A fuss-free traybake to help cut down on your food waste

This recipe (that almost does not warrant a recipe) is one of the meals I make most often. It is super easy, quick, tasty and helps to dramatically cut down on your food waste. Before doing a grocery shop, I love to take stock of what is in my fridge and cook up as much as possible before buying more stuff.

Food waste is such a large driver of environmental harm, carbon emissions, biodiversity loss and soil degradation, the list goes on. For food to be produced and then wasted is just nonsensical and expensive too. The best way to cut down on your food waste is to simply take stock of what you are throwing away each week and figure out ways to cut that down.

With that in mind, I want to use up all the odds and ends that sneakily find their way into the depths of the fridge. Half an onion here, a bit of carrot there, or a half-empty can of beans – sound familiar? Well, this is one of my solutions: a fuss-free, tasty traybake.

The ingredients are totally interchangeable for this and the amounts are approximate. Any type of potatoes will work and the same goes for veggies – carrots, courgettes, tomatoes, leeks, onions, whole cloves of garlic, squash, peppers, and cauliflower. Feel free to experiment and get creative. The orange rind is not essential but great if you have it, or even lemon or lime. I always keep a stash of peel in the freezer for flavouring water or traybakes.

French toast with blueberries, honey and yoghurt

---

Classic eggs Benedict with thick glazed ham and hollandaise

---

Mexican chicken taquitos

---

Beth O’Brien’s lemon and poppy seed shortbread biscuits

---

I will usually serve this with a soft-boiled egg and some salad leaves. And another bonus, traybake leftovers make a fantastic lunch as is, or can be spread generously on toast with hummus.

Recipe: Taz Kelleher’s fridge clear-out traybake

Taz Kelleher runs The Useless Project, an awareness-raising and events collective that aims to show people that you don’t need to feel useless in the face of the climate crisis, once you start small, connect more and use less. Follow for more Taz Kelleher here on Instagram and The Useless Project here

Discover more delicious and healthy meals at Dinner Dash