I hate waste when it comes to leftover food. The problem is, I tend to overdo it when it comes to making a dinner and always make far too much. I think it goes back to when I was a youngster and had to cook for about 8-10 people..

I did a big turkey crown at the new year with all the trimmings, needless to say there was a huge amount of leftovers. After giving them the beady eye, I decided to make a stew. (See left).

The pan you see is my universal cook pot, I’ve had it for donkeys years and I’ve cooked just about everything in it. I use it most days. I suspect most of us have a pan we just couldn’t do without.

First of all I threw in the mashed potatoes followed by the turkey leftover gravy. (Mashed potatoes make a lovely thickener for gravy). It was followed by leftover roast potatoes, broccoli, petit pois peas and carrots. The cauliflower would have followed it if I hadn’t done it in a cheese sauce. (We finished that off on toast grilled)..

I then had a rummage in my fridge and found a bag of new potatoes I’d forgotten about, so sliced and threw them in. Also a couple of carrots, swede, onions and other bits and pieces I found hiding in the veg drawer.

Don’t worry about weighing out veg etc, just throw it in.

Added salt pepper and mixed herbs, a bit more water to cover and brought it to the boil. Then left it cooking on a very low heat for about 4 hours. Normally I would have transferred it to my slow cooker for this part but there was far too much to fit in it.

NB I didn’t add my leftover turkey at this stage as I didn’t want it to dissolve into the gravy with too much cooking, plus I was reheating again the next day…

Stew is always nicer the second day so next morning I turned it back on until it was back to the boil, added some gravy granules to thicken it up a tad more, added the left over turkey and left it cooking on a very low heat until the kids and daughter came up for their tea.

Served it with some nice crusty bread and they gobbled it down. I was also able to pack 2 plastic containers with what was left for my daughters pack up.

A really nice way to use leftover food you’ve cooked which is both nutritious and money saving…


Kim
Kim

Registered nurse, wife, mum and nana. I've had my share of 'hard times' when a child and also in the early years of being married. I learned a lot about how to make the pennies stretch further, so I'm going to share my little hints and tips with you...