Christmas leftover recipes: From leek and potato pizza to turkey risotto

At this time of indulgence, it's important not to let things go to waste hiding in the back of the fridge or throw things away, mistaking them for waste. Here top eco chefs share recipes to make the most of your festive haul

Leek and potato pizza from Tom Hunt's book The Natural Cook

This is a twist on the classic potato pizza bianca, rather comically inspired by leek and potato soup. It works really well. It’s very rich; the cream makes up for the lack of mozzarella. Makes 1 large pizza.

For the topping

1 quantity Creamed leeks
2 potatoes (about 300g), sliced 5mm thick
3 sprigs of rosemary, needles picked

For the spelt pizza dough

150g spelt flour, or strong white flour, plus more to dust
½ tsp dried yeast
1 tsp fine salt
glug of extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the toppinga little light olive oil

First make the dough. Mix all the ingredients except the light olive oil together with 100ml warm water. Cover with a clean plastic bag and set aside to rest for 30 minutes. Knead the dough for five minutes, then rest for one and a half hours to prove in a warm place.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to its maximum temperature for a good 15 minutes, so that it’s really hot. Boil the potatoes for about five minutes, until they just soften. Drain and allow to dry. Toss with a splash of extra virgin oil, salt, pepper and the rosemary.

Oil a baking tray with the regular light olive oil. Roll out the dough 3–5mm thick on a lightly floured work surface, or to the rough size of the tray. Fill the tray with the dough. Spread with the Creamed leeks, then place the rosemary and potatoes evenly on top.

Drizzle with extra virgin oil and bake for 25–30 minutes, or until the base has browned and is cooked through. storage The pizza is good eaten fresh, but is also great served cold for breakfast. cook natural Spelt is an ancient grain that is more nutritious and digestible than regular wheat. Even those without an intolerance to wheat will feel the benefits of using spelt flour. It has a delicious nutty flavour and is easy to work with. It can be used to replace wheat flour in any recipe and works really well in pastries and bread.

It is also savoury and scrumptious as a whole grain used in pilafs and as an alternative to risotto rice.

Faux pho from Victoria Glass' book Too Good To Waste

You can use any leftover meat for this fit-all cheat’s pho. It’s a great way to turn a vat of stock into a quick, aromatic supper. By all means forego the meat and use vegetable stock if you must, but it’s far too mimsy for my personal taste.

2.5 litres intense meat stock – any bones will do: chicken, beef, ham, duck, pheasant, you name it… 
1 onion, quartered
a large thumb of root ginger, unpeeled, quartered
3 star anise
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick, bruised
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 cardamom pods, bruised
1–2 red chillies (depending on how much heat you like), finely sliced
1 tsp rock sugar or dark soft brown sugar
leftover meat – from a roast, a boiled ham, or you can even use up the trimmed offcuts of beef from making steak tartare (just throw the raw meat into the hot stock at the last minute)
2 tbsp fish sauce, plus extra if needed
2 shallots, finely sliced into rings a little oil, for frying
400g flat rice noodles a good few handfuls of mixed
Thai basil, coriander/cilantro and mint
200g beansprouts, blanched
4 spring onions/scallions, finely
sliced
1 lime, cut into wedges

Put the stock in a large saucepan over a gentle heat. Heat a griddle or frying pan until almost smoking, then char the onion and ginger for a minute or so before adding them to the pan. Add the star anise, peppercorns, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds and cardamom pods to the stock and simmer for 25 minutes. Strain the soup into a clean saucepan. Lift out the ginger using a slotted spoon and, once cool enough to handle, scrape off the skin, chop the ginger into fine matchsticks and return them to the soup.

You can rescue the soft onion to use as the base of another blended soup, if you wish. Discard the rest of the aromatics. Add 1 chilli to the pan with the sugar, the pieces of meat and the fish sauce and simmer for 20 minutes. Fry the shallots in oil until golden and crisp.

Bring a separate pan of salted water to the boil, add the noodles and cook for about 5 minutes, or according to the packet instructions. Drain the noodles, then divide them among four warm bowls. Taste the soup, adding more fish sauce if needed. Ladle the soup over the noodles, then garnish with the fried shallots. Serve alongside the herbs, beansprouts, spring onions/scallions, lime wedges and the remaining chilli, for people to stir into their bowls of faux pho at the table as they like.

Tom & Jerry cocktail by Ryan Chetiyawardana, named International Bartender of the Year​

Ryan says: “The dairy industry gets ravaged by price wars by supermarkets. Support the ones that are getting really battered and get hold of some proper eggs and milk and make this version of a Tom and Jerry from 'Good Together'. It's wonderfully Christmassy and supports the folk who need championing!”

6 eggs
8 dashes orange blossom water
90g demerara (light brown cane) sugar
6 shots (150ml) bourbon 
2 shots (50ml) dark rum 
2 shots (50ml) amaro 
500ml whole milk
1 vanilla pod 
Pinch of proper salt
1 clove
Whole Nutmeg, to garnish

Separate the eggs, then whisk the whites with the orange blossom water. Whisk the yolks with the sugar, then whisk in the booze.

Gently fold in the egg whites and keep the batter aside. Heat the milk with the vanilla pod, a pinch of salt and the clove until hot, but not boiling, then fish out the spices.

Add just over two shots (60ml) batter to ceramic cups, then top with hot milk. Grate fresh nutmeg on top.

Boxing Day risotto with turkey left overs by Damian Clisby, Executive Chef at Petersham Nurseries

Serves 6

My grandfather, Emile though known to us as Bill, always used to make us turkey and pea risotto on Boxing Day. This is such a great way of using the leftover bones, to make a stock, and then any meat. I have tweaked his recipe to include some red wine & radicchio, which is highly seasonal.

The key to a great risotto, aside from quality ingredients, is to remember that every stage is important, from the sofritto of celery and onion at the beginning to creating the stock. The secret is to allow yourself enough time.

Stock

Turkey carcass
A few bay leaves 
A sprig of thyme
Pinch of salt 
4 litres of water 

Put all ingredients into a pan and gently simmer for 4-5 hours.

Risotto

500g rice
250g butter, diced  
​50g celery, finely diced 
50g onion, finely diced 
5g thyme leaves 
300ml Amarone Classico  
​100g Radicchio Chioggia, finely cut 
Parmesan, grated  
2 litres turkey stock 
200g turkey left overs 

In a large heavy based pan add the butter, diced vegetables and a pinch of salt. Cook on a gentle heat being careful not to brown the vegetables. This should take about 10 minutes.

Add the rice cooking for a further 10 minutes, stir continuously. This releases the natural starch in the rice and will help with the texture at the end as well as allowing all the wine and stock into each grain. Add the wine and cook for five minutes then begin to add the stock slowly a couple of ladles at a time. Add the radicchio after the third round of stock.

Repeat the process of adding the stock until the rice is just cooked. Add in the turkey. Gently stir in the parmesan and remaining butter. Serve.

(XDBPhotography/Xavier D. Buendia)

Cauliflower steak, mushroom and lemon thyme by Douglas McMaster, founder of zero-waste restaurant, Silo

Serves 4-6

Prep: 1 hour
Cook: 5 minutes

This is a vegan game changer, its robust meaty quality will convert the most resillent of carnivores. The beauty of the cauliflower ‘tree of life’ presentation makes it the ultimate dinner party showstopper.

3 medium to large cauliflowers 
Mushroom risotto
300g short grain brown rice
600g button mushrooms
50g brown rice miso paste
soy sauce (optional)
Lemon thyme
100g lemon thyme 

There will be a lot of cauliflower trim, this is ideal for a salad, soup or a vegan cauliflower curry. The mushroom stock leaches all the flavour from the mushroom. The actual mushrooms can be used to thicken a soup or go into a curry for nice chunky texture - making it zero waste. The lemon thyme can take a little bit of time to pick. Ideally your serving plate will be slightly concave. If its flat the mushroom stock/sauce will run across the plate. Heat the plates up before service.

The stock should be your first job as it takes about an hour. Roughly slice your mushrooms and sweat in rapeseed oil at a high heat, in a heavy based pan. Cook until golden brown. Then add 2 litres of water, bring to a simmer and leave for 40-50 mins until it tastes very mushroomy. Strain off your mushroom slices to use in another dish.

Reduce the mushroom liquid until it tastes quite intense. Season with soy to make it even more intense. It needs to be very strong as the rice and cauliflower are quite neutral flavours. Meanwhile boil your short grain brown rice for about 20 mins until it starts to break down and is very tender to eat. Strain and reserve ready for your service.

Take all the outer leaves off the cauliflower. Turn the head of cauliflower upside down and cut through the centre of the root directly down. Then cut the steak one inch from the centre, parallel with your first cut. This will reveal a beautiful 'tree of life’ steak. You will get two big steaks from each cauliflower. Bring a suitably sized pan of water to a simmer. Season the water, it should taste slightly salty. To be really precise, the salt should be 5% weight of the water. Poach the steaks until tender. This can be done ahead of time.

Pick your lemon thyme into individual leaves, this is a slow job and can be done whenever you have a spare 10 mins, perhaps when your rice and mushroom stock are doing their business. If your stalks are available after picking, throw them into the mushroom stock for extra flavour. Put your rice in a heavy based pot with half of your mushroom liquid and season with the brown rice miso paste. Gently warm but don’t boil, the more you beat this mixture the more glutinous the risotto will become.

Warm the steaks up in a steamer or neatly lay them into a pan with a lid on and a small amount of water, until they are hot. Spoon about 3 large tablespoons of risotto into the base of each (hot) plate. Ideally the plate will be slightly concave so to neatly capture the mushroom stock/sauce. Sprinkle the lemon thyme leaves around the edges of the risotto. Place the steaks neatly on the centre of the risotto. Finish by neatly drizzling the remains of the mushroom stock/sauce around the edge of the risotto.