Dealing with Christmas leftovers, and a simple tomato soup

IMG_0500Have you eaten too much this festive season? I don’t think I have been too bad, but I have certainly eaten a lot more than normal … big breakfasts, big dinners, puddings, a few sweeties, cheese, crackers, and cake.

As there is so much food around, I have felt obliged to keep eating. And as I hate waste, I have not wanted to chuck anything away. But on 27 December I decided I couldn’t face any more leftovers and needed to both deal with them and revert back to healthier food (although my diet won’t be virtuous until the New Year).

IMG_0528Firstly, as I do every year, I chopped up the leftover goose, ham, pigs in blankets and stuffing and mixed it with the leftover gravy. I froze three portions of this festive goodness, which will make Christmas pies in 2015. I did, however, save myself a few slices of ham for one of my favourite easy dinners: boiled ham, poached eggs and homemade chips.

Then I used the leftover cream (I’d used some for the mulled pear trifle and some for the creamed leeks, but had half a tub left) to make rice pudding – a nice, easy and comforting pudding.

To use up the potatoes and leeks I made a fish pie, with smoked haddock, salmon, prawns and cod mixed with a parsley sauce and topped with leek and potato mash – you can view my recipe here. It’s nice to have something fishy after all the meat of the season.

Finally, I had a punnet of tomatoes which were starting to go soft and wrinkly, so decided to make a nutritious and healthy tomato soup. This is how I made it.

Simple tomato soup

500g cherry tomatoes, 1 red onion, 1tsp lazy garlic, 1tsp olive oil, pinch of chilli flakes, 1 chicken oxo, basil, salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, chopped onion and tomatoes. Cook on a medium heat for approximately 10 minutes until the tomatoes are breaking apart and the onion is soft.

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Then add 1 litre of water from a recently boiled kettle to the saucepan, along with the chilli flakes and crumbled oxo cube. Simmer for 15 minutes, then blend, season and serve with chopped basil.

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How do you deal with your leftovers? If you have any favourite recipes to share then please do leave them in the comments.

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3 Replies to “Dealing with Christmas leftovers, and a simple tomato soup”

  1. Excellent ideas. I especially liked the Christmas pies idea. I also can’t bear to throw leftovers out. I made a Christmas dinner soup which even had some stuffing in it ! The bolognese sauce I made yesterday had cranberry sauce in it and a slug of red wine, and today the last of the cream went in a smoked salmon pasta dish. I view it all as a challenge !

    1. Ooooh, Christmas soup sounds nice, especially as it’s so cold at the moment! It’s definitely a challenge to use up everything, but it’s worth doing – although I am chubbier than I should be because I eat things rather than throw them away! Cream for rice pudding is giving me calories I could do without. Lucky chocolate has a longer sell-by date 🙂

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