Using up your Christmas leftovers

Christmas Day may only have been a couple of days ago, but chances are those sprouts, red cabbage or parsnips will still be sitting in your veg basket in another few days and starting to look a bit sorry for themselves. The same goes for that box of dates or the remaining half of your honeydew melon. The solution? Time to get creative!

Don't feel that you have to stick with any rules about which veg or fruit goes with which dish. The only limit is your imagination. Try these few ideas to get you started.

• While roasting is the traditional way to serve parsnips, they are lovely in a soup with ginger, can be mashed with potato or other root veg as an accompaniment or topping for a pie, or why not make parsnip crisps?
• Red cabbage can really be used in any dishes that their white or green cousins are, so for coleslaw, stir-fries, colcannon or stuffed cabbage parcels, add a splash of colour.
• Similarly, sprouts can just be treated like mini cabbages. Experiment by adding various herbs and spices to off-set their slightly bitter taste.
• Carrots are easy to use up, as they lend themselves so well to soups, stews, curries, spag bol, chilli or again add them to a root mash.
• Cauliflower and broccoli are always a favourite in a cheese sauce, but chopped up small they make a nice addition to salads, stir-fries, fish pies or can be served with dips.
• Dates, or other larger dried fruit for that matter, can be halved and stuffed with a small amount of marzipan to make a festive sweet. Or why not chop them and add to muesli, cereal, stewed fruit, yoghurt, cake mixture or allow them to soak up a good slosh of brandy and serve them as a pudding with a scoop of ice cream?
• Melon balls can be frozen then used as ice cubes for cocktails or soft drinks. Chilled melon soup can also make a refreshing change for a starter.
• Juice the remaining satsumas and use this to stew cranberries, to compliment carrots in a soup or freeze in an ice cube tray to add to the Buck's Fizz at New Year.
• Fruit salad might have seemed such a good idea, but with the option of Christmas pudding, chocolate log and cheesecake, it was over-shadowed. Whizz up your remaining fruit salad to make a smoothie - add extra juice to thin it or a banana if thickening is required. Adding some yoghurt and oats to this smoothie makes for a very filling breakfast - just what you need when you've got a day of shopping at the sales ahead of you!

Yes, there are still the courgettes, cherry tomatoes and the lonely pomegranate left, but I'll leave you to think about what you can create with those!