Discover how easy it is to use up leftovers
To use up leftovers, you need two things:
1) To store food correctly
2) Creativity
When it comes to storing food, if in doubt, put it in a sealed container as quickly as possible and freeze it.
Freezing is one of the oldest and most effective ways to preserve food. And we guarantee that it loses neither its properties nor its quality.
As for creativity, we wrote this article to give you a cheat sheet for when you run out of ideas and have plenty of leftovers that shouldn't go to waste.
List of dishes you can make to use up food
Chicken à Brás
Quiches
Chow-chow rice
Risotto
Lasagna
List of ingredients to always keep in your pantry
- shoestring potatoes, regular potatoes, or sweet potatoes
- eggs
- dried or fresh herbs such as oregano and basil
- frozen shortcrust pastry
- cheese
- lasagna sheets and other pasta
- tinned food: corn, tuna
- soy sauce
- frozen tomato sauce
- milk or plant-based drink
- risotto rice, various types of rice
Examples
- “Chicken à Brás” - with this typical Portuguese dish, you can swap the protein and make it with the same flavours. For example: do you have leftover chicken from last night's dinner? For today's lunch, you can use that leftover chicken, shredded or cut into bite-sized pieces, and make the cod à Brás recipe but with chicken. The secret is to always have the right ingredients at home for these SOS situations. For example: shoestring potatoes, regular potatoes, or sweet potatoes + eggs + parsley
- Quiches - this super versatile dish can easily be recreated with what you have in the fridge nearing its expiry date and a few key ingredients. For example: mushroom, chicken, and pepper quiche. If you have peppers in the freezer and the mushrooms are starting to dry out, all you need is to have the right ingredients in your pantry: shortcrust pastry + plant-based drink or soy cream, or milk + eggs + cheese, and voilà! Out of the oven comes a tasty, quick recipe using refreshed products that didn't go to waste.
- Chow-chow rice - Have leftover rice? Easy, sauté everything you have nearing its expiry date in the fridge, add corn and scrambled egg, a dash of soy sauce, and a divine dish with the “old” rice is served.
- Risotto - Do you have leftover vegetables and mushrooms?
- Let's make a risotto, you just need to have cheese in the pantry, the rest is adding flavour with whatever you have left over. Did you know you can make risotto with anything? Even strawberries. And it's delicious!!!
- Lasagna - Well, you can quickly turn a kitchen ugly duckling into a Michelin star. Have old vegetables? Sauté them and make a lasagna. You just need to have tomato sauce in the freezer, soy cream, and cheese. Believe me, you'll make a real winner and still be saving resources (money and the planet).
- You can enjoy eating it while giving a new life to ingredients that would otherwise go to waste!
