Don't Throw That Away - Zero Waste Recipes for Every Kitchen Scrap

The leek tops you trimmed off and left on the bench. The sad mushroom stalks rattling around in the bag. The end of the bread nobody wanted. The jar of yoghurt with two tablespoons left in the bottom. The carrot peelings. The aquafaba from the tin of chickpeas you just drained down the sink.

Yeah. That stuff. The stuff that goes in the bin without a second thought.

After 20 years as a professional chef, I can tell you with absolute certainty: most of what ends up in your kitchen bin is not rubbish. It is a condiment that will make everything you cook for the next three weeks taste better. It is a drink, a dressing, a dessert. It just needs someone to show you what to do with it, and that is exactly what this page is for.

Below you'll find every zero waste and leftover recipe on this site, organised by what you've got. Find your scrap, click the recipe, stop throwing money in the bin.

Watch me turn a pile of scraps into a full feast here!

Stale Bread and Leftover Carbs

Stale bread is one of the most wasted things in the average kitchen. But dry bread is actually BETTER for most of these recipes than fresh. The end of a loaf, the bun nobody finished, the slices that got forgotten, all of it is useful.

Whipped Feta and Confit Tomato Crostini - Leftover Bread Recipe - Stale bread sliced, toasted, and turned into an elegant canapé with whipped feta and slow-roasted tomatoes. Nobody needs to know it started as the end of a loaf.

Potato Bread from Leftover Mash - Leftover mashed potato makes the most incredible golden flatbreads, crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, and ready in 20 minutes. One of the most popular recipes on this site for very good reason.

Leftover Porridge Bread - Seeded Wholemeal Loaf - That leftover porridge sitting in the pot? It goes straight into this seeded loaf. Moist, hearty, and genuinely delicious.

Leftover Rice Pudding - Quick and Easy Comfort Dessert - Got leftover cooked rice? Ten minutes and a splash of milk turns it into a creamy, comforting pudding.

Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad with Crispy Rice - Day-old cooked rice crisped up in a pan and scattered over a punchy Caesar salad. Once you know this trick you will never waste leftover rice again.

Vegetable Scraps and Peelings

Carrot peelings, onion skins, leek tops, mushroom stalks, parsnip ends, celery leaves, all of this is flavour waiting to happen. The rule in a professional kitchen is: if it smells good raw, it has something to give.

Veg Scraps XO Sauce - The Ultimate Zero Waste Condiment - This is the one. Leek tops, mushroom stalks, carrot peelings, onion ends, all blitzed and slow-cooked into a deeply savoury, spicy, umami-packed condiment inspired by Cantonese XO sauce. You will put it on everything. Genuinely one of the best things I have ever made from scraps.

Homemade Chicken Stock Cubes (From Food Waste!) - Leftover bones plus veg scraps equals the most flavour-packed stock you have ever tasted. Reduce it right down, freeze in trays, and you have instant flavour bombs whenever you need them.

Peas with Caramelised Onions and Lemon Garlic Breadcrumbs - A recipe that uses up stale bread as breadcrumbs AND makes the most of a simple freezer staple. Two waste wins in one dish.

Leftover Dairy - Yoghurt, Cream and Cheese

A bit of yoghurt left in the tub. Some cream that needs using. An odd bit of blue cheese or feta in the back of the fridge. These are not problems. These are ingredients.

3 Ways to Use Up Leftover Yoghurt - Complete Meal Recipe - One post that turns a tub of leftover yoghurt into a full meal, flatbreads, marinated chicken, and a dressing. Everything from one ingredient.

2-Ingredient Yoghurt Flatbreads - Easy Homemade Recipe - Yoghurt plus flour. That is it. Soft, pillowy flatbreads in under 15 minutes.

Easy Yoghurt Dressing - 5-Minute Versatile Sauce Recipe - A couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt becomes a creamy, herby dressing that goes with absolutely everything.

Yoghurt Marinated Chicken Thighs - Tender BBQ Recipe - The acid in yoghurt is what makes chicken thighs impossibly tender on the barbecue. Even just a few tablespoons left in the tub is enough to make a marinade.

Blue Cheese Biscuits - Perfect for Cheese Boards and Using Leftovers - That leftover bit of blue cheese nobody finished? It goes into these incredibly savoury, crumbly biscuits that will disappear in minutes.

Overripe and Leftover Fruit

Fruit that is past its best for eating is often at its best for cooking. Softer, sweeter, more intensely flavoured. Don't bin it.

How to Make Homemade Fruit Vinegar - Apple, Quince and More - Old apples, quinces, or any fruit that's getting too soft - ferment them into a gorgeous homemade vinegar that you can use in dressings, marinades, and drinks. This is pure kitchen alchemy.

Feijoa Fizz - Naturally Fizzy Feijoa Skin Drink - The SKINS. Most people peel feijoas and throw the skins straight in the bin. Those skins make the most incredible naturally fizzy drink. This one always surprises people.

Fruit Shrub Recipe - 3 Delicious Drinking Vinegar Ideas - A shrub is a drinking vinegar made from fruit, sugar, and vinegar - and it is the best thing you can do with fruit that is on its way out. Brilliant as a mocktail base or a mixer.

Candied Orange Peel with Chocolate - Zero Waste Sweet Treat - The peel from your oranges, the bit you would normally throw away - slow-cooked in sugar syrup and dipped in dark chocolate. A proper zero waste sweet treat that looks completely restaurant-level.

Leftover Pastry and Wraps

Never throw away pastry scraps. Never.

Ferrero Rocher Puff Pastry Snowballs - Leftover Pastry Recipe - Puff pastry offcuts wrapped around a chocolate hazelnut centre, baked until golden and dusted with icing sugar. The kind of thing people think you spent hours making.

Miso Pea Purée in Crispy Tortilla Cups - Leftover Wraps Recipe - Old tortillas or wraps, cut into circles and baked into little cups, then filled with a silky miso pea purée. Brilliant for using up wraps that are going stiff.

Tins and Liquids You'd Normally Tip Away

The liquid from a tin of chickpeas. The last bit of coconut milk. Used coffee grounds. These are not waste - they are ingredients with a second job to do.

Chocolate Mousse Made from Chickpea Water (Aquafaba) - Aquafaba - the liquid from a tin of chickpeas - whips up into stiff peaks exactly like egg whites. The result is a silky, rich chocolate mousse that is completely vegan. This one blows people's minds every single time.

Coffee Ground Chocolate Brownies - Used espresso grounds give these fudgy brownies a deep, subtle bitterness that makes them genuinely next-level. Don't rinse them down the sink.

Coconut Creme Brûlée - That half tin of coconut milk sitting in the fridge? It makes the most silky, caramel-topped crème brûlée. Classic technique, zero waste execution.

Sourdough Discard

If you keep a sourdough starter, you already know the guilt of tipping discard down the drain. Stop. Here is what to make with it instead.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti with Sourdough Discard - Crispy, crunchy, deeply chocolatey biscotti that use your discard as the base. They keep for weeks and make brilliant gifts.

Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Roll Muffins - All the flavour of a cinnamon roll, none of the effort. Discard goes straight in the batter.

Sourdough Discard Apple Fritters - Golden, crispy, cinnamon-sugared fritters with a sourdough tang. One of the best things a discard can become.

Christmas and Seasonal Leftovers

Because the amount of good food that goes in the bin after Christmas is genuinely upsetting.

6 Easy New Year's Canapés Using Christmas Leftovers - Turn your Christmas leftovers into a proper New Year's spread. This one does all the thinking for you.

Salmon Rillettes on Seed Crackers - Easy 5-Minute Canapé - Leftover smoked or cooked salmon blended into a silky rillette. Five minutes, looks like you tried very hard.

The Big Picture

I hope it's this: the stuff you think is rubbish is usually the stuff with the most flavour. Bones, skins, stalks, scraps, the end of the loaf, the dregs of the tin. You don't need to be a chef to cook like this. You just need to pause before you throw something away and ask: what could this be instead?

Enjoy!

Del x

Every scrap in your kitchen has a second life.