The word “upcycling” is very in vogue at the moment (even if the expression “in vogue” isn’t), but until Fiona’s comment last week, I’d never thought of it in terms of food.
It’s something that we’re slowly getting better at – for example, my stale sourdough loaf became garlic bread, which was then turned into crispy croutons under the roast chicken we had for dinner last night.
In the past couple of weeks, a leftover piece of panfried sockeye salmon has been turned into sushi rolls, shredded leftover roast lamb wrapped in pita bread with babaganoush and garlic sauce, and the stock from the roasted pig’s head added a delicious touch to our arroz caldoso. And of course, there’s the recycled/upcycled cookie crumble.
One of my favourites to date has been this breakfast strata (misogynistically known in days gone by as a “wifesaver”). It’s a riff on the one I created last year for Jason’s Eurovision bake-off.
It began with a stale loaf of sourdough, which I stuffed with cheese and slices of ham off the bone. If you ever have leftover bread rolls, this works particularly well for freezer lunches…
The boys ate half the stuffed loaf for lunch. I tore up the remaining bread, ham and cheese and layered it into an oiled baking dish, then covered it with a mixture of three eggs, milk and more cheese. I covered it with a sheet of clingfilm, sat a plate on top to keep the bread submerged, then popped it into the fridge. The soaking time makes quite a lot of difference in this dish.
The following morning, I let it come to room temperature, then baked it at 180C with fan until golden brown. Thrice-baked, and the best meal of the three…
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Do you upcycle your leftovers? I’d love to know any tips you might have! x
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Bread into crumbs, and croutons, and bread pudding; leftover veg into curries; soup with leftover pasta; leftover Christmas ham with lentils, and chopped with onion for sandwich filling. We don’t throw out anything! :)
Sometimes the best recipes start with some leftover item. :)
I make “Adult Macaroni and Cheese” with a combination of all of the leftover pieces of cheese I have in my refrigerator after the holidays. It is not the traditional “yellow cheese” Mac and cheese so children don’t like it, but adults love it!
We do this too and my kids love it!
I am also an upcycler, but mainly at breakfast time. Nothing better than using leftover mash, along with any other left over veggies, with an egg, some spring onions, and whatever is hanging around, to make morning potato cakes.
‘Misogynistically known as’- good line for many old cooking terms.
Lovely use of leftovers and indeed, why would you waste such tasty food.
Oh, that breakfast strata looks divine. I whizz all my leftover bread up into crumbs and then freeze it so I always have nice breadcrumbs.
I have a little machine into which I feed all leftovers – known in our house as “the little man” :). He’s just enthusiastically hoovered up some leftover leek and mustard white sauce on toast – with bacon and egg – he’s a growing lad is my little man!
One of my bosses in London used to say that you always knew when there was a NZer in the house – the fridge is full of little containers of left overs. Don’t touch them I would shriek! c
I have a container in the fridge into which I put the vegetable ends: the woody stalk of the cauliflower and the leaves, the harder part of the broccoli stems, the ends I’ve snapped off the asparagus spears, the greeny bits from the leaf end of the carrots. They all go, cut small, into my big soup pot of stock made from roasted lamb bones, or a chicken carcass, or a ham bone. Simmered gently and then whizzed with a blender, no-one would know they’re eating discards. I generally fling in any leftover rice or meal leftovers, plus home made gravy if there’s any of that (rare!). The Husband takes soup for work every day summer and winter, so my soup turnover is constant and my wastage is small!
I keep veggies nubs and chicken bones in the freezer. Whenever I have enough, I use them for a pot of chicken stock. I strain everything out and add to the compost pile when finished.
Oh yes! I always love a new idea for upcycling food! I live alone but looooove to cook so I’m always having to deal with a lot of leftovers and get this, I’m not the kind of girl who is able to cook one big pot of something and devour it throughout the week! Hence always trying to create new dishes with the old :p this is a great one to remember thanks for sharing! Excited!
Hmmm: I am thinking of the lovely gals your boys will marry – you better have them over for a series of tutorials! Your guys are SO used to not just eating ‘the world’ but eating ‘economic’ and that combination is an art form you truly have mastered :) !
I’m a huge fan of leftovers and food “upcycling” – I love making veggie lasagne out of whatever’s left and making stock paste for the freezer is a delicious lifesaver.
My parents give us a ham every Christmas and whatever isn’t eaten after a day or two is shredded and goes into the freezer for soup and pizza later. Some goes into the slow cooker with the bone for pea and ham soup.
Right now I’m working my way through a glut of tomatoes that are still coming – I sent my mum home with 6.5kg for chutney the other day and I’ve got 3kg on my bench again. We also just found a farmer that can sell us jalapenos so I think I’ll be doing some preserving myself soon!
I have an old recipe for bread pudding – except that it is a cake. It uses a stale small loaf, eggs. milk, mixed fruit with butter flakes on top. It is baked in a small roasting pan and can be eaten hot with custard (pudding!) or cold (cake) with butter. Delicious.
I’m getting better at upcycling leftovers. Hubby is generally content eating them as is, I get a little more bored. I like beans and veg on toast with an egg. Ewan likes it over grits or polenta. I also toss meat and veg and cheese ends into a quiche. I’m going to try the upcycled cookies on fruit this weekend. Jack wants it for brunch so I’m making snickerdoodles this week just to have some “leftover” for the crumble!
I can’t say I’ve upcycled anything into another different meal but we usually eat leftovers for lunch the next day.
We call them “second seatings” in our kitchen.
Love the term Upscaling for leftovers…great share!!
I can see breakfast strata in my future. Yum. I upcycle everything. Today’s dinner almost always factors in leftoverability either for the next day’s meals or the freezer. A recent baked soy, honey & pepper pork fillet & vege dinner became pork, tofu, noodle stirfry for dinner plus 3 freezer ‘takeaway’ container, which when used to fill an omelete make another 2 meals each.
We buy ham to use as sandwich meat for lunches- the bones make great bean or potato or cauliflower soup bases, and the bits that are dark and dense I put into the blender and then mix with pork and bread crumbs ( from the leftover French bread) and an egg and make ham loaf with mustard sauce. Any left over roast beef becomes an open sliced beef sandwich with beef gravy and/or the meat in a beef vegetable soup. Chicken leftover is made into Chicken with gravy and rice. Or Chicken and biscuits with gravy onions,and peas. Or Thai Chicken soup with coconut milk- I like the leftovers/upcycled foods as much if not more than the first go round dishes. Lots of good ideas here- thanks for the topic starter!
Very inventive Celia :)
I cook a roast on Sunday and for the rest of the week there always seems to be something leftover from one day that’s incorporated into the next. As sourdough bread seems to age particularly well, I force my family to eat it until the loaf is finished so I rarely use it for anything else. Nothing like a slice of aged bread spread with dripping.
I might add leftover bell peppers,onions or garlic ( and rosemary) to make it into a Focaccia version. I would only add a hint of herbs. Great idea for stale bread ~ sour dough is my favorite. (aside: The fella at the market said sour dough was the best for grilled cheese sandwiches.)
I love using up leftovers in any old way – often in soups and stews – I made a stew on the weekend using tubs of leftovers from the freezer and it was really quick to make and full of lots of flavours. Also love mashed potato in potato scones (the scottish type) and using up old vegies in stock (store them in the freezer til I am ready) – I have lots of bread in the freezer for bread pudding perhaps. And I love seeing how you use your leftovers too
I do love a good strata, Celia, and it is a very good way of using up leftovers without looking like that’s what you’re doing. I must admit, though, I’m not a very good “upcycler”. If it’s a roast, I’ll make sandwiches with the leftovers. Other bits and pieces will normally go into a pasta, frittata, or hash. Then again, I’m not feeding anyone other than myself. I’m sure things would be very different if I had another mouth or two to feed. (Max doesn’t count. :) )
Upcycling, I shall have to use that phrase – fabulous!
Have a beautiful day Celia.
:-) xo
Fridge suppers are popular Chez Hood. Very little gets wasted – I take it very hard if I have to discard food. (Even then I have a worm composer that gets most of what may have been otherwise trashed. But I have fairly hungry worms!)
I have recently purchased Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s latest book, “Love your leftovers”. Mainly because I am a huge fan of Hugh. It is actually a very good book, full of great ideas and recipes using almost everything you can think of of even some you haven’t. Worth a look.
Thank you so much Anne as I had no idea of his latest book and I simply adore HFW also and must have seen every of his shows! Have gone on line and purchased thanks to you . . .
The best way to eat! I always make extra stock in my soups and then strain some off for risotto or arroz caldoso. Leftover roasts minced up and into meat sauces or cottage/shepherd’s pie. Always keep boiled potaots (in their skins) and hard boiled eggs in the fridge – I can always make something out of that (nicoise, russian salad). Have a great day :)
Always up-cycling food here Celia…in fact I can’t imagine cooking any other way x
What a fantastic idea Celia. I usually make garlicky bread crumbs to top my pasta with when I have leftover bread. Or croutons, or some sort of bread and butter pudding. I almost never waste leftovers… leftover meat goes into warm roasted vegetable salads or stir fries, leftover rice is usually fried or made into fritters. My husband is also very good at cleaning out the fridge, usually before I even get to the leftovers haha ;)