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    Tuesday, September 23, 2014

    Recycling Food - Leftovers Turned Into More Leftovers - 3 meals - 3 days

    Lunch today, Risotto Cakes,  Fabulous.

    In the weekend, I whipped up some soup from the vegetable bin, in the fridge,
    Celery, Butternut, onion, some leftover chicken stock, Very Simple
    Plenty for 4 people
    We didn’t eat it all, we were off to a party and thought we should have a small bowl, to line our stomachs. The remainder went into the fridge.
    So last night, I thought I would be a little more creative, than just a bowl of soup and toast for dinner.

    Let’s make risotto.
    I also had some leftover marinated feta, that I had bought from Farro Fresh in the weekend.
    Also for  a little extra zing, a dash of Sriracha Sauce

    It was really tasty and very easy.
    1 onion finely chopped
    Sea salt and Freshly ground black pepper
    2 tablespoons Olive oil
    2 cups Arborio Rice
    Slosh White wine
    4-5 cups of leftover soup. You may need to thin it down so that it is the consistency of stock

    2 tablespoons Marinated Feta in Olive Oil
    Dash of Sriracha Sauce (optional)

    Gently saute the onion in olive oil till translucent
    Season with S & P
    Add Rice and stir well

    Cook about 2-3 minutes to toast it a little
    Add wine, cook till absorbed
    Meanwhile, have the soup gently simmering on the stove

    Start adding the soup, gradually,
    A ladelful at a time
    stirring well till liquid absorbed
    Continue cooking, till rice is just cooked and the risotto is creamy, almost soupy in fact
    Add marinated Feta and extra olive oil
    and dash of Sriracha Sauce if you are using it.

    Serve in bowls, best way to eat, this kind of food I think.
    Of course I made too much

    Solution. Risotto Cakes

    Take your leftover Risotto
    There was about 2 cups left
    2 rashers bacon chopped finely and sauteed till crisp
    1 tablespoon chopped parsley
    Add an egg to bind

    1 cup Breadcrumbs (I used Panko Crumbs)
    4 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan Cheese

    Mix the breadcrumbs and Parmesan together on a plate

    In a large bowl, add risotto, sauteed bacon and parsley

    Add beaten egg
    Mix well this mixture was quite wet
    So I added 2 tablespoons of the breadcrumbs mix just to dry it out a bit

    Roll into cakes and pat them flat
    Coat with the remainder of breadcrumbs

    Pop into the fridge for an hour or so just to solidify

    Fry till crispy and golden in some vegetable oil
    Voila Lunch

    I served them with some Pear Chutney, supplied from our friends Derrick and Lorraine Woods
    Actually you don't need much chutney, they are very tasty on their own
    On Sunday, the family came over, so I made Italian Meatball Soup
    Click here for the recipe
    There were 9 of us
    I had preceded the soup, with a very tasty Aubergine Salad 
    Read the recipe in this post
    Threw some beautiful baguettes on the table
    Great lunch

    I didn't add pasta to the soup, before serving, as I wanted to keep it gluten free
    At lunch, I cooked the pasta and only added it to those who didn't care
    So there was at least 3 cups of soup left
    So on Monday, I cooked up 2 cups of penne

    Mixed together with the Meatball soup
    Placed it into a Gratin dish
    Meanwhile, I made a Bechamel sauce which I flavoured with the Marinated Feta

    Smothered the penne mix and baked for about 30 minutes at 180C
    There was enough for 4 people.
    So half of it went into the freezer for another day
    As my friend Mary said
    Great budgeting, absolutely no waste

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