Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year—approximately 1.3 billion tons—gets lost or wasted. According to the data by the UN Environment Programme, every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons).

The numbers are hard to wrap your head around. But think of the last time you threw away that lonely avocado that sat there on a windowsill for eternity, desperate for its moment to shine in guacamole, only to end up in a bin. Then, picture all the products that ended up discarded only because you forgot they existed. Sometimes, however, we stock up on so much food we never manage to eat, and this is also the reason we contribute to worldwide food waste. It’s kind of shameful.

Being careful with grocery shopping and thinking of how much food is enough for your needs is one way to tackle the problem (and save money!). Another way is to use your ingenious skills and make the best use of anything that’s left after you ate or just purposelessly sits in the fridge.

So when someone asked “Everyone knows about using stale bread for french toast or yesterday’s rice to fry, but what are some other recipes you can use to save ingredients from the trash?” on the Cooking subreddit, people started sharing awesome ideas of putting scraps to use. We wrapped up some of the most useful and yummy ones below for you to try out!

#1

Leftover mashed potatoes into tater cakes or pierogies.

Image credits: Runbunnierun

#2

Overproofed pizza dough into focaccia, stale foccacia into croutons, croutons into breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs into meatballs.

Image credits: joshuasachs

#3

Saving parmesan rinds for soups and sauces.

Image credits: Illegal_Tender

#4

Old bananas make for an absolutely glorious milkshake with only ice and vanilla.

Old onions are best suited for making fried onion rings.

Old peaches can be easily turned into a syrup liqueur which can bring a cocktail from “alright” to “if I keep drinking this sh*t I’m going to wake up in a hammock 3 miles from my house.”

Image credits: twotwentyone

#5

You can save overripe bananas for banana bread.

Or freeze them for 6 months and toss, your choice.

Image credits: Naptimeis4ever

#6

I like to caramelize too-ripe bananas sliced in butter. Then I sprinkle them in some brown sugar and a tiny bit of salt. Oh boy — they’re amazing on their own or on top of a scoop of ice cream.

Image credits: justmissliz

#7

There is a spanish dish following this exact logic, it’s called ‘ropa vieja’ (old clothes).

You make it with leftover cocido (chickpea stew, it is usually drained and eaten dry/semi dry, and the resulting broth used in soup later). Add some onion for extra flavour and cook it in a pan.

Image credits: AlexMcTx

#8

Leftover cooked vegetables make a killer hash or frittata.

Leftover cooked rice becomes rice pudding just by heating one part rice, one part milk (and whatever sweeteners or flavors you want) on the stove in a pot until it thickens to where you like it.

Image credits: mintbrownie

#9

Leftover bread to thicken soup & sauces.

Image credits: ItsReallyEasy

#10

Bacon grease is indispensable. Use it to fry anything, but know you haven’t lived until you’ve swapped it for butter to make the best-ever chocolate chip cookies.

Image credits: ajmojo2269

#11

Recently had some stale olive bread. Was sad I couldn’t make French toast with olives in it…

Solution: savory French toast. Was amazing! Egg dip included herbs and salt. Topped with Fig balsamic and olive oil. Loved it and plan to make again!

Image credits: Jen9095

#12

You can shock old vegetables in ice water to restore their crispness. Stuff like celery, greens, peppers, etc that hasn’t gone bad but has kind of lost its stiff/crisp texture. 2-3 minutes in ice water and it’ll be like new. GAMECHANGER

Image credits: badlilbadlandabad

#13

When cherry or grape tomatoes start to get all pruny, I like to sauté them with garlic and herbs until blistered. Top with lemon juice and it’s a great side or appetizer.

Image credits: briecheddarmozz

#14

If you peel some shrimp, save the shells for seafood stock. Same goes for lobster, mussel, etc shells, fish bones/heads and stuff like that. Freeze it and mix it all together for great seafood stock.

Image credits: Thirty_Helens_Agree

#15

Sourdough starter discard into bomb scallion pancakes.

Image credits: euniceaf

#16

Alton Brown calls quiche refrigerator velcro, and he’s not wrong. Almost any savory item, fresh or leftover, can be worked into a quiche, or a frittata.

Image credits: scottvs

#17

My favorite way to use leftover food is to take day-old vegetables and mashed potatoes and fry them up into the classic British recipe bubble and squeak.

So named because it bubbles, and squeaks, in the frying pan as it cooks.

Image credits: Rynu07

#18

I like to turn leftover Bolognese into a filling for wraps. So instead of having it three days in a row, I’ll repurpose it to switch things up a bit.

So day 1 I’ll make Bolognese sauce for pasta (completely inauthentic using ground beef and everything), and day 2 I’ll add a can of tomatoes, two cans of beans (kidney or black beans), corn and bell peppers. Seasoning with garlic, chili and cumin overpowers the original Bolognese-taste and turns it into something closer to a chilli. Cook until thickened a bit. The sauce is enough to serve 3 people for 2 days.

We use that mix as a filling for wraps and serve it fresh with lettuce (to prevent sogginess), a blob of Creme Fraiche, grated cheese of choice, spring onions and cherry tomatoes.

It’s also a great way to cut down on meat, as it makes 1 lbs of ground beef last for 3 days worth of meals, yet you still get plenty of protein and veggies.

#19

This one is a game changer…. Got stale bread? Briefly run it under the tap (only is there is a lot of crust showing) and throw it in the oven at 400 for like 7 mins or until stuff evaporates. Works absolute wonders for no knead bread. I imagine you can do this with sliced bread just maybe spray water instead.

Image credits: KeySheMoeToe

#20

A friend’s Grandmother used to take stale bread, cover it in butter , cook it in the oven until it was super crispy. It was amazing. the only thing I can compare it to is a crouton. We ate it as snack. Really crunchy and crisp.

Image credits: Golden-Years

#21

I use french fries I bring home with restaurant leftovers to make ersatz hashbrowns. Dice them, add some chopped onion and fry up in bacon grease.

I’ve never found french fries palatable as leftovers, if I didn’t have this technique available I’d never bother bringing them home from the restaurant.

#22

Strawberries on their last leg can be cut up (remove moldy or gross bits), *macerated with sugar, and added to a sugar cookie dough for zombie strawberry bars.

Wilted peppers can be cut up and used in fajitas or omelettes or casseroles/cornbread.

Leftover Spaghetti can be doctored and baked to make spaghetti pie.

#23

Just about any leftover cooked meat can go into jambalaya.

#24

Italian fun fact: Arancini was leftover risotto and the ragu/bolognese or cheese on the inside was usually leftover as well.

Those little cheesy rice balls were my life growing up!

#25

Orange peels (or citrus peels in general) to make candy, tea, and extract.

#26

If you have both old rice and yogurt, bake them together with a couple of eggs, a bit of oil and seasonings (I often use garlic powder, turmeric, pepper, salt, fresh dill, maybe minced onion) for a very loose interpretation of Persian tachin.

#27

Leftover fish – make fish cakes.

In general I find leftover cooked fish to be pretty gross and very difficult to reheat in any way that makes it still enjoyably edible (and doesn’t make everyone hate you for putting fish in the microwave). But you can just flake up the fish and toss it in any “crab cake” recipe you like, and it’s seriously good!

#28

I make shakshuka out of so many different ingredients. Take any sauce, whatever greens you have in the fridge, and any additional leftovers (feta, chickpeas, sweet potato, avocado, etc.) and simmer them together in a skillet. Crack an egg on top, cover until the egg sets a bit, and dig in.

#29

Turn leftover hamburgers and buns from a cookout into meat sauce and garlic bread and have a spaghetti dinner!

It’s not fancy, but it sure is tasty!

#30

I use leftover mashed potatoes to make gnocchi. Just add egg, flour, and salt, and you’ve got homemade potato dumplings ready to be boiled and served with your favorite sauce.

#31

When I have leftover fried rice from Chinese takeout, I use it to make stuffed peppers the next day!

#32

I save pasta water sometimes to reuse if I know I’ll be making a sauce that would benefit from the double starch. It also freezes easily if you don’t eat past three time a week like I do.

#33

I make Tepache out of pineapple skins/cores. Pretty much just put it in a pitcher, add some brown sugar and a cinnamon stick or two, and then in a couple of days you have a super delicious 2-3% ABV pineapple wine. A couple days after that, you have pineapple vinegar!

I end up composting the pineapple scraps after I strain them off, or sometimes I’ll feed small amounts of it to my worms.

#34

I’ll introduce you to a Romanian dish called “Shut up and Eat”(no,really,that’s the name of the dish.”Taci si înghite” ).

In my region it is eaten before the beginning of Lent. Since Christian orthodox basically go full vegan during our fasting times,we had to consume the animal products that were left from the winter. Thus, Taci si înghite was born.

It’s basically a polenta cooked with milk instead of water, a lot of butter and cheese. Then,stick it in a deep baking dish and throw on top of it any other cheese and meat you have left in your fridge and you want to eat before they go bad. Bake it untill the meat is cooked.

Eat this with some pickles and a light, red sour wine. Enjoy

#35

Primavera as the end of the week (or last meal before shopping) meal, can help you use up all your veggies.

Image credits: N01_Special

#36

Vegetable trimmings can be saved up (freezer) then eventually roasted and simmered to make vegetable stock.

Image credits: malepitt

#37

Mealy and bruised apples make nice apple sauce. I put applesauce on my morning porridge.

Image credits: impossiblejane

#38

Bits and bobs of cheese for quiche or fromage forte.

Image credits: Schackshuka

#39

Chilaquiles is best with old tortillas.

Basically a stir fry with corn tortillas and cheese. I also like to add onion, egg, and green chilis to all mine as well but additional ingredients are up to you.

Image credits: rossoroni21

#40

I’m not sure if this is a revelation to anyone, but eat the greens that come on your beets and radishes! They are delicious. I especially love beet greens, similar but even better than chard imo. When I buy beets now I feel like I’m getting a 2 for 1 vegetable.

Image credits: SeeingEyeB

#41

No one is going to notice those peppers are a little soft and wrinkly if you roast them.

Image credits: ajmojo2269

#42

Chapati/roti/tortillas can be broken up into small pieces and made into a fried rice-like dish. I don’t know how else to explain it in English, but it’s a common breakfast food in my home.

We have chapatis every day, so we often have leftovers. You just tear them into small pieces. Then in a pan, add some oil, spices (we usually do cumin and/or mustard seeds, red chilli/paprika powder, turmeric, salt/even sugar if you like some sweetness) and chopped veggies (we do onion and green bell peppers, and rarely tomatoes, and tiny pieces of green chilli), sauté for a few minutes, add the torn up pieces of chapati, mix it all up, garnish with fresh lemon juice and coriander/cilantro, and serve. Some people like to cut up the chapati into equal pieces, but we just tear them haphazardly and end up with pieces of all sizes, which kind of works great because the smaller pieces get crunch and the bigger ones are chewy.

Chapatis are whole wheat flat breads so they’re decidedly easier to tear and take up more flavour than tortillas made from refined flour (they tend to be more chewy), but I’m sure it won’t taste bad even if you use tortillas. It may not have the same texture, but it’ll still work.

#43

Oyster sauce – fish sauce – soy sauce – garlic is like the holy grail for any Thai style stir fry.

Whatever leftover you have, protein and assorted vegetables, all taste good using those base ingredients.

#44

Bread puddings, stuffing/dressing, stock…

And almost any leftover meal can be cut up & wrapped in a spring roll wrapper for later quick lunches. Steak & loaded potato spring rolls…BBQ & cornbread spring rolls…chicken pot pie spring rolls…They’re all yummy.

#45

Animal bones, skins (chicken, etc), trimmed fat, fresh vegetable scraps, etc for broth.

#46

I try to reuse as much as I can with everything. Save banana skins and dehydrate to make a fertilizer for plants.

#47

Left over mashed potatoes become hashbrowns the next day in my house.

When I make fried rice I use not just the leftover rice but all left overs in my fridge. Ribs from the other day, deli meat that didn’t go into sandwiches, egg whites I had separated out when baking etc

Left over ham becomes corn chowder.

#48

I often make omelets with pretty much any leftover ingredients. I’ll toss in bits and bobs of anything from tinned fish to kimchi.

#49

All the leftovers can be used to make a hash/ stir fry or soup.

#50

If you’re making ice cream, use the leftover whites to make cones! And you can freeze the whites you don’t use.

#51

Cauliflower leaves. Chop them up to smaller bits, put in a pan with a knob of butter. I like to add some garlic too. Then fry until they’re crispy and you have either a really tasty snack as it is or it can be tossed to a salad. Really delicious from something you wouldn’t think of using normally.

#52

I freeze the fat trimmings off beef and use them to sauté stuff like it was butter.

#53

Soup. Soup. Soup. I’m no historian but as the primary cook in the house, I’m fairly certain that soup was invented in order to not waste valuable calories.

#54

Not quite what you’re looking for but composting / bokashi-ing kitchen scraps is a super addictive hobby and diverts tons of food from the landfill!

#55

Old potatoes make crispier fries.

#56

You can fry up day old sushi as little fish steaks.

#57

Leftover spaghetti can be unappetizing. But if you put it in a pan and fry it up, it gives it some nice flare and fried spaghetti is super good for lunch.

#58

Well, what first comes to mind is oily bread-crumbs (from chef Cal Peternell, of Chez Panisse, in his cookbook Twelve Recipes):

Made with stale bread that still has some give. Carve the crust off of a good rustic loaf with a serrated knife and tear into 1½-inch pieces. A one-pound loaf will yield approximately 4 cups of crumbs. Grind coarsely in a food processor or blender, and then toss in a bowl with plenty of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. The crumbs should be tasty and pretty oily, though not totally soaked. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 350˚F for 7 minutes. Using a spatula, scoop the crumbs into a pile, stir them around a bit, and spread them back out. Back into the oven for 5 minutes (timer!) and repeat with the spatula. Keep baking and stirring, resetting the timer each time, until the crumbs are crisp and golden.

Mainly for sprinkling over pasta, as you would cheese, oily crumbs can also be used to sprinkle on chickpeas or other beans (Chapter 3) . . . or vegetable gratin or shepherd’s pie . . . and will sprinkle the floor as you inevitably snack.

Next thought: aromatic veg (onion, carrot, celery) looking a bit sad? Chop it up (removing any bad parts) and throw it in a bag in the freezer for making stock (also throw in leek greens you won’t use, parsley looking a bit droopy, fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary, chives about to go from fresh to dry, scallions looking a bit droopy and about to go slimey).

Also, learn how to prep veg from the store/csa/farmer’s market so it lasts as long as possible (pretty specific to the vegetable — google is your friend).

#59

What my mom used to call ‘woodchuck stew’ just all the veggies and meat that were about to turn, boiled aggressively in a pot with some stock and mire poix.

#60

I always make chili with left over pot roast.

#61

Extra mashed potatoes? Plan for potato pancakes, croquettes, or topping for shepherds/cottage pie.

Apple going bad? Cut around it and make apple crisp for one or two, or make chicken, apple and walnut salad.

#62

Cilantro stems work just as well as the leaves. You can dice them super fine and put them in a vinaigrette.

#63

Broccoli slaw from stems, or just peel, slice and saute.

#64

Most everything can be used to serve the glory of fried rice.

#65

Stale wine can become vinegar.

#66

You can scramble just about any leftover savory food with eggs.

#67

Used turned milk for pancakes.

#68

This is pretty common for my community but baked whole beans are actually made into refried beans to extend the shelf life. So you make beans on the stove top and then re heat them until you really can’t and then you fry them an mash them.

#69

Chimichangas from leftover roast!

#70

I wrap all kinds of random leftovers like nuggets and vegetables in tortillas with cheese and grill them in a panini press or a pan. Not strictly speaking saving them from the trash but I love these a lot more than just dry reheated bits and pieces on a plate for sure.

#71

Fattoush for old bread

#72

Almost anything can be turned/put into a casserole of some sort.

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