How about making a real good resolution this year? To avoid wasting food during the festive season! Indeed, the holidays are a great opportunity to celebrate food with family and friends. However, we tend to buy too much, cook too much, overestimate our guests’ appetites and often end up with mountains of quality leftovers on our hands (that we no longer want to throw away)! Freshopp teaches you how to cleverly recycle potato chip peelings, reuse oyster shells, make sauces from surplus food and much more. These are anti-waste recipes and tips that won’t cost you a thing and will do our planet a world of good. Find out here how to recycle leftover food after the holidays!
Prepare peel chips for an aperitif
We all love chips! You knew you could make potato chips from potato peelings, but did you know you could do the same with other peelings? Carrots, apples, zucchinis, sweet potatoes, parsnips, beet and many others make original, low-calorie potato chips.
🧑🍳 How? The recipe is quite simple. Simply wash your peelings well and place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Then brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. You can also add thyme, curry powder, paprika, espelette pepper, cumin or even a blend of herbs.
🔥 Bake for about 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 200 degrees. Keep an eye on it from time to time to prevent it from browning too much.
You can also cook your peel chips in your deep fryer. If you’ve decided to watch your figure after the holidays, you can opt for microwave or Thermomix cooking. Depending on the cooking method you choose, you’re sure to be surprised not only by the crunchiness, but also by the flavor of your homemade potato chips. A great healthy aperitif for the day after a party!
Using leftover cheese to make French toast
You’re taking stock of your fridge after the holidays and you’ve got 30 cl of milk, 2 small eggs, pepper, mini baguettes of stale bread and leftover cheese? Here’s a French toast recipe perfect for breakfast with the family or brunch with friends.
🥖 The recipe is very simple, just beat the eggs with the milk, then lightly dip the bread sticks in this mixture, taking care not to make a sponge effect. Next, place the baguettes on the drip pan, which has been lined with baking paper.
Sprinkle with your remaining grated cheese and bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees. And now it’s ready! Before serving, sprinkle with pepper and chopped parsley to taste.
Reuse oyster shells to avoid throwing them away
What to do with your oyster shells after the holidays? If you garden, you’ll be pleased to know that crushed oyster shell mixed with ash is an excellent natural fertilizer. They provide calcium, magnesium and a host of other extremely beneficial trace elements. All you have to do is grind them in an oven or fireplace.
🥚 Oyster shell can also be used as compost, as it contains zinc, which is an essential element for the development of your plants. If you have chickens or birds, you can give them to them. They are very good for their health, providing calcium and strengthening eggshells.
Oyster shell is also a powerful scale remover. For example, to clean your kettle, place a pre-cleaned oyster shell in the bottom of the kettle with a little water to remove limescale deposits.
💡 You can also place some in your flush tank.
Finally, shells can also be used as decorative objects. Yes, you heard me right! You can clean them and paint them with spray paint to make a decorative picture or even a wind chime.
Making sauces with shellfish carcasses
Don’t throw away your shellfish carcasses! Lobsters, langoustines, prawns, gambas or crayfish are goldmines for delicious sauces that will go perfectly with your fish, poultry or even pasta dishes.
🦞 With shrimp carcass heads, 80g butter, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons cognac, 500ml fish stock and 1 small bunch basil, you can make a wonderful sauce.
Start by melting 30g of butter in a casserole dish, then add the carcasses and crushed garlic cloves and sauté over a high heat for 2-3 minutes. Then simply add the cognac, fumet and basil. Simmer for about 20 minutes over low heat. Strain through a sieve, reduce heat until thickened and gradually whisk in 50g butter. That’s all there is to it, just add salt and pepper and enjoy!
Cooking a shepherd’s pie with leftovers from holiday meals
If you’ve got some meat left over after a festive meal, why not make a shepherd’s pie? This classic dish is normally made with potatoes and minced beef, but you can replace the beef with other types of meat, or even fish!
🗒️ To do this, you will need :
- 1 carrot ;
- 1 small bunch parsley ;
- 2 or 3 onions ;
- 300 ml full cream ;
- 10 to 12 potatoes ;
- a glass of whole milk ;
- 40 g butter ;
- fleur de sel and pepper.
Start by preheating the oven to 200 degrees and placing the meat or fish of your choice in it to cook. Once cooked, allow to cool to room temperature. To obtain cooking juices for later use in your recipe, add half a glass of water to the baking dish and scrape down the sides. Pour the juice into a small bowl and refrigerate. As soon as the grease rises to the surface, you can remove it and simply keep the juice.
Once your meat or fish has cooled to room temperature, add chopped parsley, onion and carrot. Place in a large salad bowl and add the cooking juices and full cream.
You can then pour the mixture into a pretty casserole dish. For the potatoes, peel and cook in salted water. Then crush them, gradually adding the whole milk. Mix with a wooden spatula and gradually add the butter, cut into pieces. Simmer over low heat until the potatoes are cooked. When ready, season with salt and pepper, then add the mashed potatoes to your gratin dish. Bake for 30 minutes at 160 degrees. Time to eat!
As you’ve seen, with a little creativity, a few ideas and the help of an anti-waste application, for example, you can easily find ways to reduce waste, even during the festive season! In the kitchen, almost everything can be recycled, whether it’s to create a new recipe, to please your pets, to feed your plants or even to create decoration workshops with your children. To help you keep track of your food stocks after the holidays and save money, remember to keep your fridge organized too!
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