Girlguiding’s leftover legends have been crowned!

Our yum yum pie is so versatile as you can use whichever leftover veggies or meats you have around - these can be already cooked or fresh. This pie is perfect for Boxing Day dinner as you can use up all the Christmas dinner leftovers in 1 dish!

There's no set ‘recipe’ as it really does use whatever you have around. Roast veggies, leftover chicken, ham, bacon, cooked or mashed potato are excellent for this pie.

In our version shown here we used:

• Roasted carrots.
• Sautéed mushrooms.
• Bbq chicken.
• Cooked bacon.
• Raw celery.
• Frozen peas.
• Corn.
• Boiled potatoes.

1. Most of the items were already pre-cooked. The celery, frozen peas and corn were uncooked so we browned in a pan to start.
2. We added the rest of the veggies and meat (saving the potatoes for later) to the frying pan until combined. We then added ½ cup of water with a Knorr chicken stock cube and boiled for a few minutes until reduced. You may want to use less stock cube if you're using salty meats like bacon or sausage. We then turned down the heat and added some double cream. How much you use is personal preference and dependent on how big your pie is. Basically until all the fillings have a coating of creamy goodness.
3. We poured the pie filling in to a deep baking dish. We topped this pie with left over boiled potatoes, some bread crumbs mixed with olive oil and cheese to create a crispy topping but these are optional extras.
4. Other toppings we like are left over mashed potatoes or slices of filo dough scrunched up for added crunch.
5. We baked in the oven at 180 for about 35 mins or until cooked all the way through.

Other filling ideas: green beans, cooked peas, leek, broccoli, cauliflower, roast veg like squash, cooked sausage, turkey.

Skip the meat for a veggie option!

Roxy made some simplified Cornish pasties. Using left over short crust pastry from a quiche 2 days previously. And, leftover minced beef, onion & gravy from the slow cooker the evening before. Plus an egg, carrots & potatoes her family had already half used up.

1. Roxy reheated the leftover mince in the slow cooker and added some carrots and potatoes she had finely chopped to cook in the mince, gravy & onion.
2. She preheated the oven & rolled out her pastry and cut around a side plate to make a circle.
3. Shen then added the hot minced beef, onion, carrot, potato & gravy to the center.
4. Roxy cracked her egg, mixed it up and put a line of egg all around the edge of the pastry circle.
5. She then brought the 2 sides up over the top of the meat (like a halved the circle with the meat in the center). Roxy then folded the 2 corners in & crimped the rest to make a squiggly join.
6. Roxy then put onto baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and brushed the egg over the top & then popped into the oven until beautiful & golden brown!

Ingredients:

• Tesco strawberry and clotted cream swiss roll – serves 8 (we had 4 pieces left out of the 8 that were near to their use by date).
• Remaining half of Tesco mango.
• Leftover strawberries, halved (150g).
• Remaining half packet of Tesco instant custard mic (40g).
• Last 3 slices of Warburton white milk roll.

Garnishing:

• Dried rose petal (1tbsp).
• Crushed pistachio nuts (2tbsp).
• You'll also need a glass bowl of 300ml capacity.
• Note: you can use any kind of fruit chunks you have instead of mango and strawberries.

How to assemble:

1. Place the leftover slices of swiss roll at the bottom of your bowl.
2. Put some strawberry halves to fill in the gaps and then layer mango chunks over them.
3. Cover the mango chunks with the milk roll slices.
4. Boil 250ml water and stir in the leftover half packet of instant custard mix. Keep stirring until no lumps are left and the custard is of smooth, pouring consistency.
5. Let it cool down.
6. Pour the custard over the milk roll slices and make sure it reaches the layers underneath.
7. Top with the remaining fruit chunks and garnish with dried rose petals and crushed pistachios.
8. Let this sit in the fridge overnight so tat every layer becomes moist and creamy. The next day you'll have a light, fruity dessert ready to be enjoyed on a hot summery day!

I decided to make a dipping platter because I love eating this type of food and sharing it with family and friends. I challenged myself to use as many different leftover ingredients as I could and I used 16 in total.

I wanted my presentation to also reflect the theme of sustainability so I sterilized 3 old jars to present the dips and used an old decorative tin lined with baking parchment for the dippy sticks. I made brown paper labels and tied them on with wool using materials I had at home.

I was very pleased with how it all looked and we had it for tea the night I made it. The dip recipes made enough to fill the jars twice so the next day I shared the leftovers with my grandparents. Everyone enjoyed the dips especially the sweet potato humous which was the favourite. I will definitely make this again to share with friends.

The dips

Sweet potato humous:

• 2 sweet potatoes.
• 3 tbsp olive oil.
• ½ tsp chilli powder.
• 1 tsp smoked paprika.
• 1 tbsp garlic puree.
• 2 tbsp tahini.
• 1 lemon juiced.

Method:

1. Heat oven to gas mark 6. Cut sweet potatoes into 2cm cubes, place onto a baking tray and drizzle with 1tbsp of olive oil.
2. Sprinkle over chilli powder, paprika and garlic puree using your hands to cover the sweet potato.
3. Roast the sweet potato for 30-35 minutes until the potatoes are soft, tossing half way through. After cooked leave to cool completely.
4. Put the sweet potato into a food processor with the tahini and lemon juice, then blitz for 1 minute until the potatoes have broken down.
5. With the food processor still running, gradually add the remaining olive oil. Continue to blitz for another 4 minutes, or until smooth. Then pour in 50-60ml of cold water to loosen, blitz to combine, then season to taste.

Courgette and Pepper Dip:

• 1 courgette.
• ½ red pepper and ½ yellow pepper.
• 1-2 tsp garlic puree.
• 1 tbsp tahini.
• ½ lemon juiced.
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise.
• 2 tsp mint sauce.
• ½ tsp olive oil.

Method:

1. Heat oven to gas mark 7. Wrap the courgette in foil and cut peppers into small chunks. Drizzle peppers with olive oil and roast both on same tray for 20-30 minutes or until soft when pricked with a fork. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
2. Put the courgette and peppers into a food processor with the garlic puree and blend until it has a fluffy texture.
3. Add the tahini, lemon juice and seasoning and blitz again. Blend in the mayonnaise and mint sauce.
4. Drizzle over olive oil to serve.

Chilli Bean Dip:

Method:

This was originally a veggie chilli that I had made containing vegetables, butter beans, kidney beans and red lentils. I froze the left overs and defrosted them for my platter.

Once de-frosted I blended the chilli until smooth to create a chilli bean dip.

The Dippy Sticks

No platter is complete without some lovely dippy sticks!

I made the following 3 using leftover ingredients.

Crispy potato wedges

I cut a leftover jacket potato into wedges, drizzled it with olive oil and crisped it up in the over at gas mark 6 for 15 minutes.

Garlic bread fingers

I cut 2 slices of white bread from the end of the loaf into fingers. I softened some butter and mixed in some garlic puree to make a paste. I spread the fingers with the paste and put them on a baking tray before crisping them in the oven at gas mark 6 for 5 minutes.

Carrot sticks

I used the last 2 carrots from the bottom of the fridge and cut them into thin strips for dipping.