Generally I try to get the most out of my ingredients, which means making hefty use of leftovers.
Leftovers just sounds like such a sad word. Boring, left behind, ignored but in truth, left over parts of a meal are often even better. Reimagine them, don’t just heat them up in the microwave (though of course that’s perfectly acceptable if dinner was fab and you want to eat it all over again.)
I started off with a lamb stew. Frozen lamb from Iceland has cooked up beautifully each time I have used it, so this was cooked in lamb stock, with dried mint, lemon, brandy, carrots and potatoes. Frozen peas added in the last 5 minutes for greenery. That cooked on the hob while I was working. Easy.
The next day there was a lot of the veg left. I stared at it for a bit, went away, came back and stared at it some more. Then spotted some not quite so springy spring greens, a tired parsnip, and a carrot that looked like it needed somewhere to be.
Utilising my new julienne vegetable peeler, the parsnip and carrot were quickly dispatched, with any of the stubs left from peeling chopped up. I had a mooli – large white radish – so half of that got chopped into batons. The spring greens were blanched, along with some cauliflower leaves – yes, I left my cauliflower naked – and chopped into bite size pieces.
Start the heat off under the leftover stew vegetables to melt any lamb fat. Mmm tasty lamb fat…
Sprinkle over maybe 1/4 tsp salt.
Once that’s all warmed, put in the mooli batons, parsnip pieces and greens. Sprinkle a little more salt and some smoked garlic powder if you have it, or grate a garlic clove in if you don’t. Pop a lid on and let them all steam.
Then add in the carrot and parsnip shreds, season again, and turn the heat UP. I added some Turkish chili flakes as well, but it’s up to you. I wanted to crisp up the edges of the potatoes and parsnip chunks. Absolutely worked a treat! All the added vegetables meant…
…yes. Leftovers again.
This morning I gathered all the veg together in the bottom of a wok shaped pan, mixed 2 eggs with salt, and dried orange peel, then poured it around the edges to make it into an omelette. I just let it sit there, pulling the edges up a little to let more egg underneath then put a lid on to cook the top.
Excellent breakfast!
