Foraging the Leftovers!
Bruised apples, broken biscuits and pressed mozzarella. Doesn’t sound very appetising, does it? We didn’t think so too. That’s until we decided to get stuck in to these weird looking items and worked out a creative way of being economical.
The latest figures show that every year, 7.3 million tonnes of food are thrown away in the UK, and approximately a third of the food suitable for human consumption is thrown away. This is a huge portion of food that could have been put to good use! Luckily, Naeema, Zainab and the rest of the team can show you how to create delicious meals that you can recreate at home, using left-over ingredients!
We teamed up with Morrisons to create a full 5 course meal with a twist: it’s all made from imperfect items that were left on the shelves at the end of the working day! Just like the renowned high street restaurant, Tiny Leaf, we set out to create dishes made mainly from ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away. Normally, these items are given to a food bank, which use it to cook food for the homeless. So, not only are Morrisons helping to reduce the amount of food waste they create, they also help the homeless in the process!
We went to pick up all the items, and there were three gigantic boxes of food, ranging from tins of soup to a LOT of cabbage. Wherever the food moves onto, Morrisons makes sure that no baguette (however broken it may be) is left behind! We (or rather, the school kitchen staff, who were kind enough to lend a skilful hand) then set out to make our meal, and then feed it to the toughest critics in the industry…our teachers, who quite reluctantly gave in to our hours of begging.
After two restless hours outside the kitchen, the teachers were finally ready to try the food, unknowing of the fact that it had been made using imperfect food. A few suspicious looks later, and after a lot of sniffing for poison, they finally gave in and took a nibble. The teachers were in for a shock though! They devoured away, and emphasised that they would consider making the same food for their families! They were also surprised to find that the pizza had been made with a crumbly baguette and tomato soup. Since we could make four trays of food out of the ingredients, we decided to tuck in ourselves. The food was gone before we knew it!
So, next time you walk past the reduced item section, take a peek inside. You may be surprised by what you find!