Recipes that use up the rest of the pack

Most food waste at home is not leftovers from the plate. It is the second half of something you bought for a single recipe: the rest of the coriander, three of the four lemongrass stalks, the jar of paste that gets used once. The fix is boring and works: when one dinner needs an awkward ingredient, pick another dinner the same week that needs it too.

Kimchi Fried Rice + Gochujang Tofu Rice Bowls

Shares: the jar of gochujang. A jar of gochujang lasts months in the fridge, but most recipes use a tablespoon. Two Korean dinners in the same week get it moving, and both want the same bag of rice.

Kimchi Fried Rice20 min · 16 g proteinGochujang Tofu Rice Bowls20 min · 26 g protein

Lemongrass Pork Rice Bowls + Lemongrass Tofu Noodle Bowl

Shares: the lemongrass and fish sauce. Lemongrass comes in a pack of three or four stalks and goes woody in a week. Pair a pork night with a tofu night and the pack is gone, along with the lime and the fish sauce.

Lemongrass Pork Rice Bowls20 min · 35 g proteinLemongrass Tofu Noodle Bowl20 min · 30 g protein

Black Bean Quesadillas + Veggie Black Bean Chilli

Shares: the tins of black beans and the coriander. The quesadillas want half a tin and half a bunch of coriander; the chilli happily takes the rest of both. Make the chilli first and the leftover chilli is a quesadilla filling too.

Black Bean Quesadillas15 min · 40 g proteinVeggie Black Bean Chilli35 min · 15 g protein

Creamy Miso Mushroom Pasta + Miso Salmon Udon Soup

Shares: the tub of miso. Miso keeps for ages but nobody finishes it. A creamy pasta midweek and a quick salmon soup at the weekend use a decent amount, and the spring onions are shared.

Creamy Miso Mushroom Pasta20 min · 22 g proteinMiso Salmon Udon Soup20 min · 35 g protein

Doing this without thinking about it

You can do this by hand with a notepad, and plenty of people do. Quickle does it as part of building the week: when it plans seven dinners it knows what each one buys, so the basket shows every pack with how many dinners use it and what is left over. Swap a dinner and the leftovers update. It is the quiet reason a Quickle week costs less than the same dinners picked one at a time.

See a full week priced at your shop: Tesco · Aldi · Sainsbury's · Asda · Morrisons · All guides