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What to Do with Your Holiday Leftovers?

When Christmas is marked with abundance, the fridge is often quite full the day after your festivities. To start the year on the right foot, go into zero waste mode! Here are tips and ideas to give new life to your holiday leftovers.

No More Turkey!

Fed up with eating turkey at lunch and dinner? A break might be necessary. Slice your leftover turkey and divide it into individual portions. Turkey can make an excellent addition to a gratin, wrap, quesadilla or reinvented club sandwich, such as this delicious version with turkey, pancetta and olive mayo. And what about a fragrant Indian-style pilaf? It would be sacrilegious to throw out your leftover turkey! Make a savoury homemade broth instead!

Did you know that…

While it’s fun to stretch the pleasure of a table filled with food, the figures aren’t much fun. Indeed, 13% of the food being thrown away in this country comes from table leftovers that could have been consumed*.

*Source: Love Food Hate Waste

Excess Wine

Half-used bottles of wine find their moment of glory in these recipes. Think of mulled red wine, mulled white wine, red wine braised pears or a sauce to be drizzled over meat. However, this doesn’t mean that the opened bottles are no longer fit to drink. Wines generally keep quite well in the fridge for three to five days. You can also pour them into ice cube trays and use a cube or two to deglaze a skillet, as in this recipe for leeks in white wine.

No Such Thing as Small Potatoes

Did you know that 2,400,000 potatoes are wasted every day in this country?* To delay sprouting, keep your potatoes in a cool place and insert an apple in the bag, which will prevent them from sprouting. As for leftover mashed potatoes, they’re amazing in aligot with cheese curds or pierogis, and even in potato pancakes.

*Source: Love Food Hate Waste

The Freezer is Your Friend in Reducing Food Waste

Freezing is one of the best ways of reducing waste.

 

Here are a few tips:

  • • The colder the freezer is, the longer the food will keep. Aim for -18°C or more.

     

  • • To prevent altering the taste and texture of your food, make sure to remove the air from the freezer bags. Write down the date and contents on each bag, because food doesn’t keep forever in the freezer. In an ideal world, we suggest eating it within three months of the freezing date.
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  • • Some foods, like fruits and cupcakes, may stick together when frozen. To avoid this situation, freeze them separately on a baking sheet, then transfer them to a bag once frozen.

What’s the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread! More Bread!

We waste 750,000 loaves of bread every day in Canada! After the holidays, it’s not rare to have too much bread left over. Make bread crumbs in a flash with pieces of baguette, or cut it into cubes and incorporate it into soup. Also, don’t wait to freeze slices of panettone. Then you can use them to make dessert croutons or French toast!

Stretch the Pleasure of Cheese

Leftover cheese fondue should never end up at the bottom of the compost bin. On the contrary, it’s perfect to add to an open-faced sandwich or an omelette. Some cheeses are left on the Christmas platter? Add them to a quick and easy tartiflette.

The Cherry on the (Fruit) Cake

If the fruitcake wasn’t appreciated, find other uses for it. For example, you can crumble it and sprinkle it into a yogurt parfait, or even make a delicious sweet and savoury stuffing that goes beautifully with chicken.

Croissants in Everything!

The leftover croissants from your last brunch are delicious stuffed with a chocolate and berries garnish, or served French toast-style with rum caramel. You can also cut them in pieces to transform them into croutons for a delicious salad or to make cheese bread pudding.

As the New Year looms ahead, let’s all make a resolution together to reduce food waste. With a bit of organization and lots of inspiration, you’ll find the fun in reinventing your leftovers. And don’t forget that there are tons of sources to search for ideas. Looking for inspiration right now? Discover ways of reusing food in our zero waste category.