Cook This: 3 recipes to transform your leftovers from Second Helpings, including potato pancakes with smoked fish

Our cookbook of the week is Second Helpings by Sue Quinn.

Jump to the recipes: salted cocoa, tahini and buckwheat crunch, curried potato pancakes with smoked fish and mango chutney crème fraîche, and Indian-spiced veg bowl with crispy chickpeas and chutney dressing.

There are plenty of practical reasons to learn how to make the most of your leftovers and other foods that often go to waste, but there are also hedonistic ones. In Sue Quinn‘s fifteenth cookbook, Second Helpings (Quadrille, 2024), the Dorset, England-based food writer, journalist and author set out to prove that leftovers can be exciting and enticing. “I thought it would make a good and timely book. To share some of the strategies to use up ingredients and also to celebrate leftover food a bit more. I don’t think it gets the love it deserves.”

Quinn opens Second Helpings with eight adaptable master recipes, including stews and pies, vegetables and risotto, which she follows with more structured recipes organized by how substantial they are (small plates, light meals, main meals, sweet things, bits and bobs). She features uses for leftovers such as odds and ends of cooked and uncooked vegetables but also often-thrown out ingredients such as lettuce and salad leaves, and items you may have never given a second thought, such as the brine in a jar of pickles and coffee grounds.

The book is built on the principle that “nothing should be wasted, not even the very last bits in jars, bottles and cans.” One of the tips in the concluding section featuring end-of-container ideas is to add olive oil, dried mixed herbs, grated garlic, salt and pepper to a jar of marmalade with two or three spoonfuls left and use it as a marinade for chicken thighs.

Quinn had made it a few days before our conversation — it had been a while since she’d used the method, and she surprised herself. “It was delicious. So, there are really good dishes at the bottom of that almost empty jar,” says Quinn, laughing.

As Quinn shows in the book, you don’t necessarily need much of something to make use of it. For example, her recipe for curried potato pancakes with smoked fish and mango chutney crème fraîche — a favourite in her household — only calls for about a cup of leftover mashed potato. It’s such a scant amount you might even wonder if it’s worth keeping, but tiny portions add up.

“You can even frame a whole meal around it. If you’ve got just a few spoonfuls of that mashed potato left, it won’t make your entire meal for a family of four but can help you decide what to cook, which I find useful.” Even though Quinn loves cooking every day, she, too, occasionally stands at the fridge wondering what to make. Those small amounts of leftovers can be a springboard, guiding meal planning. “If I see a few spoonfuls of mashed potato or even a quarter of a pot of crème fraîche or sour cream or what have you, you can think, ‘OK, well, let me see what I can build around that.’”

Even if you buy new ingredients with the end goal of using up half a container of sour cream that’s nearing the end of its life, it’s a win, highlights Quinn. Hopefully, you’ll have learned a host of new ways to use them, too. “It’s not a ground-zero approach that we have to take.”

Quinn acknowledges that leftovers have a branding problem. To her mind, the French have a more enticing-sounding expression — les restes. The name leftovers “resonates with compromise or second best.” In reality, many foods taste better the day after you’ve cooked them when the flavours have had a chance to mingle and meld.

One of the things Quinn set out to show in Second Helpings is that you can turn leftovers into something equally, if not more, delicious. It also saves time because you’ve already done half the cooking, but you have the chance to turn it into something else with a few additions: “Spices and herbs are your friends.”

Rising food prices, threats to food security, and food waste‘s impact on the environment provided the backdrop, but Quinn’s domestic situation compelled her to write Second Helpings. Her husband is a “very, very good cook,” but before she wrote the book, he would decide what to make for dinner and go out and buy the ingredients without considering what they already had that needed to be used up.

“I found that quite frustrating, I’ve got to be honest. So, I suddenly realized that not everybody cooks with leftovers the way I instinctively do. And that’s because my mother was like a food waste warrior. She never threw anything out. There were single stalks of cooked broccoli left on the fridge shelf when you’d open it, half a cup of cold porridge or a scraping in a carton of cream,” says Quinn. “I guess I absorbed some of her resourcefulness when it came to using up food — and I actually think it’s a really fun way to cook.”

Leftovers: egg white, odds and ends of stale nuts and seeds

Makes: about 350 g (12 oz) Preparation: 5 minutes Cooking: 1 hour

3 tbsp buckwheat (or mixed seeds) 100 g (about 3/4 cup) rolled oats 60 g (2 1/4 oz) mixed seeds 60 g (2 1/4 oz) mixed nuts, roughly chopped (not too small) 40 g (3 1/4 tbsp) soft light brown sugar 15 g (2 tbsp) cocoa powder A good pinch of fine sea salt 80 g (1/4 cup) honey 2 tsp tahini 2 tsp olive oil 1 egg white A handful of dried fruit, chopped if large (optional)

Preheat the oven to 150C (130C fan/300F/gas mark 2) and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well with a fork to distribute everything evenly.

Mix together the honey, tahini, oil and egg white. Pour into the nut mixture and stir to coat all the dry ingredients.

Spread the mixture out as thinly and evenly as possible on the prepared baking sheet — use the back of a dessert spoon.

Bake for 30 minutes then remove from the oven and stir the mixture well, turning it over so the mixture at the bottom is at the top. Bake for a further 30 minutes, turning again after 15 minutes.

Leave to cool on the baking sheet — it will crisp up nicely — then stir through the dried fruit. Store in an airtight container.

Leftovers: mashed potatoes

Serves: 2 generously Preparation: 40 minutes

For the mango chutney crème fraîche: 100 g (scant 1/2 cup) full-fat crème fraîche or sour cream 2 tsp mango chutney 2 tbsp chopped cilantro, plus extra leaves to serve A squeeze of lemon juice Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 140 g (5 oz) smoked mackerel fillets

For the pancakes: 200 g (about 1 cup) mashed potato Up to 75 mL (5 tbsp) whole milk 40 g (generous 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp medium curry powder 1/4 tsp fine sea salt 1 large egg 1 tbsp vegetable oil, or more if needed Cilantro leaves, to serve Lemon juice, to serve

Stir all the ingredients for the mango chutney crème fraiche except the mackerel together in a medium bowl. Flake in the mackerel, mix gently and set aside.

Put the mashed potato into a mixing bowl. Stir in enough milk to loosen to a creamy consistency. Add the flour, baking powder, curry powder and salt and stir well. Beat in the egg and then more milk as needed to make a smooth, thick batter.

Heat a large heavy frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat. Add large spoonfuls of batter to the pan to make four 9-10-cm (about 4-in) pancakes.

Cook for 2 minutes, or until golden underneath. Flip and cook for 1 minute more or until cooked through, then remove from the heat.

Serve the pancakes topped with the mango chutney crème fraîche, cilantro leaves and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Try: Reheating cold mashed potato with leftover gravy and/or dripping from the roasting tray for a gorgeous side.

Leftovers: odds and ends of cooked and uncooked vegetables

Serves: 2 generously Preparation: 15 minutes Cooking: 6 1/2 minutes

1 x 400g (14 oz) can chickpeas 2 eggs 3 tbsp vegetable oil 2 tsp curry powder or garam masala A handful of cooked and/or finely sliced raw veg: roast cauliflower, sweet potatoes, raw mushrooms, cucumber, celery or pepper A handful of sliced green leaves: baby spinach, lettuce or fresh herbs 4 radishes, finely sliced 1 tbsp chopped raisins or golden raisins, optional Cilantro leaves 2 lime wedges, to serve

For the green chutney dressing: 15 g ( 1/2 oz) mint leaves 60 g (2 1/4 oz) cilantro 1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened desiccated (dried, shredded) coconut 1/2 tsp ground cumin 2 tbsp lemon juice, plus extra if needed 1 plump garlic clove 1 small green chilli 1 heaped tsp chopped ginger 1 tbsp vegetable oil Fine sea salt

Drain the chickpeas, reserving the liquid (see the book for how to use it in a chocolate mousse). Rinse with cold water, then drain again. Rub dry with a clean tea towel, then spread out on paper towel.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and lower in the eggs. Boil for 6 1/2 minutes, drain and run under cold water. Peel and set aside.

Meanwhile, put all the chutney dressing ingredients in a blender and blitz, adding enough cold water for a smooth sauce the consistency of coffee cream (or table cream). Taste and add more lemon juice or salt if needed. Set aside.

Warm the vegetable oil in a large frying pan and add the chickpeas. Sprinkle over the curry powder and turn to coat in the oil. Fry over a medium-high heat, shaking the pan frequently, until the chickpeas begin to darken and crisp up a little. Take the pan off the heat and toss the chickpeas with one-third of the dressing.

Distribute the chickpeas, vegetables, leaves and radishes between two bowls and drizzle over more dressing. Top with the eggs (halved), radishes, raisins (if using) and cilantro. Serve with the lime wedges.

Variations: There are infinite ways to incorporate leftovers into this bowl. Check if you have any unfinished packets of nuts, seeds, grains or dried fruit. Frozen peas are a great addition: place a couple of spoonfuls in a mug, cover with freshly boiled water, and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Chopped fresh fruit would be good too.

Try: Sprinkling sliced mushrooms, if you’re using them in this salad, with lemon juice and salt for bags of extra flavour. Leave to marinate while you prepare the rest of the salad and then add with the vegetables.

Recipes and images excerpted with permission from Second Helpings by Sue Quinn published by ‎Quadrille, February 2024.

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