Launched in Great Big Green Week (7th – 15th June 2025) these recipes from Stokesley School turn waste into great taste.
Recipes for all seasons that help the planet and your pocket
In the UK tonnes of food goes to waste everyday because people buy or prepare more than they can use or don’t store it well enough before starts to go bad. This harms the environment – wasted food and drink creates millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – and families lose £17 billion each year through food going to waste.
Students (and the assistant head!) from Stokesley School & Sixth Form College Green Group have come up with these delicious recipes which make the most of food that might have otherwise gone to waste to tempt your tastebuds all year round.
Summer
The sun is shining – time for a picnic! These cookies are quick to make and easy to take along for outside eating.
Charlie’s Compost Cookies
Set the oven to 170oC / 150oC fan. Make a cookie dough by creaming 225g butter in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or in a stand mixer until it is soft. Add 110g caster sugar and keep beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Sift in 275g plain flour then add any sweet and / or savoury leftovers hiding in the back of cupboards from this list (or think of your own!): dried fruit, crushed cornflakes, oats, potato crisps, crushed salted peanuts, grated cheese, chocolate sprinkles, desiccated coconut, herbs, spices.
Bring the mixture together with your hands until it forms a dough. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place them slightly apart from each other on a baking sheet (you don’t need to butter or line it). Flatten the balls a little and bake them in the oven for around 10-12 mins until they are golden brown and slightly firm on top. Leave to cool on a cooling rack for around 15 mins before serving.
Charlie says “The result is delicious and affordable and you can make multiple cookies with different random ingredients!”
Summer is also barbeque time but what can you do if you bought too many sausages?
Paloma’s Leftover Toad in the Hole
Ingredients: 8 leftover sausages, 1 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil; for the pancake mixture – 100g plain flour, 300ml semiskimmed milk, 2 eggs mixed together
Method
1. Whisk the pancake ingredients together.
2. Place a roasting tin in a preheated oven (200oC / 180oC fan) with the oil, when hot add sausages and pour pancake mixture over.
3. Place in oven and cook for about 30 minutes & serve with gravy and veg of your choice.
Autumn
Time for making halloween pumpkins! We may use the flesh for soup but did you know the seeds can make a tasty snack?
Ellie’s Savoury Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients: Pumpkin seeds (leftover from carving your lantern); crushed garlic cloves, garlic paste or garlic powder; vegetable oil; salt
Method:
1. Set your oven to 150-170oC
2. Wash and dry the pumpkin seeds, put them into a bowl with the oil and garlic and mix, making sure the seeds are well coated, cover the bowl and leave it for 30 mins.
3. Spread the seeds out onto a baking tray and sprinkle with salt & put into the oven to cook for up to 30 minutes, checking that they don’t burn.
4. Take them out when they turn golden brown, let them cool then enjoy!
Winter
At Christmas we love our food but we can end up with lots left over. These recipes turn waste into taste!
Grace’s Stir-fried Turkey with Pine Nuts and Green Peppers
Ingredients:
3 tbsps rapeseed oil, 50 g/2 oz pine nuts; 1 thinly sliced onion; 2.5 cm/1 inch piece of peeled and thinly sliced fresh root ginger; 2 green peppers, cored, deseeded and cut lengthways into thin strips; 500 g/1 lb leftover cooked turkey, cut diagonally into thin strips; salt and pepper
Sauce: 2 tsp cornflour; 2 tbsp water; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 2 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry; 1 tbsp wine vinegar; 1 garlic clove, crushed; 1 tsp soft dark brown sugar
Method:
1 Make the sauce by blending the cornflour and water, add the remaining sauce ingredients and set aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a wok, add the pine nuts and toss for 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
3. Gently stir-fry the onion, ginger and green peppers in the remaining
oil for 3-4 minutes until softened but not coloured. Remove and set aside.
4. Stir-fry the turkey for 1-2 minutes until heated through.
5. Whisk the sauce, add to the wok and bring to the boil, stirring until it has thickened. Add the pepper mixture and toss to mix, then add the
pine nuts and toss again. Season to taste and serve with Chinese noodles – yum!
Dr Reed’s Cheesy Potatoes
(see front of leaflet)
Ingredients: 5 medium sized potatoes, 50g butter, double cream (half a pot leftover from making a trifle), Christmas Ham (leftover from Boxing Day buffet), Soft Cheese (leftover from making a cheesecake!), remnants of cheeseboard (all varieties welcome)
Method:
1. Thinly slice peeled potatoes
2. Chop butter into small cubes and thinly slice or shred ham
3. Layer potatoes, butter, ham, soft cheese and double cream in a heatproof dish. Continue to layer until all potatoes are used.
4. Top potatoes with vast quantities of crumbled or grated cheese – Somerset Red, Parmesan, Roquefort and Manchego were used.
5. Cover and cook for 50 mins for 180° until potatoes are soft. Remove foil and turn heat up to 200° for 5-10 mins to crisp cheese topping.
6. Serve!
Spring
Who doesn’t like chocolate at Easter but what can you do with too much chocolate? This delicious recipe also uses up bananas which can quickly go soft and brown but are still edible!
Mia’s Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients: 1 very ripe banana (peeled weight 100g/4oz); 1 tbsp milk; 50g/2oz soft butter or baking spread; 75g/3oz plain flour; 75g/3oz caster sugar; ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda; ½ tsp baking powder; 1 free-range egg; 50g/2oz dark chocolate broken into small chips
To decorate (optional): 50g/2oz dark chocolate
Method
1. Preheat the oven 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3. Grease and line a 450g/1lb loaf tin with baking paper.
2. Use a fork to mash the peeled banana in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining cake ingredients (except the chocolate chips) and beat with an electric hand whisk until combined and smooth.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Level the top.
4. Bake for 40–45 minutes or until well risen, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and golden-brown. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
5. For the optional decoration, break the chocolate into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl. Melt the chocolate in the bowl over a pan of simmering water (ensuring that the bowl does not touch the water). Stir regularly, until almost completely melted, then remove from the heat. The heat of the bowl will melt any remaining lumps. Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe zig-zags across the top of the loaf. Set aside for the chocolate to set. Slice and serve to your favourite people!
CASaV Leaflets
This page is also available as one of a series of CASaV Leaflets, so you can download a printable pdf here – double sided tri-fold leaflet or an editable version which you can make your own and use for your group – OpenOffice document.
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 