The festive season tends to be all about excess – an abundance of love, laughter, food and family. While this is a good thing, for the most part, when it comes to leftover food there’s nothing worse than seeing it end up in the trash. Soilmates’ main priority is fighting food waste – we do this by rescuing ugly avocados bound for the bin and turning them into Healthy Oil. So this year, instead of throwing away all that’s uneaten, why not go the no-waste route: use a little Healthy Oil to give a new life to those old classics.
We asked our Soilmate and chef Hendrawanto to take a crack at reinventing Christmas leftovers – this is what he came up with:
Cheese and potato croquettes
Now come on: who doesn’t have a few cheesy leftovers from the ‘kaasplankje’? (I always think I can eat more cheese than I actually am capable of.) Combine with potatoes, and it’s game on: let’s make some crunchy croquettes!
Mash the potatoes and gently knead them into balls. Pop chunks of leftover cheese in the center. Dip the balls in whisked egg and coat with breadcrumbs – do this twice for good measure – and then deep fry them in Healthy Oil until crispy and golden. Serve with a sweet chili sauce and oh my. The crunch on these things! The smooth potato mash! The creamy cheese strands! Unbeatable.
‘Flappie’ toast
A Dutch Comedian wrote and performed this famous (now classic) Christmas song called ‘Flappie’. While I’m not saying that Youp van ‘t Hek is fully responsible for this idea, there’s always someone at Christmas dinner who doesn’t eat their portion of rabbit. In need of inspiration for what you can do with that leftover meat? A toastie, of course. (Tip: you can really use any leftover meat for this Boxing Day toasted sandwich.)
Simply fry some bread in a pan with Healthy Oil, pepper and salt. Char the leftover meat on the grill with a sprinkling of chilli flakes, pop on top of the toast, and finish the sandwich off with a tart cranberry sauce. (For when yesterday’s Christmas dinner was so good you want it all over again.)
Christmas Gado Gado
Gado Gado literally means ‘Mix Mix’ in Indonesian. It was invented as a way to use up all the leftover vegetables lying around the house. They’re brought together with a tasty peanut sauce and voilà! Happiness on a plate, with not a single veggie left behind.
If this sounds exactly like the Soilmates Christmas spirit, you’re right! Stir-fry all the vegetables from the dinner table the night before (Brussels sprouts, green asparagus, bimi vegetables, sugar snap peas – whatever you have in the fridge!) in a generous amount of Healthy Oil, then make a quick and easy peanut sauce using peanut butter, ketjap manis (a sweet Indonesian soy sauce), vinegar, sambal, sugar, salt, and water, and pour over to gloss the veg.
As a flashy finishing touch, you could always bake some grated coconut and peanuts in Healthy Oil and sprinkle on top. [Insert jingling bells here] Christmas Gado Gado!
Christmas crostini with stewed pear and ice cream
Personally I find Christmas bread a little too sweet and soggy, and always seem to have lots left over after the celebrations. It’s a shame to throw it away though, so I had a think about what to do with it. And boom! Lightbulb moment! Let’s transform it into a not-at-all soggy, slightly savoury Christmas crostini.
Cut leftover Christmas bread into little cubes and bake them in a skillet with a good drizzle of Healthy Oil and a pinch of sea salt. Wow! Hello crunchy, sweet, salty bits of joy! Add some leftover ‘Stoofpeertjes’ from the fridge and a dollop of vanilla ice cream from the freezer and it’s smiles all round.
Festive French toast
If, after the smashing success of the crostini, you still have some leftover bread, worry not, I’ve just the thing: fancy festive French toast! Slice that last piece of Christmas bread nice and thick, dip it in whisked egg and fry it in a skillet with a little Healthy Oil, adding a pinch of sea salt for flavour. Sunny side everywhere. Serve it with Dutch ‘schenkstroop’ (molasses) and/or powdered sugar. Easy like a Sunday morning!
