Instead of buying fresh ingredients, take a look at the back of the fridge and larder and make something tasty from those bits that are going to go off if you don't cook them soon.

by Sophy

My low-carbon cooking challenge began with me liberating a pair of pigs’ trotters from the freezer where they have been taking up much-needed space for over a year because I didn’t know what to do with them. I decided to take the easy option and chucked them in a big pot with some limp celery and a floppy carrot from the bottom of the fridge, simmering it all together for a few hours to make the most delicious gelatinous stock.

Next I did a quick audit of the store cupboard where I found some dried chickpeas and haricot beans which passed their sell-by date some time in 2010, so I put these to soak overnight. Not sure how I was going to bring it all together I consulted my new favourite cookbook, River Cottage Veg Everyday! for inspiration. My eye was caught by Porotas Granados aka Chilean bean and squash stew - perfect as I have lots of homegrown squash at the moment, but did I have the right spices? Yesss! A chance to use up some out-of-date paprika, dried oregano substituted for fresh, and a couple of bay leaves from the garden.

All I had to do was fry up a couple of onions with some garlic and the spices, then lob in the pulses and cook them in the stock for about an hour. Towards the end, I added the squash and the remains of a packet of frozen peas (substituting for green beans and sweetcorn in the recipe).

The result was a spicy, unctuous, soupy mix of delicious vegetables which was enough to feed the whole family, with some office lunches left over. And the dog was very grateful for the cooked pigs’ trotters so there wasn’t a scrap of waste. I did all the cooking in the simmering oven of my Aga but this recipe would lend itself perfectly to a slow cooker too, for greater energy savings.

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