Just finished watching the Great British Waste Menu.

It was a BBC challenge in which four top chefs had to produce a banquet for 60 from food that had been (or would have been) thrown away. The scale of waste is shocking – from farmers ploughing crops which don’t meet supermarket standards back into the ground, to bin-loads of edible food wasted simply because its sell-by date is near. Apparently, though the majority of food waste happens at home.

Personally, I’ll always trust my nose over a packaging date and see a fridge full of leftovers as a cooking challenge. I hate throwing anything edible away and I’m glad the Council will now take any peelings away to compost. Even food that looks a bit unappetising to eat fresh can often be cooked to eat or store – we’ve always got a tub of stewed apples in the freezer because we don’t eat them quickly enough and older tomatoes and peppers usually end up as soup.

Before I go over all ‘Dig for Victory’, here’s a roundup of regular leftover recipes.

• Too many tomatoes or leftover rice in the fridge – try roasted stuffed tomatoes
• Lots of odds and ends in the fridge like cheese, ham, peppers, boiled potatoes, tomatoes, tuna…add a few eggs for a tortilla style omelette
• No eggs? Use the fridge leftovers to spruce up a quick salad. Bread that’s past its best can make great croutons
• Leftover fish bits or some spare mash potatoes in the fridge or freezer? Fishcakes are a regular favourite. I even freeze crusts to make breadcrumbs.
• Risotto is pretty forgiving and lots of different things can go into the basic recipe. Great for using up cooked meats, a few leftover beans, peas and a bit of onion. It’s a good storecupboard staple too – we’ll often do chorizo and a few frozen veg or half a jar of chargrilled peppers.
• And one final one – because it’s such good value and can stretch a chicken out for an extra meal every time – a pot of stock. Not only does it get the best out of a roast chicken, it’s a chance to use up a few carrots, leeks or onions that might need using. The stock makes a fantastic risotto or soup (as above) or freezes well.

The programme’s on the iPlayer until 1 September. If you’re looking for other ideas, there’s more here too at the Love Food Hate Waste website*.

*Disclosure – WRAP is a client but I’m not involved in the promotion of this campaign

Delia copped a lot of unfair flack for suggesting that it’s better to cook from scratch using a few shortcuts than not to cook at all.

I agree and here’s my favourite cheat recipe – a creamy chicken in white wine casserole. I’ve been making it since student days so can’t remember where the idea came from but it’s a good after work idea as it’s another one that take a few minutes to pull together then sits in the oven while you go and do something more exciting for an hour.

The cheat is a tin of Campbell‘s condensed soup – either cream of chicken or mushroom. As long as there’s one of those in the cupboard, you can knock this together very quickly. It’s a one-pan wonder as long as you have a dish that can go from stove to oven.

First brown off some chicken portions. I always buy thighs as there’s more flavour than breast or fillet meat. They’re also cheaper so you can go for free range.

Remove the chicken to a plate and most of the fat from the dish then fry some bacon along with an onion, garlic and mushrooms (or leeks). Once softened, put the chicken back in the pan and pour in a good glass of white wine (or about half a glass of dry vermouth). Wine freezes well if you want to keep leftovers for such an occassion.

Let the alcohol burn off the wine for a few minutes before adding the tin of soup and about half a pint of chicken stock. At this point it looks like a disaster – the soup needs to warm into the wine and stock and will seem particularly gloopy and unappetizing until it does but don’t panic.

Add a bay leaf and some chopped tarragon if you have it (neither are essential – I can’t remember ever owning tarragon as a student), cover and give it 45 minutes in the oven at 150C. Check to see that the chicken is cooked through (juices will be clear) and that the sauce has thickened. If not, give it another 15 mins.

It’s good with mash and veg or with a big pile of tagliatelle.

Roast tomato soup

This is a favourite and a really good way to use up tomatoes or peppers that might be getting a bit too old for salads.

Cut tomatoes in half and roughly chop the peppers – I usually use red and/or yellow, but have used green in the pic below which worked just as well. Pile in an a peeled onion in chunks and a few cloves of garlic. Add salt, pepper, a bay leaf if you’ve got one and a good slug of olive oil.

Pop it in the oven at about 100 – 120 C for about an hour – they just need to roast slowly so that they soften and all the juices mingle together.

Just out of the oven - roast tomatoes and peppers with onion and garlic

Pour out the dish into a large pan and add about half a pint to a pint of stock (depending on how thick you like your soup). Now’s a good time to add some herbs – fresh basil if you’ve got some or any of the Mediterranean herbs. As I’m writing this, I’ve just thought that it may be good to have roasted a few cubes of chorizo in with the veg.

Anyway, heat the pan and give the tomatoes a squeeze with the back of the spoon as you stir. Liquidise the whole lot now and pass it through a sieve into a clean pan – easy to do, just pour out in batches through a seive, using the back of a spoon to push the mix through. If you don’t have a liquidiser, take a potato masher to the pan to break things up before passing through the sieve. If you leave out the adding the stock stage, it’s makes a lovely tomato sauce.

Smoosh the mix through the sieve with the back of a spoon

Taste the soup for seasoning to see if you want to add any more salt and pepper, or perhaps a dash of Tabasco. It’s ready to eat now but if you want to make it thicker, let it simmer gently to reduce. If it’s too thick, add a little more stock.

This serves two as a lunch with a bit of parmesan grated over the top – probably serves four as a starter and it also freezes well.