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People Are Sharing Their Genius Cooking Hacks For Giving Leftovers A New Life, Here Are 29 Of The Best
Article created by: Mindaugas Balčiauskas
Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year—approximately 1.3 billion tons—gets lost or wasted. According to the data by the UN Environment Programme, every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons).
The numbers are hard to wrap your head around. But think of the last time you threw away that lonely avocado that sat there on a windowsill for eternity, desperate for its moment to shine in guacamole, only to end up in a bin. Then, picture all the products that ended up discarded only because you forgot they existed. Sometimes, however, we stock up on so much food we never manage to eat, and this is also the reason we contribute to worldwide food waste. It’s kind of shameful.
Being careful with grocery shopping and thinking of how much food is enough for your needs is one way to tackle the problem (and save money!). Another way is to use your ingenious skills and make the best use of anything that’s left after you ate or just purposelessly sits in the fridge.
So when someone asked “Everyone knows about using stale bread for french toast or yesterday’s rice to fry, but what are some other recipes you can use to save ingredients from the trash?” on the Cooking subreddit, people started sharing awesome ideas of putting scraps to use. We wrapped up some of the most useful and yummy ones below for you to try out!
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#1
Overproofed pizza dough into focaccia, stale foccacia into croutons, croutons into breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs into meatballs.
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#2
I like to caramelize too-ripe bananas sliced in butter. Then I sprinkle them in some brown sugar and a tiny bit of salt. Oh boy — they're amazing on their own or on top of a scoop of ice cream.
#3
You can shock old vegetables in ice water to restore their crispness. Stuff like celery, greens, peppers, etc that hasn't gone bad but has kind of lost its stiff/crisp texture. 2-3 minutes in ice water and it'll be like new. GAMECHANGER
#4
Soup. Soup. Soup. I'm no historian but as the primary cook in the house, I'm fairly certain that soup was invented in order to not waste valuable calories.
#5
I use french fries I bring home with restaurant leftovers to make ersatz hashbrowns. Dice them, add some chopped onion and fry up in bacon grease. I've never found french fries palatable as leftovers, if I didn't have this technique available I'd never bother bringing them home from the restaurant.
#7
Bacon grease is indispensable. Use it to fry anything, but know you haven't lived until you've swapped it for butter to make the best-ever chocolate chip cookies.
#8
I'll introduce you to a Romanian dish called "Shut up and Eat"(no,really,that's the name of the dish."Taci si înghite" ). In my region it is eaten before the beginning of Lent. Since Christian orthodox basically go full vegan during our fasting times,we had to consume the animal products that were left from the winter. Thus, Taci si înghite was born. It's basically a polenta cooked with milk instead of water, a lot of butter and cheese. Then,stick it in a deep baking dish and throw on top of it any other cheese and meat you have left in your fridge and you want to eat before they go bad. Bake it untill the meat is cooked. Eat this with some pickles and a light, red sour wine. Enjoy
#9
Recently had some stale olive bread. Was sad I couldn’t make French toast with olives in it…
Solution: savory French toast. Was amazing! Egg dip included herbs and salt. Topped with Fig balsamic and olive oil. Loved it and plan to make again!
#10
When cherry or grape tomatoes start to get all pruny, I like to sauté them with garlic and herbs until blistered. Top with lemon juice and it’s a great side or appetizer.
#11
You can save overripe bananas for banana bread.
Or freeze them for 6 months and toss, your choice.
#12
A friend's Grandmother used to take stale bread, cover it in butter , cook it in the oven until it was super crispy. It was amazing. the only thing I can compare it to is a crouton. We ate it as snack. Really crunchy and crisp.
#14
My favorite way to use leftover food is to take day-old vegetables and mashed potatoes and fry them up into the classic British recipe bubble and squeak.
So named because it bubbles, and squeaks, in the frying pan as it cooks.
#15
I'm not sure if this is a revelation to anyone, but eat the greens that come on your beets and radishes! They are delicious. I especially love beet greens, similar but even better than chard imo. When I buy beets now I feel like I'm getting a 2 for 1 vegetable.
#16
This one is a game changer…. Got stale bread? Briefly run it under the tap (only is there is a lot of crust showing) and throw it in the oven at 400 for like 7 mins or until stuff evaporates. Works absolute wonders for no knead bread. I imagine you can do this with sliced bread just maybe spray water instead.
#18
Leftover cooked vegetables make a killer hash or frittata.
Leftover cooked rice becomes rice pudding just by heating one part rice, one part milk (and whatever sweeteners or flavors you want) on the stove in a pot until it thickens to where you like it.
#20
Cauliflower leaves. Chop them up to smaller bits, put in a pan with a knob of butter. I like to add some garlic too. Then fry until they're crispy and you have either a really tasty snack as it is or it can be tossed to a salad. Really delicious from something you wouldn't think of using normally.
#21
Leftover fish - make fish cakes.
In general I find leftover cooked fish to be pretty gross and very difficult to reheat in any way that makes it still enjoyably edible (and doesn’t make everyone hate you for putting fish in the microwave). But you can just flake up the fish and toss it in any “crab cake” recipe you like, and it’s seriously good!
#22
I use leftover mashed potatoes to make gnocchi. Just add egg, flour, and salt, and you've got homemade potato dumplings ready to be boiled and served with your favorite sauce.
#23
Alton Brown calls quiche refrigerator velcro, and he's not wrong. Almost any savory item, fresh or leftover, can be worked into a quiche, or a frittata.
#24
I like to turn leftover Bolognese into a filling for wraps. So instead of having it three days in a row, I'll repurpose it to switch things up a bit.
So day 1 I'll make Bolognese sauce for pasta (completely inauthentic using ground beef and everything), and day 2 I'll add a can of tomatoes, two cans of beans (kidney or black beans), corn and bell peppers. Seasoning with garlic, chili and cumin overpowers the original Bolognese-taste and turns it into something closer to a chilli. Cook until thickened a bit. The sauce is enough to serve 3 people for 2 days.
We use that mix as a filling for wraps and serve it fresh with lettuce (to prevent sogginess), a blob of Creme Fraiche, grated cheese of choice, spring onions and cherry tomatoes.
It's also a great way to cut down on meat, as it makes 1 lbs of ground beef last for 3 days worth of meals, yet you still get plenty of protein and veggies.
#27
If you peel some shrimp, save the shells for seafood stock. Same goes for lobster, mussel, etc shells, fish bones/heads and stuff like that. Freeze it and mix it all together for great seafood stock.
#28
Italian fun fact: Arancini was leftover risotto and the ragu/bolognese or cheese on the inside was usually leftover as well. Those little cheesy rice balls were my life growing up!
#29
There is a spanish dish following this exact logic, it's called 'ropa vieja' (old clothes).
You make it with leftover cocido (chickpea stew, it is usually drained and eaten dry/semi dry, and the resulting broth used in soup later). Add some onion for extra flavour and cook it in a pan.
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