovers or use leftover red meat for a cottage/shepherds pie. Make more gravy than you need on Sunday for your cottage pie on Monday. You can also use leftover meat for meatballs (chop meat finely, add egg and breadcrumbs) or rissoles if you fancy something old fashioned. Cooked meat also always good in sandwiches. Meat with grated cheese can be used as a filling for savoury pancakes.

When making bolognaise or chilli use the following day as a baked potato topping.

Leftover cooked veg and potatoes can be refrigerated and added to soups, casseroles, stews. Bulk up stews with barley or lentils. Cooked potatoes can be sliced and layered with white sauce, cooked bacon and leeks for a tasty dish. The same with leftover fish - refrigerate, top with white sauce and mash for a quick fish pie.

Homemade quiche is a good idea - pastry is easy to knock up from plain flour, butter and some cold water. Add leftover veg and/or meat then pour on eggs with a dash of milk or cream if you have it and bake.

Our grandparents generation were brilliant at using up leftovers. There’s a book called “leftover for tomorrow” which you should be able to buy cheaply on eBay that has lots of leftover ideas.

Cook a roast on Sunday. On Monday make curry/sweet and sour pork and rice/soup/cold meat and bubble and squeak from the leftovers or use leftover red meat for a cottage/shepherds pie. Make more gravy than you need on Sunday for your cottage pie on Monday. You can also use leftover meat for meatballs (chop meat finely, add egg and breadcrumbs) or rissoles if you fancy something old fashioned. Cooked meat also always good in sandwiches. Meat with grated cheese can be used as a filling for savoury pancakes.

When making bolognaise or chilli use the following day as a baked potato topping.

Leftover cooked veg and potatoes can be refrigerated and added to soups, casseroles, stews. Bulk up stews with barley or lentils. Cooked potatoes can be sliced and layered with white sauce, cooked bacon and leeks for a tasty dish. The same with leftover fish - refrigerate, top with white sauce and mash for a quick fish pie.

Homemade quiche is a good idea - pastry is easy to knock up from plain flour, butter and some cold water. Add leftover veg and/or meat then pour on eggs with a dash of milk or cream if you have it and bake.

Our grandparents generation were brilliant at using up leftovers. There’s a book called “leftover for tomorrow” which you should be able to buy cheaply on eBay that has lots of leftover ideas.

SO toady we're having roast chicken with spuds and roasted cauliflower. I've chucked some sausages and an onion in to roast too. Left over spuds and cauliflower with go in the soupmaker with the cauli leaves a lone leek and the roasted onion. Creamy cauli soup for tomorrow with nice bread and cheese. I'll pick the carcass and chuck it in the slow cooker tomorrow and make stock. Tuesday we'll have butter chicken with green beans (I've got some chopped up in the freezer from last time I bought them) and microwave rice. Wednesday well have a pasta bake with passata, spinach mushrooms and the sausages.