Food Waste to Good Taste: 3 ways to use your cooked pasta

‘Food Waste to Good Taste’ is an exciting campaign that we are running in partnership with @HKU_Science and @Green.Hospitality. The study will measure the nutritional value of food scraps from restaurants across Hong Kong to highlight the local food waste issue in two folds: from an environmental perspective and from a health perspective. The campaign hopes to encourage restaurants and consumers to be more conscious of the loss of nutritious food waste and optimise food scraps into new recipes to further reduce food waste.

Leftover Pasta Salad

This is probably the most versatile way to reuse your cooked pasta without much planning (or cooking!), yet highly effective in reducing waste. We have provided a recipe here to inspire you on your pasta salad adventure. But really, you can let your imagination run wild using whatever produce you have in your pantry/fridge. It's a great way to use up your tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, or even carrots, potatoes, etc. you get the idea, the list can go on. Lastly, if you're looking for an easy salad dressing option, you can simply use olive oil et voilà!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of cooked pasta

• 500 g (7 cups) broccoli

• 1 can (~285g) of corn kernels 

• 80 g (1/2 cup) of ham cubes (or bacon bits if you prefer)

• 1 cucumber 

Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of honey mustard

• 2 ½ tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

• ⅔ cups of plain yoghurt

• ¾ teaspoon of salt

• a little pepper

Recipe:

• In boiling water, cook the broccoli for approximately 10 minutes. 

• In the meantime, mix the mustard, balsamic and yoghurt in a bowl, season to taste.

• Drain the sweetcorn from the can and add to the dressing, followed by adding the diced ham.

• Cut the cucumber into desired size pieces, then add to the dressing.

• Once the broccoli is cooked, drain and let it cool down. 

• Once cooled, add the broccoli and the pasta to the dressing, then give it all a good mix.

• Enjoy!

Image courtesy of Ahead of Thyme

Leftover Mac n Cheese Bites

The ultimate comfort food. Reinvented. Fried. Is your mouth salivating too?
Give your mac & cheese a second life by rolling them into bite size balls, coating them in breadcrumbs, and frying them until golden brown. They make the perfect apéritif or even as a side dish to complement your lunch/dinner meal. We also give you the option here to upgrade your traditional mac & cheese using different types of cheeses, elevating the flavours and embracing the CHEESE in the mac & cheese.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of macaroni and cheese, refrigerated at least 4 hours

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs or any leftover bread that is blitzed into crumbs

• 2 cups of vegetable oil

  • Optional: 1 cup of any other cheese you would like to add to the mix to make it more gourmet and cheesy; think gorgonzola, goat's cheese or Parmigiano 

Recipe:

• Line a few layers of paper towels onto a large plate before cooking.

• If you are opting for the cheesy option, mix your mac and cheese with your desired cheese.

• Scoop out a ⅓ cup of mac and cheese mixture, roll into a 1.5 inch or 4 cm ball, and set aside onto a large plate. Repeat with all of the mac and cheese.

• In one bowl, place the beaten egg. Add the breadcrumbs into another separate bowl.

• Dip each mac and cheese ball into the beaten egg and then fully coat the ball with the breadcrumbs.

• In a medium saucepan, heat up the oil over a medium high heat for about 4 minutes (until sizzling hot). 

• Carefully add the mac and cheese balls into the oil - around 4 to 5 balls at a time so to not overcrowd the pan.

• Fry the balls until golden brown and crispy, roughly 4 minutes.

• Place them onto the paper towels to remove excess oil.

• Enjoy them hot!

Leftover Pasta Fritters

A very similar concept to the mac and cheese balls, however this time it is for ANY type of pasta (whether bolognese, carbonara, alfredo, puttanesca, or where ever in Italy you were transported to with your pasta dish). It's an easy recipe that uses up all of your leftover pasta whilst enjoying them in a different way. You can also prep them and freeze them for a later degustation!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of cold leftover pasta (can also use pasta that is mixed with sauce)

• 2 eggs

• ¾ to 1 ¼ cups of panko breadcrumbs or any leftover bread that is blitzed into crumbs

• ½ cup of grated cheese 

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 2 tablespoon of olive oil

Recipe:

• Line a few layers of paper towels onto a large plate before cooking.

• Roughly chop up the pasta (top tip: you can place the pasta in a bowl and use scissors to cut it up).

• In the same bowl, add the eggs, breadcrumbs (start with ¾ cup) and cheese. 

• Mix it all altogether and add the salt and pepper to taste.

• Scoop the mixture into a ball and flatten it slightly. See if it holds together and if required, add more breadcrumbs.

• In a frying pan, heat up the over a medium high heat.

• Scoop a ⅓ cup of the mixture up and place in the frying pan. You can use the bottom of the cup measure to flatten the mixture into a 1 cm thickness. 

• Repeat to fit however many fritters you can in the pan.

• Cook the first side for around 2 minutes, or until it turns a golden brown and crispy. 

• Flip the pasta fritter and cook the other side the same (around 1 ½ minutes).

• Remove the pasta fritters from the pan onto the paper towels to drain excess oil. 

• Repeat until you have used up the batter.

• Serve immediately. 

• For extra flair, garnish the pasta fritters with finely chopped parsley leaves and grated Parmesan.