Regeneration: Food | Salad

Tip: To keep your salad fresh longer, when you get home take it out of the bag and give it a rinse under cold water, dry it with a tea towel, wrap it up and place it back in your fridge or into a container if you prefer - remember to recycle responsibly.

Broccoli Stem and All Green Soup

If your salad is starting to look past its best, a great way to use it up is by chucking it into a soup. This seriously delicious and flavoursome green soup uses up another often wasted ingredient - broccoli stems - add your herbs (stems included) and your leftover salad. Soups are really versatile and you can chop and change this with whatever you have going.

We’re also going to make croutons to go on top - great for using up leftover bits of bread and you can see more on that in episode 2 of this series.

2 large broccoli, separate florets and stem

Handful mixed salad

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 thumbsize piece ginger, roughly chopped

2 tsp olive oil (or rapeseed oil)

500ml vegetable stock

3-5 small radishes, thinly sliced and separate leaves

Bunch of leftover herbs

Salt

Black pepper

To start, preheat your oven to 200 degrees

To a large saucepan on medium heat, add you oil and once warm, add your ginger and garlic. Stir until your garlic and ginger is slightly crispy and brown. Next, add your broccoli stem and stir for a few more minutes before adding your vegetable stock. Leave to cook for 15 minutes. Once cooked, remove from heat and allow to cool for another 15 minutes before blending.

Once cool and safe to blend, add your leftover salad, herbs and radishes leaves to the saucepan. Blend to a smooth and creamy consistency with a stick blender or any blender of your choice.

To finish, pour a few heaped spoonfuls of soup into a bowl topped with sliced radishes, your homemade croutons and charred broccoli florets.

Keep in the fridge in a sealed container for 5 days or in your freezer for up to one month. Enjoy!

Green Burger with Leftover Potato Paprika Fries

My ultimate indulgence is burgers with fries - nothing beats it. Today, my burgers are meat-free and loaded with plants. Finally, a great way to use up your leftover salad and herbs into a fun and delicious burger patty. This burger is packed with protein and healthy ingredients to keep you happy and feeling satisfied.

Makes 6 burger patties

1 bunch curly parsley, stems included

1 bunch dill, stems included

Handful mixed salad

1 clove garlic, roughly chopped

1 x 400 can chickpea in water, drained and save liquid

290g can peas in water, or frozen

100g oat flour

100g chickpea flour

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Smoked paprika

2 Large Potatoes, sliced wedges

To start, preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Add your potatoes to a baking tray, drizzle 2 tsp oil, season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes until cooked and golden crispy, tossing and flipping at least once to ensure they cook evenly. In the meantime, let’s make your burger patties.

Start by chopping up your herbs and adding to a mixing bowl or food processor with your salad leaves, you can do this very roughly as we’ll be blending it later. Add a tin of chickpeas, you can save the soaking liquid which is called Aquafaba to make homemade mayonnaise, butter or even meringues. Next add peas, I’m using tinned today but you can also defrost some frozen peas and add those in instead. Blitz all this up with a stick blender until you have a thick paste, scraping the sides down as you go.

Add a teaspoon of salt and pepper, 100g of oat flour, I made this just by whizzing up oats with my hand blender, 100g of chickpea or gram flour and mix well. Take a small handful of the mixture and shape into a burger patty, placing it onto a baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, remember to flip and cook the other side after 10 minutes.

For the last few minutes of oven time, add an optional slice of cheese onto your burger patties so it melts. Now it’s time to prep your other toppings and assemble your burger. Start with a toasted bun, next I’m adding a little of my leftover herb stem pesto from episode 4, then your salad, I’m using a couple of spinach leaves, then your burger, a slice of tomato, sliced red onion, a little ketchup and there you have it.

Great for leftovers, store in a sealed container for 1 week or in your freezer for one month.

Featured image © Claudia Totir | Getty