Skip to content

‘Tis the Season to Get Creative With Leftovers

Winter Warmers

In South Africa, 10 million tonnes of food go to waste each year. This accounts for a third of all the food that’s produced annually. Although this wastage can primarily be attributed to the food supply chain, we as consumers should also take responsibility and do our part to reduce food waste.

One way to minimise food waste is by getting creative with leftovers. With the festive season coming up, there’ll be lots of cooking, eating, and leftovers. But this year, make a point of not letting the leftovers go to waste. There are many ways to turn them into delicious snacks or different meals.

What Makes Leftovers Great?

It’s strange that leftovers have such a negative connotation when taking all the advantages they offer into account. Besides minimising waste, leftovers:

  • Help you save time: Leftovers save you from having to spend time cooking from scratch. In this sense, they’re a true lifesaver, especially on those busy days when you don’t have the time or energy to cook.
  • Help you save money: Leftovers are budget-friendly. By incorporating leftover foods into your meal plan, you won’t be spending additional money buying more food or eating out.
  • Teach you to be more creative: If you enjoy being creative in the kitchen, leftovers give you the perfect opportunity to experiment.
  • Give flavours time to enhance: Many flavours improve over time. Maybe you’ve noticed that dishes like stews, soups and sauces are more flavourful the day after they’re made. This is because some flavour molecules take time to diffuse, so the longer they stand, the more flavourful they become.

Festive Leftover Ideas

Perhaps the biggest downside to leftovers is that eating the same thing day after day is neither appetising nor exciting. But if you’re creative about it, you can make diverse, tasty meals.

Fruits and Vegetables

With leftover vegetables or salad ingredients, you can put together delicious wraps, quiches, or frittatas. This Full of Veggies Frittata can be made with whatever leftover vegetables you have, and could be a winning family breakfast over the holiday season.

With overripe bananas, you can try your hand at baking and make this delicious-yet-easy Banana Bread. Smoothies are another good way to use overripe fruits, and sometimes even vegetables. This Cleanest, Greenest Smoothie Ever is made with spinach, bananas, and strawberries.

Fruits and vegetables typically form the bulk of leftover ingredients but luckily, there are many different meals and snacks you can create with them.

Meats

With leftover roasts or braai meat, you can make anything from fillings for decadent sandwiches, wraps, pitas, tacos, and tortillas; to toppings for nachos, pasta, or pizza. Here’s an easy recipe for Roast Lamb Tacos that’s perfect for leftover lamb. This Cheesy Tomato Nachos is ideal as a base recipe, and can be topped with whatever leftover meat you have.

If you have leftover mince but it’s not enough for a new meal, you can bulk it up with soya mince, lentils or beans. Doing so makes your meal more filling and adds extra nutritional value. Why not give it a go with this Soya Mince Lasagne? It’s a lovely dinner recipe and won’t take you more than 40 minutes to prepare.

Fish

With leftover fish, you can make tasty fish cakes simply by adding a few ingredients. These Tasty Tuna and Chive Fishcakes are ideal for dinner and also make for a perfect lunchbox treat. Different types of fish can be used, depending on what you have left over.

Pasta and Rice

This Three Bean Pasta Salad is the perfect example of the kinds of salads you can make with cold, leftover pasta, while this Prawn and Pineapple Fried Rice is just one of the many dishes you can make with leftover rice.

Many of us lack precision when it comes to cooking pasta or rice, leaving us with excessive amounts. The good news is you don’t have to throw out that leftover macaroni or rice – it can be transformed into scrumptious, nutritious dishes that are perfect for the festive season. The added benefit of leftover rice is that it can be used for sweet or savoury dishes. Rice pudding is a firm favourite on the sweet front.

Food Scraps

Food scraps are the parts of food we throw away without thinking about it. These include peels, ends, rinds, cores, tops, and outer leaves of fruits and vegetables. There are so many ways to use these, so, you truly can use everything and lessen wastage in your home.

Some scraps can be used to cook flavour-filled broths that you can freeze and use for stocks, stews, and soups at a later stage. Leftover bones can also add more flavour and nutrients to these broths.

Other inventive ideas include blending spinach, broccoli and other stalks into a nutritious smoothie. Fruit peels and rinds, such as apple peels or watermelon rinds, can be used to make delicious jams and marmalades. Or you can use citrus peels to add flavour to your baked goods. Ginger peels can be dried and powdered to use as a spice in cooking and baking.

Some root vegetables are versatile as they can be cooked with or without the skin. Keeping the skin on carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes not only provides you with additional nutrients but also adds more flavour to your dishes. Try adding unpeeled root vegetables to this Pot Roast Chicken in a Cooking Bag for a delicious, wholesome meal.

If you do decide to peel your vegetables, don’t throw the skins away. You can grill or fry potato skins, for example, and sprinkle them with seasoning to make a delicious snack.

Making a point of using your leftovers this festive season is a win-win for the environment and your wallet! And best of all, you can tweak it to suit your family’s preferences.

Back to top