Love your Leftovers!

How do you use your leftovers? 

As its cold outside, I've made Leftover soup. 

Recipe - sort of!
Yesterday, I pressure-cooked some sprouting spuds and limp carrots together and turned them into mash - enough for 3 meals  (in the freezer).
The Left over mash (not enough for a serving) was returned to the cooking water in the pressure cooker. (I always keep the cooking water for stock).
Added some split red lentils and cooked it all together until the lentils were soft.
Seasoned and herbed.

Its tastier than it sounds - believe me.

Sounds really good Veggie. We don't have leftovers, they're called tomorrow's dinner, or part thereof. I'm a firm believer in veg soup made from the 'past their best' veges. I've often thought about veg peelings soup, but I don't often peel the veges.

I soaked lentils and split peas last night. Today I added one onion, one carrot, a half inch slice of swede and some celery.

The celery had been in the fridge for a fortnight and was past its best but by stripping off the outer stems and utilising the celery leaves which had sprouted I had enough for the soup. The carrot and swede were cut into strips with the peeler and the onion was diced very finely to allow it all to cook quickly.
OH and myself had some at lunchtime and I have just had another bowl full. the rest I will stick in the freezer in a tupperware box.

I love soup. You can use so much secret veg and seeds to get goodness into kids

I love making soup you only really need an onion, a bit of veg, plus a slice of bread and you have a good meal.

I cooked a pan of tiny potatoes tonight - they were dug from the garden months ago but so small, I just couldn't be bothered to clean them up. They were well worth the effort and I'm eating them like sweeties,- just another one as I pass the pan.

I also found a use for an apple-sized butternut squash that was going mouldy at one end! I chopped the mouldy bit off, peeled it..and cut it into matchstick sized shreds. Tossed these in a little oil and put them in a tray at the bottom of the oven -and forgot them!
When I pulled them out, they looked just like crispy bacon rind - and they were delicious! A hint of sweetness but crunchy.
I'll do this again.

We often have Odd Soup on a Monday made from the week end's leftovers! Odd biryani works quite well, too

I usually make veggie stock from the stalks, outer leaves, pealings , the tiny spuds & carrots and oddments.
I have a bag in the freezer I keep adding to. When it’s full, throw it all in the slow cooker.
Leftover from meals are consumed the following day the the human dustbin for lunch. Or turned into part of the evening meal.

We don't throw food away either. Old veg get thrown into soups, stews, curries, bubble and squeak type concoctions etc. Old bread gets zapped into breadcrumbs and frozen. The only time the birds get a "treat" is when my baking experiments go drastically wrong.

Tonight's Leftover delicacy was "Nut burgers"!
A bag of mixed nuts, 3 months past their use by date that tasted a bit "old" - roasted them in the oven.
A stale crust - also dried out in the oven.
Three limp carrots.
Tangerine peel that had previously been dried in the oven and crushed.

Blitz them all in the Blender gadget you'd forgotten you'd bought, from the back of the cupboard.
Bind some of it together with a beaten egg and shape into burgers.
Shallow fry.

I've kept some of the mixture dry and I'll add something different to it tomorrow - some dried herbs or soy sauce or marmite, maybe?
Or pack it into a loaf tin and make a nut loaf?

I'll do this again sometime as I have another bag of nuts that need using.