MasterChef dads, compost and food banks: how I saved my recipe box leftovers from the bin

Can I interest you in 23 sachets of soy sauce and half a kilo of golden linseed? If not, they’ll probably live quite happily in the back of my cupboard until a clear-out in 2032. The glut of organic potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot and aubergines I was left holding after my test to find the best recipe boxes and meal kits had a more limited shelf life.

Reduced waste is one of the top benefits of recipe box services, especially those that deliver only the exact measures of ingredients you need for the recipes you choose. But I tested nine of these services at once – including some that attempted to curry favour by sending me multiple boxes containing multiple recipes.

I tried to minimise waste by distributing recipes to my extended family. When I gently nudged my 86-year-old dad, Don, to ease off the Sainsbury’s ready meals and do a little light cooking, he responded by turning out dishes that’d make the MasterChef final. My sister, Maeve, made a magnificent HelloFresh cheeseburger, and my husband, Alan, now spends Sunday afternoons perfecting Grubby’s butternut squash biryani while I lie in the bath (to “give him space in the kitchen”).

That still left a lot of uneaten veg, fruit and bread, though. By handy coincidence, my local council launched its food waste collection bin while I was running this test, but the key word there is “waste”. I didn’t want to be its number one contributor from the off.

Don’t get me wrong, the stuff was gorgeous. Even for a dedicated fruit and veg fondler like me – who always buys fresh food in person because I fear being sent afterthought apples and leftover lettuce by online supermarket deliveries – the produce sent by Riverford, Gousto and co was stunning. Opening some of those boxes made my face light up like John Travolta with the Pulp Fiction briefcase.

A few surplus ingredients lent themselves well to batch-cooking (Riverford’s red pepper sauce is filling a drawer of our freezer), while others are now feeding next year’s flowerbeds via my 300L Divchi composter.

Flexible subscriptions save on waste

Recipe for success: prudent use of a meal-kit subscription box should minimise leftovers. Photograph: Jane Hoskyn/The Guardian

After we’d eaten, batch-frozen and composted our way through what we could, Alan and I filled a few tote bags with excess packs of chickpeas, beans, seeds, pastes, purees, rice and pasta, and donated them to a pop-up food bank run by the Big Difference in Southampton. You can find your own donation points using the Give Food website.

You’re unlikely to end up with any food waste if you use recipe box services the way they’re meant to be used. All the companies I tested have flexible subscription models that let you cancel after a single box, or pause your orders indefinitely. You only ever need to order enough food to leave your family’s plates clean and your mini-bin empty.

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Editor’s pick

What lies beneath? Probably sweat, dead skin and dust mite poo if you don’t clean your mattress. Photograph: Towfiqu Ahamed/Getty Images

A lot of you are concerned about the cleanliness of your mattress, judging by how well read our piece on how to clean a mattress was this week. And with talk of sweat, dead skin and dust mite poo, is it any wonder? So perhaps it’s time to strip your bed, dig out your handheld vacuum and bicarbonate of soda, and give it a good going over?

While you’re at it, it may be time to check the state of your mattress protector. These “help to decrease exposure [to allergens] by creating a physical barrier against dust mites”, said expert Dr José Costa, senior allergy consultant at the Children’s Allergy Clinic. The bamboo one we recommended from Panda is naturally antibacterial.

Hannah Booth
Editor, the Filter

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We reviewed the best e-readers last autumn, and to no one’s surprise, Kindle’s Paperwhite model came out on top – providing “a beautiful canvas for novels”, our reviewer Andrew Williams wrote. But if you want to upgrade, or try a new brand, he also rated the Kobo Libra Colour and the more affordable Kobo Clara.

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Peace, and love: got an outfit that changed your life for the better? Let us know the where and why. Photograph: SolStock/Getty Images

Have you ever bought something – a kitchen gadget, a dress, a piece of exercise kit – that changed your life so much, you wished you’d bought it sooner? If so, let us know what – and why you love it so much – by replying to this newsletter, or emailing us at [email protected].