Can you eat cold cooked chips?

I don’t often buy takeaways because they can be expensive compared to home made meals, are rarely as healthy and usually come in packaging (although I have been known to take my own reusable containers).

However I do buy them sometimes. Like the the other day when we needed something really quick for dinner. We had already had a big lunch and didn’t need much, so we decided to buy some chips to add cheese to at home (not the healthiest dinner we have ever eaten!). I over estimated the number of chips we could eat though and bought way too many. In fact I bought a whole portion too many!  

Happily the chips came in paper which I recycled and I brought them home in a reusable bag I had on me, so at least no packaging went in the bin!  

I didn’t want to put them in the compost, because it seemed very wasteful. But I hadn’t ever reused cold chips before. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so I had a quick search online. I found that yes you can reuse cold cooked chips – there is no good reason to chuck or compost them and there is lots that can be done with them! As long as you make sure you put them in the fridge once they have cooled down to use another day

By the way – don’t eat frozen chips that haven’t been cooked, only eat cold chips after they have been cooked. Also only use cold chips that have been stored appropriately once cooled down (i.e. in a fridge or freezer).

Storing cold cooked chips:

Put cold cooked chips in the fridge as soon as possible after they have cooled down. If you do that eat them within a couple of days. Or you can freeze them to use further down the line. Don’t eat cold chips that have been left out for more than a couple of hours

Reheating chips:

Even though you could eat cold cooked chips, you might not want to – I didn’t want to eat them cold! So another great thing you can do with them is reheat them! Make sure that you only freeze and / or reheat your cold chips once. You can’t reheat them a second time, so only reheat what you will use. You can eat them as normal once reheated or as an ingredient in another recipe. I chose to use mine up in a frittata!

Cold chip frittata recipe (serves 2-3):

Ingredients:

• 6 free range eggs (or more if needed)
• A few thin slices of cheddar cheese from a block of cheese
• A small amount of courgette and/ or mushrooms chopped up into small pieces
• Cold chips chopped into chunks

Method:

1. Fry the courgette in a little oil in a frying pan for a few minutes.
2. Then add the chips into the pan and make sure they are fully reheated.
3. Next crack the eggs into a bowl and mix them gently together with a fork.
4. Put veg and chips into an oven proof dish and spread them out evenly around the dish.
5. Pour the mixed eggs into the oven proof dish with the other ingredients in it. Make sure the ingredients are fully covered by the eggs and add more eggs if needed.
6. Top with the slices of cheese
7. Cook in the oven on a medium heat for around 40 minutes.

The frittata was really delicious and was an easy way to use up those leftover chips!

Other potential uses for cold chips include patatas bravas, leek and chip soup and more! Now I know there are so many uses for cold chips, I’ll never chuck them again! How about you – what do you do with cold chips – have you ever used them up and how did it turn out for you?

If you liked this recipe you might also like another fritatta recipe of mine – Beautiful beetroot and butternut frittata!

For more ideas for how to reduce food waste check out my many posts on the subject here: reduce your food waste blog posts