Ten easy ways you can cut down on your food waste at home this Christmas
Chef Holly Dalton at FoodCloud's headquarters in Tallaght. Picture: Moya Nolan
How can we avoid food waste at Christmas? It's simple: don’t buy so much. That’s the advice from chef and Conbini Condiments director Holly Dalton.Â
Dalton was one of the chefs to recently appear in FoodCloud’s All Taste Zero Waste video series, which focuses on food waste. A non-profit social enterprise, FoodCloud links businesses that have surplus food with charities and community groups that need it. Already aware of its work, Dalton “jumped at the chance to take part” in its new campaign.
According to FoodCloud, Irish households throw away the equivalent of between €700 and €1,000 of food annually. With people buying too much at this time of year, in particular, this peaks over the Christmas season.
 “Everything starts in the supermarket,” says Dalton. “People tend to buy a ridiculous amount of food. The supermarkets are only closed for one day, so don’t do a massive shop, just buy what you will actually use.”
Dalton says the strategies she uses as a chef can also be applied to a home kitchen. “At work, I never order everything without it having a specific purpose. Try to avoid impulse buying and make a list. Plan ahead and figure out what you will be cooking over the next few days. How many people will be at your house? It’s all too easy to throw a side of salmon into the basket - but who will eat it?”Â
This year, like Christmas 2020, many people are cutting down on contacts, so there aren’t quite so many random visitors we need to cater for. Planning meals not only cuts down on food waste but also enables you to ensure that plenty of healthy eating options are included over the seasonal period. “At least things like fancy crisps and chocolate will last,” says Dalton. “But don't buy loads of veg. Who needs four nets of brussels sprouts? You don’t need eight blocks of butter or eight cartons of cream either.”
Dalton is cooking for six on Christmas Day and has made lists of what needs to be purchased and where. “I’m not going to be doing a super traditional dinner, but will instead be taking a grazing approach with lots of canapĂ©s and things like dumplings. We won’t have a turkey but I will be doing the ham. It’s very casual.”Â
While Dalton might have her Christmas meals meticulously planned, she knows that people sometimes lack inspiration when they open the fridge and find it packed with the remnants of Christmas dinner.
“It’s the best time of year for leftovers,” Dalton enthuses. “There’s so much you can do with turkey. Turkey and leek pie is delicious, or add the meat to fried rice or chow mein. There’s a really nice cold chicken salad with peanuts and rice noodles - just use turkey in that, and serve it with cold bean sprouts in chilli oil. It’s so good, and a little bit different.Â
"Sometimes, you need to get away from Christmas flavours with leftovers. There are so many things that you can do with turkey - think of it as chicken, but with more flavour.”
Reworking the Christmas dinner can also work at breakfast time: “Chop up sprouts and leftover potatoes to make a hash for breakfast or use mash in potato cakes. This is the one time of year when there’s mash in the fridge, the whole family is at home and there’s time for a cooked breakfast.”Â
Often all it takes is a little planning to work out to avoid food waste. “Always remember,” says Dalton, “there’s a use for everything.”
Find tips and ideas in FoodCloud’s All Taste Zero Waste online video series, available at https://food.cloud/
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How many people will you be cooking for? How long will they be staying with you? Get a notebook, write out a meal plan - with plenty of nutritious options - and set yourself up for greatness.
check what you have in your store cupboard before you go buying excess chutney or flour or pasta - with all the stockpiling that happened over the last 18 months, chances are that you have plenty already.
do not go to the supermarket without one. It’s all too easy to lose the run of yourself and fill the trolley with three-for-two crisp offers and cut-price veg.
If someone asks you what they can bring, take advantage of their offer by telling them exactly what you need - check that meal plan - so that they bring a ham or the salmon or bread from a particular bakery rather than something that won’t get used.
With perishables like vegetables and fruit arriving into the house, ensure that the most recently purchased products don’t end up on top of the older ones.
Slice up that lovely sourdough bread when you get it home, like Dalton does, and stash it in the freezer, so it’s always ready to go straight into the toaster. Too much turkey and ham? Freeze for the future when you just might feel like a turkey and ham pie in mid-January. Excess cheese? Freeze it, especially if it’s a hard cheese, and use it for cooking.
Products that are after their best-before dates - for example, foods that are canned or ambient, dried or frozen - may, according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, “be safe to eat, but their quality may have deteriorated.” The use-by date on “fresh, ready-to-eat and chilled foods such as yogurt, milk, meat, unpasteurised fruit juices etc” is the “date up until which a food may be used safely, that is, consumed, cooked or processed, once it has been stored correctly.”
Got old milk? Dalton uses it to make pancakes or waffles. She also hangs on to excess wine and beer that has been opened and cooks with it for an extra layer of flavour.
Even if you’re just putting out a cold spread of leftovers, bring your best accompaniments to the table to change up the options - along with Dalton’s Japanese-inspired condiments (On Instagram at @conbini_condiments), there are lots of wonderful Irish-made chutneys, relishes, chilli oils, hot sauces, mustards out there to play with.
When the festivities are over and you get a chance to relax, dig out that notebook with the meal plan and write down what you had too much of - and what you needed more of - so that you know what to buy for next year.
