Cook Your Leftover Food

By Save Food Cut Waste

Agatha Lee is an avid green blogger who shares her green thoughts, recycled crafts and upcycling at Green Issues. She’s also a believer in using leftover food and not wasting food. When she was young, her parents taught her never to waste any food, and that leftover food is still food. It is such a waste to throw away food that tastes yummy and had been prepared by someone with a lot of effort.

If she knows that she is going to use the leftovers within the next three days, she would store it in the fridge. If not, it goes straight into the freezer with labeling. She would try to make sure that the food item is cooled very quickly under a fan and covered with a food cover before it goes into the fridge or freezer, plus she always use a serving spoon or chopsticks when the family eats, so as to minimise contamination.

Agatha shares some of her favourite leftover recipes:

I used to hover around the kitchen when my mum cooked and noticed she would add leftovers from the previous meal. One of my favourites is a stew my mum would whip up from leftover roast pork from reunion dinners. She would add Chinese mushrooms, squash and dried bean curd sticks, and then add soya and oyster sauces. The roast pork would no longer be crispy but the stew would taste lovely served with rice. Another favourite is stir-frying leftover steamed chicken with vegetables.

Keep and cook your leftover food instead of throwing them away, thus helping to reduce food wastage at home.

Recipes for Leftovers

If you can’t finish the food at home, try to keep the leftovers and cook them for the next meal, instead of throwing them away. If you’re not sure what to cook with the leftovers, try the recipes contributed by chefs and our community!