For the week of saving food waste.

I saw in the Waitrose magazine that this is the Food saving week. Some recipes to make from the leftovers inspired me to share the chicken soup recipe I learned from a poor Englishman.

He would make chicken Sunday roast for his family and would keep the bones. Afterwards he would use them together with the chicken carcass to make chicken soup. The leftover roast potatoes would be used for thickening of the soup, but if not enough, he would add some finely chopped potatoes, which would need a bit longer time to cook.

In my Bulgarian tradition, the chicken soup is thickened by adding some vermicelli, which take a few minutes to cook. At the same time, I would also add some finely chopped carrots and almost at the end come the salt and the herbs to taste.

This fast and economical to cook soup is good for health as we need to eat meals where the bones had been boiled.

The same could be applied to the leftovers from any roast meat.

Some people would buy the (almost) ready roasted meats from the shops, which would save them both time and electricity. I have not made precise calculations of the economised energy, if any. For me, roasting my meat from scratch would add the value of warming my kitchen, while allowing me to make it to my own taste.  

When talking about making a good use of leftovers, I would do this with the rice. I would usually cook enough rice for three meals. On the first day I eat it hot, then I leave it to cool and store it in the fridge. Next time I serve this rice, it could be used cold from the fridge, but I would not recommend eating cold food in the winter. You heat it slowly until bringing it to boils and leave it at this stage for a few minutes. If chicken or other cold cooked meat is available, it should also be re-boiled.

Also, I could first make some stir-fry from the vegetables already not good for a fresh salad, then I would add the hot water and the rice to them to simmer for a few minutes.

The above example is about a single person. If cooking for more people, you may end up only with a little bit of extra rice, which you can keep and you can later use it as a thickener for soup, or in a “salad”.

When I firstly arrived in this country, I was surprised to see in Waitrose “salad bars”, which were offering a mix of freshly chopped vegetables and boiled rice or other legumes. In my country we used to call “salad” only the mix of freshly chopped vegetables. But once I tried the “salads” Waitrose was promoting in the late 90-s, I loved them, and I would have them as one of my meals (for £1). The mix would also contain some beans, making it more nourishing.

In this country I would take beans out of a tin as they would take long to cook, which I could never justify for a single person. But if you are raising a family, the home-made bean soup or stew can be a very good source of protein, without the acidity the meat produces in our body. Soak the dry beans overnight, then throw away the water, then put them to boil for a while, change the water again, then leave the beans to simmer until they are fully cooked. Some people would use a pressure cooker after the first boiling, which would save energy. To this soup I would add some finely chopped carrots, then almost at the end – herbs and salt. Oil I always add raw to my cooking when serving. The first serving will be soup, then thicker leftovers will be stored in the fridge. They can be used next time as a side or a starter (with finely chopped onions) or as a salad ingredient.

Brown lentils can be cooked in the same manner, only they take shorter time and garlic is added, according to my traditional Bulgarian cooking. Lentils are the best addition to rice, when we want to get the full range of proteins. It is worth making large amount, but they will not keep in the fridge for as long as the beans.

Remember, all foods containing protein should always be served either cold or re-heated to boiling.

Boiled beans and lentils are much better sides than the popular chips, and great to eat as soups or stews. But when you are new to them, you take them in small portions, best mix them with some rice.

In my traditional Bulgarian cuisine, beans or lentils could also be cooked together with some meat. I  suppose, this was done for increasing the protein intake, while being economical with the use of meat, quite scarce in the past. In my family, we used to add the then cheapest white cheese. It is called Feta and it is quite expensive in this country. I still find this Greek Feta cheese in some Sainsbury’s for the price below £1, maybe because it is actually made in Bulgaria.

This simple cooking, together with the naturally brown wholegrain bread was the ”poor people’s diet” on which I was raised up. I named it this way when I arrived in this country and I saw the abundance of foods, nicely packed and ready to eat or cook, which was considered luxury then in my native Bulgaria. Little did I know then how much damage the largely available cheap processed food would do to my health. I learned it “the hard way”, then I enrolled to my first course on Diet and Nutrition, where I learned that my “poor people’s diet” is actually very good for the humans.

Now, it seems to me that the modern world made a circle, and it is now steadily heading back towards the vital basics from the past and my “poor people’s diet” could be our saviour. Of course, we also need to separate ourselves from the negative traditional practices, such as “improving” the already simply boiled pulses by adding deeply fried onions, garlic, etc, or fatty meat, which can be very damaging in a long run. And, with the skyhigh prices of the good bread nowadays, we need to figure out how to deal with this fact. People who are not gluten intolerant need to eat some good bread. In the late 90-s baking your own bread was in fashion among the middle and upper classes. Now when we have energy crisis to deal with, I am thinking that home baking a simple flat soda bread in the oven, could be more economical than the use of the whole night special bread-maker. It will also give the benefit of heating the kitchen. Or, buying the wholemeal pita bread or wraps from the shops could be an option to be considered.

A sandwich made at home using good bread could be nourishing enough for the school pupil and for the office professional.

The deep-fried chicken pieces with chips, for which I see many youngsters flocking in the shops daily, are not good neither for their health, not for their parents’ wallets. Roast chicken pieces are sold in Sainsbury’s, coming much less expensive than in KFC for example, only without the bun and the kid’s favourite chips. I sometimes go for it and with the good bread I can also buy in Sainsbury’s, it comes to about £3, and I would have leftover bread. Not too bad nowadays for a very satisfying, meal, which keeps me run long enough.

Being knowledgeable about diet and nutrition and an experienced shopper I would always prefer the aforementioned meal to the KFC or other similar outlets because they do the very damaging deep frying, whereas Sainsbury does real roasting. Also, I am in charge of all my food shopping and I know that in a long run, avoiding the deep fried “tasty” chicken and fries it is much better for my health while at the same time less expensive in money. The youngsters are not experienced in home economics and in diet. It is their parents’ duty to figure out what is best for their family and how to get it. I understand my duty as sharing my experiences of surviving on a very low budget. Still, the home cooking for good health and for economical use of resources is important! Which has nothing to do with the TV competitions and the gourmet cooking famous chefs…

One of the Rolling Stones have survived years of drug and alcohol abuse thanks to his wife’s wholesome cooking for him while they were on tour. She definitely was not on a budget, but her cooking was counteracting the big drug and alcohol assault he was giving himself, making her task much harder.

Again, Waitrose or Sainsbury’s do not pay me for promoting them, I just mention them as examples.

I have criticism to both of the shops for the disappearance of the foods that were more natural and not too expensive from their shelves. For example: I don’t want a tin of fish with some olive oil in it, because it has been heated there, no good in it for me, so why would I pay for it even more expensive than for the fish in water.

As if it is not bad enough it has been cooked in the tin. Some people would buy tinned sardines only for their cat, while was eating them regularly in the 90-s when I arrived in this country. They were my favourite from Bulgaria, and I still appreciate them as they are full of nutrients: meat for proteins, edible softened bones for Calcium. The oil is processed, so not much benefit, but as it is very little there, you can add a few drops of cold olive oil. The tinned sardines we used in Bulgaria as an appetiser, with some finely chopped raw onions in it. After my arrival in this country, a tin of sardines on one or two slices of toast with some chopped onions on top would be a meal for me at the end of the day. I would get some natural antibiotic from the onions and the smell would not bother other people.

I later “upgraded” to tinned mackerel as it had been my favourite fish to roast in Bulgaria. Later I “upgraded” to smoked mackerel, but at one point I could not justify its raised price, for it being smoked food. Although quite tasty, the smoked products are to be eaten only in moderation, if not avoided altogether.

I mentioned the above examples, as they could make the occasional comparatively low-cost meal. My best luxurious recipe worth cooking for more people is for roasting a large portion of salmon in the oven. I would add very little water, maybe some carrots, some potatoes, my favourite red onions and ginger, salt, and I would cover the pan for keeping the moist. At the end you can remove the cover if you want crispy roast. It can be eaten hot and cold, all the juices of the cooking getting used.

The largest packs of salmon Sainsbury’s sell are of 600 g for £11 to feed six. Tesco sells the 500 gr piece for a bit over £11. Only the skin needs to be removed. Even without knowing the exact cost of the oven electricity for about 40 min, I would say it is a good deal for a family as with the potatoes, some steamed broccoli and a few drops of lemon, it can come to £4.50 a meal, which I call luxurious. You buy a cold wrap in town at higher than this price. In comparison to the fried chicken and chips, containing much less nutrients and costing £5 per head, this is a winner! And, if it is a family of four, there will be leftovers for Mum and Dad to be taken to work later.