What to Do with Leftover Stew ~ 10 Great Ideas
In this post ...
If you haven’t managed to eat all your dinner and have some leftover stew, don’t worry – here’s 10 ways to make the most of the situation.
And, if reading this, you are sad that you haven’t got any leftover stew then see here for how to stew or braise meat and then make plenty!
There are a great many ways to use up a bit of stew or braised meat, here are my favourite suggestions.
Soup from Leftover Stew
Depending on what sort of stew you have over you can either just dilute the remains with more stock, or possibly cream, stir into some existing soup (here are two beef soup recipes which would be great with a little leftover stew stirred in) or make up a whole new soup using my easy flexible soup recipe and include your leftovers.
Turn Leftover Stew into a Pie!
If you have enough meat leftover make a pie by simply topping it with pastry and baking or if you have just a little stew and it’s not too runny, it will be good for making turnovers.
Cottage and/or Shepherd’s Pie
It all depends on the mash!
Here’s something I didn’t know! According to The Foods of England …
Basically top the stew with mashed potato but make sure it is lovely mash! Once you have cooked the potatoes, and they are tender, drain thoroughly and leave in the pan to steam, uncovered, for a couple of minutes. Add a knob of butter and a splash of milk or cream, cover and set aside for another 5 minutes. They will now mash beautifully and taste great.
Make a Hotpot
Guidelines …
~ Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~ Cover the base of an ovenproof dish with thinly sliced potato and season with a little salt and pepper.
~ Cover with the stew.
~ Top with another layer of thinly sliced potatoes and season them too.
~ Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake till the potatoes are tender – about 30 minutes.
~ Once the potatoes are tender remove the foil, brush the potatoes with a little melted butter and return and cook a little longer to brown the potatoes.
Sauce Pasta with Leftover Stew
Here’s a picture of one I made earlier. Leftover braised steak and its accompanying sauce stirred together with penne pasta topped with pangrattato. Pangrattato is a wonderful, quick and very cheap way of upgrading almost any meal!
Add to Risotto
Stir some stew leftovers through risotto. This Black Garlic Risotto would be very receptive to a little stewed or braised beef.
Serve with Eggs
If what you have leftover is mostly the sauce from the stew, try poaching eggs in it. Here is how to poach eggs, just replace the water with delicious gravy (bits of meat in it are all to the good). Or …
Serve the stew as part of a lovely Eggs Benedict variation.
3 More Quick Ideas for Leftover Stew
~ Use to fill baked potatoes.
~ Extend the stew with beans to make enough for a meal, if it’s a beef stew maybe spice it up a and make some Chilli con Carne, for instance.
~ Eat on toast.
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
One Comment
Laurie
I love finding new ways to create a different dish for my family with leftovers. We seem to be on the same page with food and waste. Thank you for sharing