3 Ideas For Transforming Your Christmas Leftovers

Over the Christmas season, food waste shoots up by 30 percent in the UK. Over 263,000 turkeys go to waste, along with 7.5 million mince pies and a whopping two million kilograms of cheese. But there are endless savvy ways to use up ingredients before they end up in landfill. How about turning all that cheese into a dip? Or using those bananas in the fruit bowl to create a delicious pudding? Here food expert and sustainability advocate Elly Curshen (AKA Elly Pear on Instagram) has teamed up with upcycled alcohol brand Discarded Spirits Co. to create three zero-waste Christmas recipes to try this December.

Zero-Waste Christmas Recipes

Dirty Martini Dip

Uses leftover olive brine

Ingredients:

• 75g pitted green, drained and quartered lengthwise (I used pitted Nocellara olives)
• 60ml olive brine (from the jar)
• 60ml Discarded Vodka
• 1 tablespoon dry vermouth
• 2 strips lemon peel
• 250g cream cheese
• 150g blue cheese (I used Saint Agur) 
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, for garnish
• Crisps, for serving (plain, ridged crisps are perfect)

Method:

1. Place quartered olives, olive brine, vodka, vermouth, and lemon peel strips in a small jar. Seal the container and shake well to combine. Let marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 day.
2. In a medium bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat together cream cheese, blue cheese, pepper, and 5 tablespoons of the boozy brine mixture from the jar, until well blended and smooth, about 1 minute. Taste and stir in additional brine mixture, if desired.
3. Transfer to a small serving bowl. Drizzle some of your best olive oil into the centre. Spoon the marinated olives over top. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with flaky salt and pepper. Serve with crisps.

Whipped Feta and Fig & Vermouth Jam Crostini

Uses leftover bread, figs, and feta from the cheeseboard 

Ingredients:

• 3 figs, finely chopped
• 50g sugar 
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• Day old baguette, cut into 1cm slices
• 25ml Discarded Vermouth
• 20ml water
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 125g (Preserved) feta (or straight from the packet if you haven’t made the preserved version), roughly chopped
• 50g Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp Olive oil (plus a little more for the crostini)
• Zest of half a lemon

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine the figs, sugar and lemon juice. Let the figs sit for about half an hour.
2. Meanwhile, make the crostini by spreading out the baguette slices on a baking tray, drizzling with olive oil and baking at 180C for 15-17 minutes. Leave to cool while you make everything else. After 30 mins marination, tip the fig mixture into a small pan over a medium heat. Add the vermouth, rosemary sprig and the water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce heat to low and continue to simmer until the jam is thick, about 15 minutes. If the jam becomes very thick and sticky, you can add water, a little at a time, to thin it slightly.
3. Remove the rosemary and let the jam cool in a bowl at room temperature. The jam will keep well in the refrigerator for ages, but we are going to use it straight away!
4. Whisk the feta, yogurt and olive oil together in a mixing bowl. Season, add the lemon zest and chill in fridge. Top crostini with feta mixture and top with the fig, vermouth and rosemary jam. (Leftover whipped feta will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days).

Banana and Rum Sticky Toffee Pudding

Uses leftover bananas

Ingredients:

For the sponge

• 200g pitted dates
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
• 100g salted butter, softened
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 150g soft light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g self-raising flour

For the sauce

• 50g salted butter
• 2 tbsp black treacle
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 75g soft light brown sugar
• 200ml double cream
• 3 tbsp Discarded Banana Peel Rum

Method:

1. Boil the kettle. Tip the dates into a heatproof bowl with the bicarb and vanilla, then pour over 200ml boiling water and leave to soak for 30 mins. Meanwhile, line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment (or make in a similar sized dish that can go from oven to table, then no need to line, just butter it).
2. Heat the oven to 190C. Tip the soaked and cooked dates, along with their soaking liquid, into a food processor and pulse to chop. Add all the other sponge ingredients and a pinch of salt into the food processor and pulse to make a batter. Scrape the batter into the tin and bake for 40-45 mins, or until the pudding is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
3. While the pudding is baking, make the sauce. Tip the butter, treacle, vanilla, sugar and cream into a saucepan and cook over a medium heat for 4–5 minutes, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high and bubble for 3 minutes, then remove from the heat and whisk in the rum.
4. When the sponge comes out of the oven, poke it all over with a skewer or cocktail stick. Warm the sauce and pour a third of it over the sponge. Leave to soak in for 30 mins and then serve with ice cream, clotted cream or cold double cream, and the extra sticky rum sauce on the side.