This Christmas lunch is the heart of the Aotearoa holiday season – a spectacular spread of ham, roast potatoes and pavlova. But often our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, leading to a massive problem: Christmas food waste.
While we’ve worked on tackling decorations and wrapping, did you know that households in New Zealand are responsible for significant food waste? and this number surges over the holidays.
It’s time to become Leftover Champions! Here are the best ways to plan, store and creatively use every last crumb of your festive feast.
The Pre-Feast Plan: Buy Only What You Need.
The single most effective way to reduce food waste is to avoid overbuying in the first place. A little planning goes a long way!
- The Headcount: Lock in your final guest count before hitting the shops. Don’t forget to account for the dishes guests might be bringing.
- Use a Portion Calculator: Don’t guess the size of your ham or the number of potatoes and kumara. Use a simple online calculator (or a rule of thumb) to determine meat weights and vegetable quantities per person.
- Be Specific with Guests: If you ask a guest to “bring a salad”, you might end up with three Ceasar salads. Ask them to bring a specific dish, or better yet, a specific ingredient (e.g,. “Could you bring the cheeseboard?”).
- Shop Loose: Choose loose fruit and vegetables (like potatoes and carrots) over pre-packed bags so you only buy the exact quantity you require.
Post-Feast Action: Storage and Salvage
Once the main event is over, the clock is ticking, especially in the NZ summer heat. Proper, immediate storage is the secret weapon against food spoilage.
Cool Down and Store Immediately
- 2-Hour Rule: Perishable items, especially cooked meats like turkey or ham, should not be left out for more than two hours in the heat. Break them down and get them into the fridge or freezer quickly.
- Free Up Space: Declutter your freezer before Christmas Day. Cooked ham, leftover roast veg and even gravy freeze beautifully in airtight containers.
- The Ham Bone: Don’t throw the carcass away! Simmer the leftover ham bone in a pot of water with vegetables (like carrots and celery) to make a rich, flavourful stock for soups and risottos later.
The Compost Corner
Even with the best intentions, some scraps are inevitable (peelings, bones, plate-scraps).
- Council Food Scrap Services: Check if your local council (e.g., Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch) offers a dedicated food scrap collection service, often alongside your standard recycling or waste bins. If they do, use it for food scraps, bones and oil-soaked napkins. The waste gets commercially composted, not sent to landfill where it creates harmful methane gas.
- Worm Farms & Composting: If your council doesn’t offer a service, look into setting up a simple backyard compost bin or a worm farm (great for small scraps!). You can also use apps like ShareWaste to find a neighbour who has a bin or worm farm that can take your scraps.
Leftover Champions: Creative Recipe Ideas
| The Leftover | The Transformation |
| Ham | Ham or cheese toasties/jaffles (perfect for the beach picnic!) or try Cuban Sandwiches using a baguette and pickles. |
| Roast Turkey / Chicken | Curry or Fried Rice: Shred the meat and toss it in a curry or fried rice for a light, flavourful post-Christmas meal. |
| Roast Vegetables | Frittata or Soup: Blend roasted pumpkin or kumara into a creamy soup, or chop and mix all the leftover veg with eggs and cheese for a fantastic lunchtime frittata. |
| Pudding / Cake | Trifle Base or Bliss Balls: Crumble the cake/pudding and layer it with custard and cream for a quick trifle, or mix it with some cream cheese for simple holiday bliss balls. |
This Christmas, let’s make a commitment to honouring the resources that went into our feast. Planning ahead and becoming a Leftover Champion is the perfect way to cap off a truly sustainable Kiwi holiday.