Three easy recipes to cut food waste, by Lagom Chef

We’ve all been guilty of finding a bag of wilted lettuce or wrinkly peppers at the back of the fridge, but the fact is food waste is a major issue in the UK. We waste approximately 9.5 to 10.7 million tonnes of food every year, with 60 percent of this coming from individual households – so we can all do better. Lagom Chef Martyn Odell describes himself as a “food waste disrupter”, and he is on a mission to help people reduce the impact they have on the planet and their wallet. His new book Eat The Food You Buy: 15 Everyday Ingredients, Endless Delicious, Quick and Easy Meals is packed with ideas and recipes that will have you rethinking how you approach cooking. Here are some of his favourites… Middle of the table banger (Photo: ames North) Middle-of-the-table banger Serves 2-3 1 head of broccoli Olive oil Parmesan cheese 1 tsp smoked paprika For the sauce 4 big tbsp mascarpone or double cream 1 tsp miso Aleppo chilli flakes (any chilli flakes will do) Preheat the grill. Cut the head of broccoli, stem and all, into quarters. Drizzle with oil and season with salt, then put in an ovenproof frying pan over a high heat on the hob. Put another pan on top and weigh it down to get some deep char on the broccoli. Be patient. Don’t be shy with the Parmesan – grate loads of it over the broccoli then slide the broccoli under the grill and cook to the point of burning, then dust with a little paprika. Now for the sauce. If using mascarpone, plop it in a bowl and mix in half the miso. Taste, then season with salt and add more miso little by little, tasting as you go. If using double cream, whisk to stiff peaks, then add the miso and taste it the same way. To serve, spread the sauce on a plate and pile the broccoli on top with a few chilli flakes. A British Cassoulet (Photo: James North) A British cassoulet Serves 4 Olive oil 8 slices of smoked bacon 1 onion 2 carrots 4 celery sticks 4 garlic cloves 3 x 400g tins whole plum tomatoes Few sprigs of hard herbs (thyme, rosemary, bay leaves) 2 x 400g tins haricot beans 8 sausages For the garlic breadcrumbs Splash of olive oil 100g panko breadcrumbs 1 garlic clove To garnish Fresh flat-leaf parsley Heat a glug of oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Dice the bacon, then add to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes, until crispy. Now dice the onion, carrots and celery, add to the pan and cook for three to five minutes, until nice and soft. Slice and add the garlic and gently cook for one to two minutes, until fragrant. Chuck in the tomatoes and squish them to break them up, then add any hard herbs you have and the drained, rinsed beans. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce for 20 to 30 minutes to combine all the flavours. Taste. Add a good pinch of salt and twist of black pepper and taste again. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/400°F/gas mark 7. Now heat a splash of oil in a separate frying pan on a medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs, grate in the garlic and cook until the breadcrumbs are golden. Taste, then season with a good pinch of salt and taste again. Take the pan off the heat and set aside. Fry the sausages in a little oil to get some nice colour on them. They will finish cooking all the way through in the sauce. Pop the sausages into a large baking dish and cover with the sauce, then sprinkle over the breadcrumbs. Bake the whole thing in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. Finely chop some fresh parsley and scatter over to garnish. Just be careful eating, as it will be ripping hot. Empty-the-fridge veg tray (Photo: James North) Empty-the-fridge veg tray Serves 2 e.g. (pick 3-4) 2 courgettes 2 red or white onions 2 peppers 1 small butternut squash ½ cauliflower 1 sweet potato 2 big handfuls of new potatoes Olive oil Dried spice blend ideas 1: Cumin, coriander, black pepper 2: Black pepper, rosemary, oregano 3: Chilli, cumin, oregano, paprika, garlic powder 4: Fennel seeds, paprika, basil and chilli powder For the couscous 160g couscous 1 tbsp dried spice blend Juice of 1 lemon Token dairy Feta, yogurt or cottage cheese Preheat the oven to 200°C/ 180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6. Start by chopping your veg. It’s important to consider density and size here. If you roasted diced courgette and butternut squash at the same time, what would happen? Non-existent courgette and raw butternut! So use the rangiri cut for the courgettes – you want big chunks, so aim to get four or five pieces out of one courgette. Peel the onions. Keep the root intact but tidy it up. Cut each onion in half, then cut each half into four wedges, trying to cut through the root each time so it holds its shape. I just deseed the peppers, then cut them into quarters to keep them big. Peel the squash, then cut it in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Cut it into bite-sized cubes. ‘Eat the Food You Buy’ is out now (Photo: Provided) Break the cauliflower into large florets. Dice the sweet potato and cut the new potatoes in half. If you’ve got more veg than you need, chuck a portion in the freezer for a rainy day. Chuck all the veg into a roasting tin. Drizzle with a little oil and your chosen spice blend and give it all a good mix, then roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Put the couscous in a heat-proof bowl. Mix in another teaspoon of your chosen spice blend with a good pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil, then pour over just enough boiling water to cover the couscous. Leave for 10 minutes, until the water has all been absorbed. Fluff up the couscous with a fork. Taste, then mix through some lemon juice. Taste again and adjust the seasoning as needed. Plate up the couscous with the roasted veggies and something creamy like feta, yogurt or cottage cheese. Recipes extracted from ‘Eat the Food You Buy’ Penguin Life, £25