Take a little off the waste
Cutting down on the food you bin is good for your pocket, the planet.. and your diet, says Anna Burnside
SLIMY salad, congealed pasta, a lonely slice of pizza – it’s all too easy to buy too much food. Or cook too large a dish and then fail to eat the leftovers.
A poll by HelloFresh Gardens found people in the UK throw away five portions of leftovers every week.
As well as uneaten meals, we will also bin the equivalent of a block of cheese, four bags of salad, four leeks, a whole cucumber and four slices of toast.
A litre of milk will be poured down the sink, while four carrots, four sausages, two cartons of yoghurt and two pots of hummus will also be for the bucket.
This is not just a woeful waste of money in the current cost of living crisis. It’s an environmental disaster.
Food thrown into landfill, rather than composted, rots and gives off damaging greenhouse gases. Food waste is reckoned to be responsible for 10 per cent of all carbon emissions.
Looking after leftovers
Leftover food should be cooled quickly then put in the fridge or freezer. If it’s going in the fridge, transfer it into a plastic tub, or cover with cling film or a silicon lid. Do not forget it’s there – a fifth of people say they do this.
Freeze single portions of leftovers in a tub that can go straight into the microwave.
Mark them with the date and a description to avoid UFOs (unidentified frozen objects).
But if there is a lot of food left over because the dish was not a success, then cut your losses and dispose of the leftovers in a food recycling bin. If no one enjoyed eating it the first time, they are not going to change their minds because it’s been in the freezer for a month.
Using up cooked food
Why not reheat it in a microwave and eat it for lunch the next day?
If it’s cold meat, fish or chicken, it could make the basis of a sandwich or salad for lunch boxes.
Even a small amount of shredded chicken or roast meat can elevate a stir fry or rice-based pilaf. Keep the pan juices from the roasting tin to add extra flavour.
Or use it with leftover potatoes and any veg from the Sunday roast to make a flavourful hash. This is especially tasty if there’s some gravy to moisten it. Cold sausages make a great quick snack or can be sliced for toddlers to nibble.
Leftover chilli can be used to fill tortillas or taco shells. Or spread it over tortilla chips, top with grated cheese and have nachos at a fraction of the restaurant price.
Using up fruit and veg
Over a third of us struggle to get through all our fruit and veg before it starts going mouldy. And 17 per cent confess they simply lack the inspiration needed to cook with leftover fruit and veg. One solution is to buy less perishable food, especially in hot weather. Consider frozen options such as chopped onions or a mix of ready-chopped onion, celery and carrot. Frozen sliced peppers can be tossed straight into a stir fry. Bags of salad go off very quickly, especially once they are opened. Consider buying smaller packs. Or switch to buying whole lettuce, which can work out cheaper and lasts a lot longer. Add some finely chopped cabbage, which keeps much better than softer leafy greens, for crunch and variety in a salad. Or make coleslaw with shredded cabbage and grated carrot. Avoid having annoying small amounts of vegetables kicking around by adding more to dishes. If a recipe asks for 400g of mushrooms, it’s unlikely that using all of the 500g pack will be a disaster. Fresh vegetables that are looking tired can go into a soup, stew or a pasta sauce. Half a courgette or a wrinkly pepper will disappear if chopped up finely. If there are suspicious eaters in the family, liquidise the sauce or soup before serving. Berries (apart from strawberries) freeze well and defrost quickly. Mango and pineapple can be eaten frozen as a refreshing snack. Squidgy bananas can become a cake or muffins. Mashed up with peanut butter of Biscoff spread, they make great ice lollies when frozen into lolly moulds. Or slice them up and freeze them to use as the basis of a smoothie – possibly with that handful of strawberries that are just about to start collapsing. Add runny yoghurt and whizz in a blender.