Forgotten Recipes, Forgotten Solutions: How Food Recycling Was Always Part of Our Culture

A friend I visit regularly loves to cook. Well, a lot of people — including me — like to cook. But the difference with this particular friend is that no food is wasted in her home because she creatively repurposes leftover food and makes a new recipe. This led me to think about food waste and how culturally communities have been reusing and recycling food in their homes.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one-third of all global food produced is wasted each year, amounting to nearly 1.3 billion tonnes of food annually. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) further estimates that food loss and waste account for 8–10 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet when one reflects, there was a time when the very idea of “waste” hardly existed in our kitchens. Food was recycled, repurposed, and celebrated in ways that today’s climate experts would applaud. New recipes were created from leftovers. In fact, some of our most popular dishes were born from this ingenuity.

Take paneer, for example. A popular vegetarian option today was traditionally not made from fresh milk. It was born out of resourcefulness — from milk that had already gone sour. Instead of discarding it, households transformed it into a nutritious, versatile food used in curries, snacks, and sweets. What started as a way to reuse dried, leftover rotis became khakra, the long-lasting snack we carry on every vacation. In Assam, families would prepare pointa bhaat — leftover rice soaked overnight in water. It was cooling in the summer, easy on the stomach, and, a natural probiotic dish. In Punjab, the remains of last night’s dal would often find new life the next day — stuffed into wheat dough to make rich, hearty dal parathas. In Maharashtra, stale chapatis were torn into pieces, stir-fried with onion, spices, and jaggery to create the delicious phodnichi poli. Down south, leftover idli or dosa batter would be repurposed into soft, flavorful kuzhi paniyaram or a wholesome upma.

Bengal had its own version of recycling rice — frying cold rice with mustard oil, chilies, and onions into a fragrant breakfast dish. In Odisha, pakhala bhata, similar to Assam’s pointa bhaat, turned old rice into a cooling, fermented staple. Leftover rotis across North India often found their way into sweet treats like churma, made by crushing them with ghee and jaggery. Even vegetable peels were never wasted: lauki or pumpkin peels became chutneys, ridge gourd peels were turned into tangy thogayal in Tamil Nadu, and potato skins fried into crispy snacks delighted children and adults alike. Leftovers never tasted the same, it was always a new dish.

These dishes weren’t just acts of thrift. They reflected a culture that valued resources, respected food, and saw creativity in constraint. Before refrigerators, microwaves, and the culture of excess, households were naturally climate-conscious. Food was sun-dried, pickled, or fermented — methods that not only preserved it but enhanced its flavors. Think of achaar that kept vegetables edible for months, or papads made from seasonal produce to be enjoyed year-round.

Contrast this with today. In India alone, about 68 million tonnes of food are wasted each year (UNEP & WRAP, Food Waste Index 2021; NDTV report). Globally, about 931 million tonnes of food were wasted in 2019, even as millions faced hunger (UNEP).

As the world grapples with this challenge, many countries are now creating policies that echo the wisdom of traditional kitchens. In France, supermarkets are legally prohibited from destroying unsold food; instead, they must donate it to charities or for animal feed. In Japan, the Food Recycling Law diverts waste into fertilizers, livestock feed, or bioenergy. The European Union has pledged to halve per capita food waste by 2030, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.

As we search for solutions to the climate crisis, it may be time to return to these traditions. Food recycling is not a modern invention — it is a cultural wisdom we have ignored. By reviving these practices in our homes and communities, we not only reduce waste but also reconnect with a way of life that was inherently sustainable.

What’s a dish from your home that reuses leftovers in creative ways? I’d love to hear your stories and recipes.