Leftover ingredients and half-eaten jars or cans of foods that never seem to get finished do not have to go to waste. In fact, with tips and tricks from a recipe developer, you can approach your own kitchen with a dash more thought to make even seemingly mundane materials shine in any meal.
Bon Appétit Senior Food Editor Andy Baraghani shared his expertise with "Good Morning America" to battle palate fatigue with quick fixes that can help you upcycle foods, reduce waste in the kitchen and get you excited to keep cooking.
Whether it's finally making use of that bag of frozen spinach or why you should cook more pasta on purpose, Baraghani helps turn perpetually passed up ingredients into star components in the kitchen.
"I think home cooks think, 'I have this leftover thing, I'm just gonna throw it away.' But you know, instead, think about, maybe this doesn't have to be a full dish or a full meal," Baraghani explained. While he also admitted it can be a tad "frustrating because you don't want to put in effort into creating a snack of sorts," he reiterated that sometimes leftover ingredients "really can be just part of a dish."
How to apply it at home:
When you have leftover parts of a chicken, in Baraghani's case the legs that weren't enough for a full dish, he suggests browning them off in a pan and adding them to make a really flavorful broth for the base of a chili or soup.
"Thinking of how you can infuse the dish with these ingredients and then remove it," he said. "I think that's something that takes a moment to understand and approach the kitchen that way, but it makes you a more thoughtful cook."
"Something that helps me is to just bake some big batches of things that I know I will be using throughout the week and have variations of it," Baraghani suggested.
While this idea takes extra planning, it can create intentional leftovers that you know you'll end up eating.
How to apply it at home:
"I will do a big batch of roasted sweet potatoes on a Sunday or Monday, then I have those already cooked, so I'll either cut them in half and give them a hard sear or a roast in the oven, or I'll remove the skin and make a puree."
The same method can be applied to any kind of "grains or vegetables that you can do a big large batch, and then get creative with the last-minute cooking and reheating so you can change it and won't develop palate fatigue."
"I'll make a large enough batch of short-grain rice -- so that I can have a few cups leftover, and I'll put it on a sheet tray or in a bowl in the fridge so that it can dry out for a stir fry or crispy rice -- which is exactly what you want for fried rice anyway."
Rather than being left with random half-used bags of dried pasta that you might neglect in the pantry, Baraghani said it's better to cook the entire contents.
"Boil the full pound of pasta and use just the amount you need for that day -- but then cool off the remaining, shock the rest in cold water and hold it for a pasta salad or something else the next day," he said.
"I really think about ingredients that I know people have a little bit leftover of, let's say a little bit of soy, some kind of leftover nut butter, maybe vinegar -- it’s a lot of condiments that people end up having a few tablespoons worth of," he said. "I refer to them as little mini secret weapons of sorts."
How to apply it at home:
"Rather than trying to incorporate it as a dish, I would try to experiment and mashup where you can combine these ingredients," Baraghani said. "Think about layering and combining -- making sauces and condiments with leftover ingredients is key."
"When it comes to leftovers, usually it’s like a flavor and a texture thing that is really lacking. So how do you come up with something really simple to either drizzle or stir on top? Create a condiment that hits on texture, heat and a bit of acid," Baraghani suggested. "If your leftover dish maybe doesn't have a lot going on and needs some jazzing up, then the condiment needs to be a little bit more dynamic and hit on the things that awaken your palate."
How to apply it at home:
"Taking a few spoonfuls of toasted sesame seeds, grate in some lemon zest, add in some chili flakes and occasionally if I want something fresh maybe an herb, and I think right there you have texture, a bit of sweet nuttiness from the seeds and some heat from whatever chili you've got -- lemon zest gives it a zingy brightness." Check out his easy recipe for a savory, toasted garlic and turmeric sizzle topping here.
For home cooks looking to add more spices to their cooking and leftovers, Baraghani said, "my big tip is to start with maybe a smaller quantity of one or two spices."
"There are plenty of great recipes and brands that have incredible spice mixes that can remove the anxiety," he said.
Whether it's half an onion or carrots that have "gone from stiff and robust to kind of a little too bendy," that's where Baraghani suggests throwing the various vegetable odds and ends into a pot of cold liquid, bring it to a boil and make a vegetarian broth.
How to apply it at home:
"It's so easy. I know broth is the default for a lot of food waste, but it really is one of those things where it's very forgiving to put these things in a pot, bring up the heat and let it reduce," he explained. "Then, you have this broth that you can integrate into other dishes throughout the week."
"One thing people don't freeze enough of is bread. If you use only a third or half of it, the rest of the bread is going to get stale if you leave it out. So keep it wrapped and store it in the freezer," he said. "Ideally, you would actually slice your bread up and freeze it so you have these individual slices ready to go that you can toast under the broiler or in the oven."
"The two staples I certainly use all the time are frozen peas and spinach," he said, noting that anyone who has tried to cook down fresh spinach knows it will never produce the same yield. "It's a quick way of getting greens into whatever dish it is, whether it's a stew, soup or pasta, it's easy. Most of the time, you can add it right in frozen depending on the dish."
"Frozen peas are picked at peak freshness blanched and frozen so they're ready to go and just need to be warmed through."
How to apply it at home:
Fry a slice of bread in a pan, top it with warmed peas and Parmesan for a simple, fresh fancy toast. Watch how Andy makes it here.
Baraghani said his "secret weapon" of quarantine has been tossing veggies -- whether it's a shallot or a chili pepper -- into a mason jar with a simple salt, sugar, vinegar and spice liquid that keeps in the fridge for when you may want to add a pop of acid to a leftover dish.
He also said composting is a really easy way to reduce food scraps and cut down on waste in the kitchen.
Finally, "if all else fails," he said, "throw it in a blender." This method can apply to leftover herbs, leafy greens and vegetable tops and combined with spices, nuts, citrus or oils to create a puree or sauce.