Delicious recipes from leftover food

We live in a fast-paced world where convenience food is readily available. However, it’s time to give our leftover food due attention – after all, it’s not only far healthier and economical, but also far more rewarding to conjure up recipes from the previous days’ meals. The domestic cleaning experts, MOLLY MAID, have put together a few simple ideas to help you create recipes from leftover food.

It doesn’t just have to be leftover food that can be used to create these recipes, but also fruit and vegetables that have perhaps suffered in transit and that are bruised perhaps. After all, the goodness and taste is just the same even if they are visually not quite as appealing.

Apple and parsnip soup

Ingredients:

2-3 Bruised Apples (peeled & chopped)

2-3 Parsnips (peeled & chopped)

2-3 Potatoes (peeled & chopped)

500ml Water

1 teaspoon of curry powder

Plain Yoghurt

Seasoning

Method:

• Add the apples, parsnips and potatoes into a pan.
• Add 500ml of water, a teaspoon of medium curry powder and allow to boil.
• When the vegetables are very soft, blitz them until smooth, with a blender.
• Then, serve with plain yogurt and chopped herbs.

What’s perfect about this recipe is that the whole family enjoys it with some crusty bread and even better, it can be frozen if it’s not needed straight away

Baked chicken carbonara

Ingredients:

1 pack of spaghetti or linguine broken into pieces

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup double cream

2 tablespoons sherry

1 can sliced mushrooms, drained

2 cups chopped cooked leftover chicken

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Seasoning

Method:

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente, then drain.
• Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in the flour and add some seasoning. Continue to stir over heat.
• Remove from heat, and gradually stir in the chicken broth and cream.
• Return to heat, and bring to a low boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Add sherry, then stir in cooked spaghetti, mushrooms, and chicken.
• Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish, and top with Parmesan cheese.
• Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.

Recipe taken from allrecipes.com

Pork Fried Rice

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mushrooms

6 cups cooled cooked leftover rice

1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided

1 1/2 cups cubed cooked leftover pork

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger, finely chopped

3 stalks celery, diced

1/2 small onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1/2 bell pepper, diced

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Method:

• Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat; cook and stir mushrooms until the juice has evaporated, and the mushrooms are browned, about 15 minutes. Set mushrooms aside.
• Fluff up the leftover cooked rice with a fork and stir in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to separate the grains. Heat remaining 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium heat.
• Add the leftover pork, garlic, and ginger until fragrant, and cook for about 1 minute; add celery, onion, and carrot. Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in red bell pepper and cooked mushrooms just until combined.
• Stir in the cooked rice, lightly tossing until rice is heated through and thoroughly combined with pork and vegetables. Stir in soy sauce, remove from heat, and serve with sweet chilli sauce if desired.

A perfect meal created from leftover pork or rice, or both!

Recipe taken from allrecipes.com

Leftover Green Veggie Fritters

Ingredients:

250 g leftover cooked Brussels sprouts

2 handfuls of leftover cooked greens

1/2 a clove of garlic

1 lemon

A few sprigs of fresh dill

50 g leftover cheese

3 large free-range eggs

Method:

• Shred the leftover cooked sprouts and greens. Peel and finely chop the garlic, and finely grate the lemon zest. Pick and finely chop the dill.
• Put the shredded sprouts and greens into a bowl. Crumble in the cheese, add the garlic, dill and lemon zest and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper, and mix well.
• Crack in the eggs and mix to combine.
• Place a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a generous lug of oil. Once the oil is hot, carefully lower in heaped tablespoons of the mixture and flatten them out into little patties.
• Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the egg is beginning to set, then carefully flip and fry on the other side for 2 more minutes, until the egg is completely cooked.
• Halve and serve the remaining lemon on the side for squeezing over.

Recipe taken from Jamie Oliver

Leftover Lamb and Potato Pie

Ingredients:

200g-300g leftover lamb

100g leftover gravy or lamb stock

Leftover potatoes (250g)

50g cheese, grated

2 tbsp breadcrumb, with mixed herbs

Method:

• Heat oven to 200 degrees c.
• Carve all leftover lamb off the bone, roughly chop and place in an ovenproof dish, or 2 individual pie dishes.
• Pour over some gravy, or if there’s none left, just a bit of stock to moisten.
• Crumble the leftover potatoes over, then scatter with cheese and any leftover herb crumbs.
• Bake in the oven for 30 mins until golden on top and bubbling around the edge.
• If you’ve got any greens leftover, then quickly stir-fry to reheat and serve alongside.

Simply delicious leftover food recipes. Give them a go and you will notice how satisfying and economical it is to cook in this way!

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