How To Cut Your Food Waste This Christmas

Christmas is a time of joy and indulgence – but, surprise surprise, all this excess isn’t great for the environment. One of the biggest problem areas is food waste: a whopping 263,000 turkeys are thrown away every year, alongside 11.3 million roast potatoes, 7.5 million mince pies and 740,000 portions of Christmas pudding, according to Zero Waste Week’s website. Not very festive at all – but fear not: there are loads of easy ways we can cut our food waste over the Christmas period. Here a handful of chefs and food experts share their top tips.

How To Cut Your Food Waste This Christmas: Top Tips

(c) Ella Olsson, Unsplash

Dr Lilly Da Gama, Food Loss & Waste Programme Manager at WWF

• ‘Look up ‘use up’ recipes: pot pies, curries, pasta sauces and soups are all great ways to use a variety of left over roasts, spuds and veg.  
• ‘Freeze what you don’t use – you’d be surprised at what you can freeze: cheese, cakes and gravy included.
• ‘Watch out for those ‘just in case’ items. People often stock up on special treats and nibbles for just in case people pop over. These will often sit in the cupboard or fridge and be forgotten until it’s too late!’

Lewis Glanvill, Head Chef At The Riverford Field Kitchen

‘Although encouraging moderation feels a bit bah humbug at Christmas, we are unnecessarily pushed to consume more than we need in all senses of the word. Even some modest meal planning can lower the shopping bill and leave you with less food waste. Don’t let the fact that the shops are closed for one day spook you into hoarding or panic buying. This stands for almost everything apart from potatoes – you can never have enough roasties! 

Abby Allen, Farms Director At Pipers Farm

• ‘Buy more, but less often. We love the ethos of slow food – and this means growing but also shopping. Choosing a whole bird or larger meat joint than you usually would means that you can use the oven less often and get more creative with recipes that help the food go further. This is especially helpful over the Christmas period, where you can cook one joint and then find recipes to use up the leftover food, such as bubble and squeak, turkey stock, turkey curry, turkey casserole, and cold cuts. Don’t forget to use your freezer to store any leftovers and gluts to reduce your food waste. 
• ‘This also helps you to be mindful of packaging and transport miles and ensure that you do fewer last-minute dashes to the shops because you’ve prepared in advance.’

George Rouse, Head Chef At Catering Company George’s Kitchen

• ‘Firstly, you can use pretty much all of the turkey. The day after Christmas, you can strip all the meat off and make a pie-style dish with puff pastry on top, then use leftover gravy as a sauce – once the turkey is in the pie the meat gets even more flavoursome. Turkey is really lean so it’s fantastic in a curry too. You can also make a stock with the carcass – pretty much everything can go in here, except something like red cabbage which would make it bitter. 
• ‘Potatoes can be sautéed for breakfast the next morning or used in a frittata, and if there’s leftover stuffing you can roll that up in puff pastry and make sausage rolls.’

Holly Congdon, Director At Catering Company Lettice Events

• ‘Cold smoked leftover turkey: By the end of Boxing Day, everyone has pretty much had their fill of leftover turkey sandwiches. At Lettice we love being able to completely reincarnate an ingredient and turn it into something special and different. We take the leftover turkey from Christmas day and cold smoke it. This sounds tricky but all we do is collect and dry pine needles which are in abundance around Christmas. Pop your turkey onto a metal baking tray. We use our Little Green Egg to burn the dried pine, over ice to keep the temperature cold – close the lid of the Egg and 20 minutes later you have an amazing and interesting dish to serve to guests who drop by over the Christmas period. We serve ours simply, thinly sliced, with a fresh salad of celery, shallots, capers, leftover walnuts, parsley dressed in fiery mustard mayonnaise.
• ‘Christmas pudding French toast: What better way to create an indulgent Boxing Day brekkie with a brandy soaked slice of Christmas pud, fried in brandy butter and covered in custard.’

Getty Images

What To Do With Leftovers: Recipe Ideas

Got some veggies knocking about in the fridge? Chef Lewis Glanvill shares some ideas for turning them into delicious new meals and sides.

• ‘Potatoes: Unless you’re feeling particularly reckless, roast potatoes are a must on the big day. In the unlikely event that there are any leftovers, make sure they aren’t wasted. A bubble and squeak is the obvious choice for a Boxing Day breakfast.
• ‘Carrots: Any leftover roast carrots can be turned into a stunning winter salad with a few complementary ingredients.  If you have more than you need, try turning them into canapes or snacks. Keep all your trimmings to add to gravy stock pot.  
• ‘Parsnips: Try braising them in a pan rather than roasting them, if you use minimum water, you’ll keep all the flavour, and if you can share the pan with some carrots too, you’ll save time, space and washing up. Any leftovers can be made into a comforting dal.  
• ‘Red cabbage: A whole cabbage can be a hefty beast, even if you are serving 6-8 people, you’ll probably only need half a large head for braising. Don’t waste the rest, it can be finely shredded and used raw in salads or even fermented and stored for the new year.   
• ‘Sprouts: Love them or loathe them, you couldn’t get a more bite-sized brassica. If you have more than you need, they can be used raw in a salad or cooked as part of a quick meal. Any Christmas leftovers should swerve the bin and find their way into a pan of bubble and squeak.’