In praise of... leftovers

There's something very satisfying about cooking with leftovers. In fact, some of my most delicious bakes, soups and stews have been concocted using whatever is yielded by a forage in the fridge and larder. These are one-off dishes; a never-to-be repeated combination of ingredients and proportions which complement and bring out the best in each other. And then, of course, there's the deliciousness of food into which flavour has soaked, or the simplicity of leftover Christmas turkey and gravy, warmed up on Boxing Day and filling a generous, unctuous sandwich. And flavour aside, there's also the satisfaction of creative recycling, and of minimising waste - an attitude and thrift I grew up with and learned from my mother, herself the product of an era and culture in which nothing was wasted. It's an attitude which has long prevailed in convent kitchens, too, well before modern campaigns tackling food waste.

The other day I saw a tweet saying that faith, like food, is best enjoyed fresh. It then added that leftovers and ready meals are flavoursome, yes; but also lacking in that essential something a living faith would require. And whilst I can understand what the tweet meant about leftovers - that they might be past their best, stale or soggy - I also felt obliged to defend them. How could the tweeter ignore their potential for transformation into something as tasty or even tastier than their original state? And this was without even considering the desirability of using up uneaten food!

The tweeter told me I was making him smile - I hope this was with remembrance of comforting stews and creative uses of turkey. Meanwhile, I was reminded of God, with whom nothing is wasted, and for whom there are no leftovers: nothing stale or irredeemably wilted; nothing - and nobody - to be rejected or thrown away. Yes, there can be brokenness and imperfection, a lack of flavour and relish, but for God all this is simply brimming with potential for transformation, and with all the ingredients for cooking up something new and lovely...

Surely more than enough to make any of us smile!


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