The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (33 page)

Absolutely any vegetables that are languishing in the kitchen will be transformed by this simple treatment. Roast vegetables are delicious as warm salads with green leaves and blue cheese, goat’s cheese or Parmesan (see
pages 210
-
11
). They can form a rich body for soup, luxuriantly sweetening it with their caramel flavour (see
pages 56
-
63
); or they can just be tossed with pasta, rice or couscous, used in a vegetarian lasagne or served as a side dish. Roast root vegetables are particularly delicious served with couscous and a little harissa thinned with olive oil to make a dressing.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Peel and/or deseed the vegetables as appropriate and cut into large chunks. Arrange in a roasting tin in a single layer, sprinkle olive oil over them and toss well so that they are evenly coated in the oil. Season lightly, then place the tin on the highest shelf of the oven and roast for 30-40 minutes, until tender and golden, turning half way through (or giving them a good shake).

Aubergines
Lovely cut in half lengthways and baked with a drizzle of olive oil and a good pinch of dried chilli flakes. To serve, scatter some slightly salty feta or milder ricotta cheese and chopped mint on top, along with a squeeze of lemon. Eat hot or cold.

Asparagus
Will not take very long to roast in a hot oven just coated in olive oil. Serve with crisp bacon.

Sweet potatoes
Cut lengthways into quarters, drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper and toss with a little fresh thyme if you have it. Roast the potatoes until meltingly tender. Serve with crumbled goat’s cheese and toasted pine nuts, plus a peppery rocket or watercress salad.

Sweet or ordinary potatoes
Delicious cut into chunks, drizzled with olive oil and roasted with crushed garlic, quartered lemons and a pinch of good paprika. You could also add some thyme and chunks of red onion. Serve warm with crumbled feta cheese.

Trimmed whole leeks or celery
Roast as described opposite, then scatter lots of grated Parmesan over them and return to the oven for 5 minutes before serving.

Peppers, tomatoes and anchovies
Stuff halved, deseeded peppers with chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes. Scatter a little crushed garlic, a couple of chopped anchovy fillets and some ground black pepper over the top, then drizzle with olive oil. Roast until the filling has turned to a slight mush and the peppers are soft. Scatter basil on top and serve with crusty bread, rice or couscous.

Parsnips and carrots
To counter their sweetness, scatter over a few fennel seeds before roasting. Serve at room temperature on a green herb salad with a splash of oil and lemon juice. Use any leftovers mashed in a soup.

Pumpkin or squash
Roast with some whole unpeeled garlic cloves, a pinch of dried chilli flakes and a drizzle of oil. Serve with green leaves and scatter toasted sesame or poppy seeds on top, or mash on to crusty bread – with a mild goat’s cheese, if you like it. The garlic cloves will roast sweetly inside their papery skin, which will fall off easily once they are cooked. You don’t eat the skin!

Courgettes
Roast as described opposite until stickily sweet and golden, then serve with toasted pine nuts.

Beetroot
Something wonderful happens to beetroot when they are roasted. Scrub the beetroot and trim the roots before roasting whole (they may take up to an hour in the oven, depending on their size). You don’t need to peel them – the skin will fall away when they are cooked. Use in soups, salads or risotto or serve as a warm salad with Puy lentils and goat’s cheese.

Here are two dishes from Greece and Africa that are alike in kind but have their own particular character. Depending on how much leftover lamb you have, either recipe can easily be halved or scaled up. Don’t be put off by the fairly lengthy ingredients lists either – most of them are basic store-cupboard things.

If your view of moussaka is that it is an over-oily and oddly orange concoction, I’d love to change your mind. Part of the problem can be that aubergines are notoriously thirsty for oil, so be strict with them and don’t go on adding more oil if they look dry when you are frying them. Once they start to brown on both sides, they release most of the oil they’ve sucked up and can then be drained on kitchen paper. Alternatively – and this is what I do – you can brush them with a very little oil and bake or grill them instead of frying, turning half way through to ensure they are golden on both sides. Raw minced lamb would also add to the oily situation if you were using it. Leftover lamb, of course, has already lost its fat so, actually, it’s ideal.

Serves 2

1 aubergine, cut into slices about 5mm thick

olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

400g can of chopped tomatoes, drained of their juice

1 tablespoon tomato purée

1 small glass of red wine

1 bay leaf

1 scant teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teacups (about 200g) leftover cooked lamb, minced or finely chopped

2 teaspoons butter

2 teaspoons plain flour

200ml milk

20g strong hard cheese, such as Cheddar, Parmesan or Gruyère, grated

1 egg

a grating of nutmeg

salt and pepper

Brush the aubergine slices with olive oil and then grill them (or bake them at 180°C/Gas Mark 4) until golden on both sides, turning once. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook gently until softened. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato purée, wine, bay leaf and cinnamon. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and very gently simmer for about 20 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the meat and heat through.

Make a cheese sauce with the butter, flour, milk and cheese according to the instructions on
page 32
, then leave to cool. Whisk the egg in a separate bowl and add it to the cooled sauce, whisking as you go. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

To assemble the dish, put half the meat mixture in an ovenproof dish and cover with half the aubergines. Repeat with the rest of the meat and aubergines. Pour the eggy, cheesy sauce on top and then bake at 180°C/Gas Mark 4 for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden. Serve with rice or crusty bread and a crisp salad.