River Cottage Love Your Leftovers: Recipes for the reso… (2024)

One of the things that's nice about pre-ordering is that your book arrives on the morning that it goes on sale in the shops. Why would you pre-order? For me, it's when you trust a writer and know that you'll want their latest book, so why not check it out early? Hugh F-W is one of the food writers that I trust. His vegetarian book is one that I use all the time and his recipes work taste-wise and are reliable in terms of timing and method.

This latest volume from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall appealed to me because although I'm much better about using up food than I used to be there's still room for improvement and I can't afford to be throwing good food away. We've all seen the shocking stats about food waste and know we can do better but sometimes the things that look less than fresh in the fridge aren't appealing. I tend to rely too heavily on throwing vegetables that are going past their best into a frittata and fruit into a smoothie, so I was looking both for inspiration and for other tips that would mean that I'm not ashamed to look in my fridge or the food compost bin - though sadly we don't have them in my borough.

In his introduction Hugh F-W says he first asked himself about each recipe in the book - not, is it speedy? or is it thrifty? but 'would I be delighted to have that for my supper, (or lunch or tea) today and if he couldn't answer that question with a resounding yes the recipe didn't make the cut. He then wisely tells us about planning for leftovers, i.e. the batch cooking that I do a lot of nowadays, and that the cooking in his book is based around two key groups of ingredients: leftovers of a single product such as a half-tub of cream and the secondly the remnants of prepared meals such as chicken and roast potatoes after a roast. 'But great leftovers cooking is really about bringing the two together, taking whatever good things you find when you open the fridge door and re-combining them in delicious, neat, waste-busting harmony.'

His has a chart of recipes from frequently occurring leftovers such as bread, potatoes, milk, cheese, cucumbers, chicken, banana, berries and salad leaves and they lead you to several recipes for each of those. He then takes us through the idea of 'launchpads for leftovers' i.e. adding those extra courgettes to our tried and tested recipes for cottage pie, for example, or to pies and tarts, or yes, those frittatas again, and also hashes and pasta and noodles, curries and crumbles and messes. He plays with the principles first, sets us figuratively in front of our fridges and offers a bit of guidance and flair.

Then the chapters break down into:
- Meat including chicken and mushroom fricasée, stew enchiladas, spicy chicken and peanut butter salad, spicy lamb and chickpeas and pea and ham soup
- Fish including freewheeling fishcakes, mackerel with puy lentils and parsley, creamy smoky fish and spinach gratin
- Roots including roast carrot pâté, vegetable peel crisps, potato cakes and carrot and ginger steamed pudding
- Greens and salads including kale crisps, chilled cucumber and almond soup and Vietnamese wilted greens salad
- Bread, pasta and pulses including bread and butter pudding, spicy bean pâté, ribolita and quick cassoulet
- Rice - including egg fried rice, leftovers laksa, rice veggie burgers and rice pudding
- Dairy - including spiced yoghurt chicken, ultimate cheese straws and rarebits
- Eggs - including aïoli, crème brûlée, hazelnut orange roulade with raspberries and chocolate macaroons
- Fruit - including granita, clafoutis, and pickled watermelon pealed oath banana drop scones
- Christmas - including turkey and mincemeat tagine, turkey rissoles, Christmas nut satay turkey
- Storecupboard - including soda ale bread, cupboard flapjacks, maslal chai,
- Other uses of leftovers e.g. use in the garden for nuts hells and lemons as cleaning agents
- Storecupboard essentials such as anchovies and butter and all the other basics you need to make these recipes

This isn't one of the cookbooks you'll be taking to bed with you to read but it will earn its keep in maximising the food you buy in on a weekly basis. It's bit heavy on puddings for my liking, so I've given it four stars but will report back when I've used it more. So far, I've only had the chance to try the recipe for lentil and leftover veg curry, which took very little time to make, and was absolutely delicious with the cashew nuts and coriander at the end....but I already feel more in control and ready to zhoosh up my staples, which is what I wanted.

Another great cookbook. This one as the title describes is based on using up leftovers instead of throwing them away. In our house this isn't really a problem - I cook for a family of 5 including two teenage boys, but I have to (and like to) cook frugally so it caught my eye on Amazon.

This book has a great ethos and has some excellent recipes. Some I wouldnt touch with a barge pole - deep fried fish carcas anyone?
Other things I don't usually have as leftovers but if the recipes are good then I will make anyway - I will just make do with similar items that I have. I also think this book is great to help with 'yellow stickered' or reduced items. Yup, I now have a recipe to use with that fish I brought for 50p reduced to clear, that's sat in the freezer for two weeks or the tomatoes that I got on offer when I forgot I already had some - you know what I mean. We are actually having the quick cassoulet for dinner tonight with things I had on hand.

Great buy will be using this a lot.

I read this describe as a pocket bible... only for one of those huge macs with voluminous pockets I think as this is a weighty tome. An enjoyable read however, not just a series of delicious sounding recipes. I liked the way the 'leftover' ingredients were highlighted in recipes. Lots of ideas for using genuine leftover type quantities rather than just 'planned leftover' quantities which are really just cook ahead ideas: a spoonful of something for example, and ingredients on the edge - cream on the turn, squashy tomatoes... and how to know when something has gone too far or may be unsafe.