Leftovers by any other name …, continued

Anyone who knows me knows a few things about me:

1. I hate to throw anything out.


2. I love leftovers, but my family doesn’t, which brings me to ...


3. I try to disguise leftovers in every imaginable form, so my family does not recognize them as having been a previous meal — chicken pot pie, chicken soup, vegetable soup, stews of all shapes and sizes, cheesy vegetable enchiladas (really any Mexican is ideal for hiding the evidence of the previous meal).

Given all those givens, I encountered a surprising piece of information last week that made me ask: How did I miss that?!

I put on an interactive dinner party last week, and one of the dishes we made was Gazpacho. Fourteen women were cooking the meal together. When the duo that was making the gazpacho was chatting with me, one of them remarked, “We always had gazpacho growing up, my mother made it out of leftover salad.”

She what?! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. (Even if you know me pretty well, you may not know that I love gazpacho, I seldom make it, because my own family balks at cold tomato and vegetable soup.) n my defense, maybe I never thought of it, because I was never really trying to get rid of leftover salad: I grew up in a family of eight, we never had leftover salad. Even in my own family, my kids love salad, and we seldom have any leftover.

I do remember being surprised when I first met my husband’s family and found out that his Lebanese side of the family even had a name for leftover salad (mixed with day-old Syrian (pita) bread): Fatoush.

So, turning leftover salad into an entirely different dish you could actually serve to people, I love it! I mentioned it to my friend, Eileen, who is a vegetarian, and a very good cook, she said she’d only use the tomatoes and cucumbers from the leftover salad, so I tried.

I used the Gazpacho recipe from a friend I used to work with.

Vivian's blender gazpacho

5 large tomatoes, ripe and firm, divided use
3 European cucumbers, long seedless, peeled, divided use
¼ c olive oil
½ bunch green onions
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch chives
3 garlic cloves
5 dashes red wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1⅔ c beef broth
black pepper, fresh ground
1⅔ c tomato juice
1-2 dashes Tabasco

Blend 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, oil, parsley, garlic, lemon, broth, tomato juice, onion, chives, vinegar, Worcestershire, and peppers in blender briefly and place in large bowl. Chop remaining tomato and cucumber coarsely and add to soup. Stir together and refrigerate overnight before serving.

To modify it, I went with Eileen’s suggestion and just used the tomatoes and the cukes, I used leftover tomato soup instead of the tomato juice, and I didn’t have any chives. I had slightly less parsley and green onions than the recipe called for, but I was very happy with the results, and I bet it will be even better tonight or tomorrow, and next time, I’ll try with more of the salad, just to see how it goes.

As a final note, another friend said she makes meatloaf when she cleans out her fridge. As with my gazpacho recipe, I’ve never entertained deviating from my few favorite meatloaf recipes, but in the interest of wastelessness, I may expand my horizons. Check back here for the results some time soon.