River Cottage Love Your Leftovers: Recipes for the resourceful cook

I have collected quite a few cooking books over the years and this one is a great addition. The idea behind this book is to minimise food wastage and plan your meals in a smart way.

Book starts off with plenty of useful advice on ingredients. How to store, how long they will keep fresh etc. Hugh also shares gives some advice on planning for shopping and leftovers so you can plan your meals more efficiently. While experienced cooks might know all of those things already I did found a lot of handy tips and be sure to use them.

Layout of the book is done in sections such as "Bread" or "Cooked Rice" with a nice colour coded index. This makes navigating the long list of recipes much easier. And there is a lot of them indeed. Some are good oldies that many are familiar with and some new great ideas. Many recipes have tips and swaps so if you do not have enough of certain ingredient it suggests a suitable replacement. In each one some of the ingredients are highlighted to mark main component/leftover. Some recipes make clever use of leftover bits from cooking other dishes while some give second life to complete meals you have left from day before.

While I just love good spaghetti bolognese and usually cook a big batch and eat big portions, the next day I am just bored of it. What caught my eye was the "Spaghetti Bolognese Omelette" recipe. Sounds really interesting and I will definitely give it a go next time around.

Here is the list of sections and recipes from this book:

LEFTOVER MEAT:
-Chicken soup
-Chicken and mushroom fricassee
-Stew enchiladas
-chicken, white bean and chorizo salad
-Spicy chicken and peanut butter salad
-Turkish chicken with walnuts
-Lamb and mint couscous
-Lamb and onion bhajjis
-Lamb, potato and mint sauce salad
-Lancashire hot pot
-Spicy lamb and chickpeas
-Shepherd's pie
-Chinese-style spicy crispy beef
-Chilli beef noodles
-Pea and ham soup
-Pork in rosemary cream sauce

LEFTOVER FISH:
-Freewheeling fishcakes
-Spicy crispy fish skeletons
-Crispy fish skin 'bacon' sandwich
-Potted smoked fish
-Fishy blinis with sauerkraut cream
-Spicy fish tacos
-Mackerel with Puy lentils and parsley
-Fish head soup
-Creamy smoky fish and spinach gratin

LEFTOVER ROOTS:
-Roast carrot pate
-Roast root hummus
-Potato peel soup
-Roast dinner soup
-Vegetable peel crisps
-Potato cakes
-Cheesy potato gnocchi
-Lentil and leftover veg curry
-Curried coconutty roots
-Root gratin with blue cheese and nuts
-Quick pickled roots
-Carrot and ginger steamed pudding
-Beetroot and caraway seed cakes

LEFTOVER GREENS & SALAD:
-Kale crisps
-Steam soup
-Broccoli stem 'carpaccio'
-Chilled cucumber and almond soup
-Sauteed cucumbers
-Pasta and greens with goat's cheese
-Tamari greens with cashews and ginger
-Vietnamese wilted greens salad
-Korean veg pancakes with carrot salad
-Slightly squashy tomato and egg toast
-Beetroot 'laces'

LEFTOVER BREAD, PASTA & PULSES:
-Eggy bread
-Bread and butter pudding
-Marmalade pudding
-Spaghetti bolognese omelette
-Many bean salad
-Spicy bean pate
-Crispy Puy lentil salad
-Sprouting pulses
-Ribollita
-Quick cassoulet

LEFTOVER RICE:
-Egg fried rice
-Ricey pancake
-'Arancini' patties
-Stuffed vegetables
-Risottover
-Leftovers laksa
-Rice veggie burgers
-Ricey pudding

LEFTOVER DAIRY:
-Home-made butter
-Paneer
-Labneh
-Spiced yoghurt chicken
-Lemon and yoghurt pudding cake
-Granny's jam ice cream
-Ultimate cheese straws
-Big cheese sauce
-Potted cheese
-Rarebits

LEFTOVER EGGS:
-Aioli
-Cheesy egg custards
-Creme brulee
-Pavlova
-Hazelnut meringue roulade with raspberries
-Chocolate macarons

LEFTOVER FRUIT:
-Smoothies:
* Pear, spinach and ginger,
* Mango,
* Berry and banana,
* Banana and nut butter
-Berry good frozen yoghurt
-Granita
-Fruit-on-the-brink lollies
-Apple peel and orange salad
-Clafoutis
-Oaty banana drop scones
-Banana, peanut butter and raisin bread
-Salted lemon peels
-Crystallised citrus peels
-Bashed-up-blackberry cordial
-Fruity vinegars
-Pickled watermelon peel
-Pickled pineapple core

CHRISTMAS LEFTOVERS:
-Turkey curry
-Turkey and mincemeat tagine
-Christmas nut satay turkey
-Turkey rissoles
-Sprout, ham and chestnut gratin
-Crumbly cheesy Crimbo wafers
-Christmas pudding parfait

STORECUPBOARD LEFTOVERS:
-Soda ale bread
-Celeriac soup with cider and blue cheese
-Many chutney brown sauce
-Cupboard flapjacks
-Recycled chocolate tiffin
-Coffee spice rub
-Masala chai

I hope you found this review informative and helpful. Thanks for reading.

Yes, sometimes one needs to use up leftovers, but with a book this gorgeous one can also simply decide to buy the ingredients and make something on purpose. It's truly truly wonderful. Very well written, explanations are clear, though not too detailed, and the end results, so far, have been amazing. I am attaching here the photo of my latest exercise in deliciousness: Granny's Jam ice-cream. I also love that the dishes are sufficient for large portions or numerous eaters. Beautiful and tantalizing pictures (not for every recipe but for most of them). Note: British author, therefore weights are in grams.

Bought this for a retirement party. Kinda of a gag because the retiree thought he just needed to put all leftovers in the blender and make everything into porage. This book is well organized with pictures so Pepe knew what leftovers would yield what meal. Big Hit!