’Tis the season... to be savvy with the Christmas leftovers 

“It’s the most wasteful time of the year,” says Waterford-based chef and author Conor Spacey. 

“There’s a lot of food waste anyway but at Christmas it’s accelerated. While Christmas is a celebration based around family, friends, and food, now it’s also marketed to us as a time of overconsumption — of food in particular — that we really don’t need.”

At this time of the year, there’s a definite air of wish fulfilment in all the glossy supermarket promotional pamphlets. Do we need chicken bao and brie tartlets, prawn garlands, complicated cauliflower cheese, stuffings suffused with musty dried herbs, and enough cakes, puddings, and all-butter mince pies to cause any Stephen’s Day swimmer to sink like very well-fed stones? 

Perhaps not, but piled high and sold at as a three-for-two special offer, it’s hard to resist.

“We buy so much without actually really planning,” says Spacey. “People say, ‘yes, I need lots of food!’ and it’s the big Christmas lunch which puts the fear of god into a lot of people. You don’t need to buy that much. Do you really have to get food in case John and Mary call round, or Paddy next door arrives? 

Very few homes have space to store food excess properly and then there’s a risk of things going off.”

For Spacey, festive feasting revolves around the main event: “It’s about planning. Focus on Christmas Day: You know what you’re having and what you need to buy.

With Christmas dinner completed, Spacey believes it’s time to give the cook a break.

“Everyone should be in chill-out mode,” he says, “relaxing and not stuck at the stove. We don’t want to be cooking from scratch — I’m not going to cook a different meal every day over the holidays. It’s about being smart about it.”

This is the time to get creative with what’s left and avoid waste. As he points out: 

You know what’s going to be leftover from that meal because there’s so much food — often people get these huge turkeys that could feed an army. Think of all the different dishes you can create from potatoes, parsnips, carrots, sprouts, turkey, and ham.

For St Stephen’s Day lunch or brunch, he recommends making a hash: “There’ll be roast potatoes and mashed potatoes — fry those up with sliced onion and garlic, add a bit of ham through it and a fried egg on top. You’ll have the ham and potatoes already there; you just need onion and egg.”

Spacey is not a fan of turkey curry — “the thought of it!” — like Bridget Jones (who justifiably dreaded her invitation to an annual New Year’s Day turkey curry buffet, considering it was turkey, again, a week after Christmas Day and served with peas and bananas, as Bridget documented in her diary).

Instead, he puts his turkey into an altogether lighter dish: “A stir fry. Your body will crave something healthier after all the chocolate and mince pies, so this is something simple that can be put together in minutes. All you need is another onion, some carrots, beansprouts, fresh ginger and noodles or rice — and that’s dinner on St Stephen’s Day.”

Spacey knows that it can be difficult for people to understand why they should avoid food waste, particularly at this time of the year when they may already be overwhelmed. But, aside from any environmental impacts, throwing away food also has financial repercussions.

While we may be aware that wasted food contributes to increased greenhouse gas — between eight to 10% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the 2024 UN food waste index report — and that reducing food waste has a role to play in climate change and addressing global food insecurity, it also has a significant impact on our pocket.

“It’s an expensive time of the year,” says Spacey. “Say an average week’s shop of €150 to €200 for a family will double over Christmas week. But how much of that will be thrown away? It’s like if I handed you a €50 note and said, ‘throw that in the bin’. It doesn’t matter your situation is you definitely don’t want to be throwing money away.”

To avoid waste, take some time out to plan meals before you hit the shops, make lists and stick to them, rather than just-in-case buying. This doesn’t mean you have to miss out in any way, nor do you need to feel stressed around Christmas catering.

“It’s a celebration,” says Spacey. 

Regardless of anything else, it’s a holiday based around family, friends and food. Don’t panic. You only have to make this one lunch and eat the leftovers. Then, don’t forget that shops are going to reopen.

For creative ways of dealing with food waste, check out Conor Spacey’s Wasted (Blasta Books, €15) and his Instagram @spacey_chef.

Spacey’s top tips for avoiding Christmas food waste:

• Don’t buy food without planning what to do with it or where it will fit in your fridge. Root vegetables don’t need to be refrigerated, so save space and keep them in the cupboard. Remove plastic packaging so that they don’t sweat;
• If you can, source locally — butchers, bakers, producers, and vegetable growers can advise you on how much you need, how to store and cook it;
• If you have excess milk, use it in bread or scones. Any extra dairy is great for baking with rather than throwing it out;
• Too much cream? Use it to make a mustard cream sauce, stir through your leftover vegetables, turkey, ham and bake in a pie dish, topped with excess mashed potatoes for a showstopping pie;
• Use your leftover vegetables, turkey, and ham and make a mustard cream sauce. Put it into a pie dish with cooked sliced potatoes on top and bake;
• If you have extra roast potatoes, make them into hash. It’s also a great way to use any scraps of vegetables, meat or cheese;
• Some forlorn-looking Christmas pudding sitting around? Mix some melted chocolate with the crumbled pudding and roll into bite-sized truffles.
  

For food waste reduction ideas, visit stopfoodwaste.ie.

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