NEXT time you scrape leftover food into the bin, you’re going to hear Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in your head, asking whether or not you could have transformed those scraggly bits into something delicious.

This is, after all, a man who was once nicknamed “Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall”, and his latest book, Love Your Leftovers, sets out to get everyone else doing the same.

The 50-year-old celebrity chef, famed for his River Cottage series and books, is horrified at the amount of food and leftovers we chuck in the bin, and sees odds and ends as “a really legitimate source of ingredients”.

“More than half the meals I put together incorporate something from a previous meal, or something that’s knocking around or needs eating up, that’s wagging its finger at me saying, ‘If you don’t eat me soon I’ll be on the compost’.”

His recent BBC series, Hugh’s War On Waste, set out to challenge people and companies to radically reduce the amount of food waste they produce.

“Food waste is a solvable problem. We just need to be a bit smart about how we address that, and if we’re going to demand that of the supermarkets – and I think we should – we also have to be ready to do our bit.”

If your fridge is overflowing with odds and ends, before chucking them in the bin, have a go at one of these recipes from Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book...

Bournemouth Echo:

POTATO PEEL SOUP (Serves 4)

  • 20g butter, or rapeseed or sunflower oil
  • 1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • About 200g potato peelings (about as much as you’d get from preparing a decent-sized tray of roast potatoes)
  • 500ml whole milk
  • 500ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2tbsp finely chopped parsley leaves (optional)
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • To finish (optional): Fried sage leaves, crisp-grilled bacon

Heat the butter or oil in a medium saucepan over a medium-low heat and add the onions, bay leaf and a good pinch of salt. Saute gently for, until the onions are soft but haven’t taken on much colour, about 10 minutes.

Add the potato peelings and give everything a very good stir for a minute.

Pour in the milk and stock, season well with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently until the peels are very tender – another 10 minutes or so.

Remove from the heat and cool slightly, then puree in a food processor, blender or using a stick blender until very smooth.

Return the soup to the pan and reheat gently. Season well with salt and pepper and stir in the chopped parsley, if using.

Serve in warmed bowls, topped with fried sage leaves and shards of crisp-grilled bacon, if you like. Finish with a generous grind of pepper.

Bournemouth Echo:

CHINESE-STYLE SPICY CRISPY BEEF (Serves 4)

  • 250-400g roast beef, the rarer the better
  • Vegetable or groundnut oil, for frying
  • 3tbsp cornflour
  • 1tsp Chinese five-spice powder (optional)
  • A little very finely grated orange zest
  • Pinch of flaky sea salt

For the sauce:

  • 3tbsp sweet chilli sauce
  • 2tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 garlic clove, grated
  • 1/4tsp finely grated ginger
  • Juice of 1/2 an orange

For the salad:

  • A few crisp lettuce leaves, such as romaine (or even the much-maligned iceberg), finely shredded
  • 1 carrot, julienned or grated
  • 1/2 small cucumber, seeds scooped out, then cut into thin batons
  • 3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced, slightly on the bias
  • 1tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • To finish: Handful of sesame seeds, lightly toasted if preferred, sprigs of coriander (optional)

First make the sauce. Put all the ingredients into a small pan, simmer for a couple of minutes until thickened, then set aside.

Cut the beef into strips, 3-4mm thick. Heat a 2-3cm depth of oil in a wok or a deep saucepan – the fat will bubble up when you add the beef, so don’t use a shallow pan. Heat the oil to 180C, or until a cube of dry white bread dropped in turns golden in just under a minute.

Sift the cornflour and five-spice powder, if using, onto a plate. Toss the beef strips in the cornflour until well coated on all sides.

Fry the beef in a couple of batches to avoid crowding the pan. Lower into the hot oil and fry until golden and crisp, which should only take a couple of minutes. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain. Let the oil come back up to temperature before adding the second batch of meat to the pan.

Mix the orange zest with the flaky sea salt and sprinkle over the beef.

For the salad, toss the vegetables together with the rice wine vinegar. Pile the salad and crispy beef onto individual plates. Trickle on the sauce and add a scattering of sesame seeds. Garnish with coriander if you have some to hand.

Bournemouth Echo:

LEMON AND YOGHURT PUDDING CAKE
(Serves 6)

  • 40g butter, melted and cooled, plus extra to grease the dish
  • 160g caster sugar
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • Zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
  • 3tbsp self-raising flour
  • 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 250g thick Greek-style or other natural wholemilk yoghurt (less than fresh is fine)
  • Icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Lightly butter a 1.5L ovenproof dish.

Using an electric hand mixer, or free-standing mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light, pale and fluffy, about five minutes, scraping the bowl down with a spatula.

Beat in the egg yolks and lemon zest, then sift the flour and baking powder together over the batter and lightly fold in.

Whisk together the yoghurt and lemon juice, then gently stir this mixture into the batter, until just combined.

Whisk the egg whites in a scrupulously clean bowl until they form soft peaks, then gently fold into the lemon mixture, using a metal spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish. Stand the dish in a roasting tin and carefully pour in boiling water from the kettle to come halfway up the sides of the dish.

Bake for about 50 minutes until the pudding is puffed up and lightly golden on the top - it should still have a slightly tender wobble to it.

Carefully remove from the oven, then lift the pudding out of the roasting tin. Leave to stand for five minutes before serving.

Dust with icing sugar to serve. Hand round a jug of double cream or a bowl of thick fresh yoghurt for everyone to help themselves.

River Cottage Love Your Leftovers by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Photography by Simon Wheeler, is published in hardback by Bloomsbury and priced £20. Available December 3

Hugh’s War On Waste was broadcast on BBC One and is available on iPlayer