A roast dinner often leaves behind more than just the meat that gets carved and served, including bones, small scraps and vegetables that never quite made it onto the plate. Rather than letting these go to waste, they make an excellent starting point for a simple, warming soup the following day.
The bones and any remaining scraps can be gently simmered in water for a good while, drawing out flavour slowly rather than trying to rush the process with high heat. A slow, steady simmer produces a far richer result than a hard boil ever could.
Add vegetables and remaining meat later
Once the base has simmered long enough, it can be strained to remove the solids, leaving a flavourful liquid ready to build the soup around. Any small pieces of meat picked from the bones can then be added back in, along with fresh or leftover vegetables.
Root vegetables that are starting to look a little tired work particularly well in this kind of soup, since long, gentle cooking softens them and blends their flavour into the whole. This is often a good way to use up vegetables that might otherwise be thrown away.
The finished soup can be portioned and kept for a few days, offering a second round of meals from a single roast without much extra effort. A single roast dinner can, in this way, quietly stretch across several meals through the week.
With this simple approach, very little from a roast bird needs to go to waste, and the following days benefit from a warming, home-made soup instead. It turns what might otherwise be scraps into a meal in its own right, with barely any extra shopping required.
