I was horrified to learn in a documentary on Danish TV that there are people – quite a lot of people, by the sound of it – who throw out food for the simple reason that they can afford buying new food tomorrow.

To me, any kind of food waste is immoral, reprehensible, and unethical, and there has to be a law against it. Unless something has started to rot or gone mouldy or has otherwise morphed into some kind of health hazard, I never throw out food, but I admit I could be more creative with leftovers. Starting now:

I had some potatoes, some large white beans and some quinoa that all needed to be used up. I had fairly equal amounts, approx 260 g, and all were already boiled.

I blitzed the potatoes and the beans with 1 tsp garam masala, a half tsp paprika, a knob of fresh ginger finely chopped, and 2tblsp tomato paste, to a fine mash.

I added the quinoa, a red onion, sliced, and three garlic cloves, chopped, and blitzed a bit more but trying to leave a bit of texture this time.

I formed the mixture into patties (in this case six) and fried them for a few minutes in avocado oil. They were not easy to handle, so I shaped and flattened them once they were in the pan. I quite like the rustic look anyway, and since my plating and presentation skills are non-existent and I end up visually ruining even the nicest looking dish – who cares?

(And yes, I know the WFPB police is going to come after me for the avocado oil, but I am not ready to give up avocado oil for frying, nor olive oil and co. for salad dressings and hummus, and quite frankly, I doubt I ever will be, though I have of course reduced consumption considerably now that I know how bad they are for people who had – not to mention those who have – any form of hormone receptive cancer as apparently, they drive up estrogen levels, in addition to actually being quite highly processed.)