Did you know that in the UK every year we waste around 15 million tonnes of food every year? To put that into context, the average British family wastes around £700 a year on food that they’re throwing away instead of using it up.
We’ve reduced our food waste massively over the years simply by meal planning, using our freezer more and getting creative with our leftovers as I know lots of you lovely people have done too but there’s clearly still a long way for us to go as a nation!
That’s why Sainsbury’s have started their clever ‘Waste less, Save more’ campaign. They want to help families like us to reduce food waste by inspiring us to make better use of our leftovers, and I’m pleased to say that they’ve asked me to share one of my favourite ways to use up Sunday Dinner leftovers.
My Dad was quite a frugal cook in his day and Monday tea would often be leftover cold meat from the Sunday roast the day before with bubble and squeak which I really was not a fan of. The bubble and squeak was always a mix of mash and whatever veg we had leftover from the day before fried until it was a little bit crispy (I’m convinced it was burnt but my Dad assures me it was deliberate). It would often have sprouts, cabbage and carrots mashed in with the potato so it never looked particularly appealing and it often tasted even less appealing if I’m honest.
These days, I never really cook vegetables like sprouts and cabbage, even carrots are a bit of a rarity on our table to be honest as there are so many other veggies we prefer. We often have roasted veg to go with our Sunday roast which includes things like red onion, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and sometimes some parsnips and broccoli.
Our leftovers are so different to the leftovers we used to have when I was a child so I’ve never really considered turning them into bubble and squeak. Leftover veg is usually cooked in a quiche or frittata of some sort in our house or even flung in the soup maker with some stock, garlic and chilli flakes to make a warming soup the next day. But today though, we decided to go all retro and make our own version of bubble and squeak….
Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Bubble and Squeak
This recipe is quite random as it totally depends on what you have leftover!
- Leftover Butternut squash, cooled
- Leftover sweet potato, cooled
- Leftover red onion, cooled
- 1 egg
- Salad to serve ( optional)
My vegetables were roasted in a baking tray with some olive oil and seasoning for yesterday’s Sunday lunch. The leftovers were stored in the fridge overnight.
- Roughly mash your vegetables together in a bowl.
- Beat the egg is a separate bowl and then add it into the mashed vegetables. This helps to bind the vegetables together as I find that they’ll break apart quite easily otherwise.
- I like to use my waffle maker to cook the bubble and squeak because the finished result looks so much nicer that way but you can just as easily shape them into burger shapes and fry them in some olive oil – just don’t make the patties to thick if you’re doing it this way. For me, I just squish the mix into the waffle maker and leave it to cook until it starts to go a little crispy on the outside which usually takes anywhere between 5 and 7 minutes for my machine. It depends on the temperature of your machine though so I would just keep checking it every couple of minutes if I were you.
- Once your bubble and squeak is cooked you can serve it with some salad for a lovely lunch.
Delicious!
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