It’s spooky season and we are stocking up on pumpkins, apples, tasty treats and other hearty and seasonal foods. Unfortunately, 4.5 million tonnes of good food is wasted every year from UK households, that’s enough to fill 38 million wheelie bins!
Pumpkins are more than just a pretty jack-o-lantern, they are rich in vitamins and minerals and can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. You can use all of your pumpkin and make the most of it. Find out how you can save your pumpkins from the bin by using the following recipes:
- Pumpkin Spice Granola Muffins
- Red Lentil Lasagne with ‘Spooky Pumpkin Seed Face’
- Spicy Pumpkin Soup
- Spiced Pumpkin, Mince & Tatties
- Pumpkin, Blue Cheese & Apple Risotto
- Pumpkin Seed Brownie
When you spot your perfect pumpkin, it’s worth grabbing a sweet potato, a pepper and a chilli too, because these go beautifully together in a soup. This spicy pumpkin soup has five ingredients and will make your kitchen smell lovely in the process.
Did you know you can freeze your pumpkin too?
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Remove all the seeds and turn them into a smoky pumpkin seed snack in 5 simple steps.
- Roast or mash the flesh before freezing in an airtight container or bag. Don’t forget to label your leftovers with the contents and date it needs to be used up to help you when you pop back to your freezer for meal inspiration.
- Defrost your pumpkin leftovers in the fridge or microwave before using.
How do you like them apples?
Bobbing for apples is a party favourite, but what about the leftovers that haven’t been bobbed? Every day, we throw away 800,000 whole apples! Apple trees take around 7-10 years to grow,using so much time, energy and resources, only to throw your apple away is rotten! Store your apples in the fridge, they will last much longer there than in a fruit bowl.
If you find yourself with an excess of apples:
- Cook them in boiling water for a couple of minutes
- Slice them
- Freeze them in a single layer on a tray
- Pack into bags once frozen, ready to use another day.
You can take apples straight from frozen and cook them into some recipes such as cupcakes, like these fruit bowl buns and a traditional apple crumble. Apples past their best are also great in pickles.
Frightening facts
70% of food waste comes from in our homes, that’s 4.2 million tonnes of good food going to waste, which would be the same as the average household throwing away six meals a week! Check out what we can do to make a difference on the Love Food Hate Waste website.
40% of that food waste is made up of fruit and vegetables that could have been eaten. Instead, you can bake a dessert using your fruit and any other leftover sweets in a baked sponge pudding. It is a delicious way of using up your leftover sweet food.
Yoghurt and milk were voted by UK citizens as the top items in the fridge that were unlikely to be used up in time. One way of avoiding these scary dairy habits would be to freeze your yoghurt and milk. Find out what else you can do with these items on our A-Z of food storage tool.
For more tips visit:
https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink
