Are your empty jars, bottles and tins really empty? I’m willing to bet there’s still life in them yet!

I can see @througheye rolling his eyes as he reads this and he’ll tell you that he regularly gets told off for putting a jar or bottle in the wash ready for recycling before I think it’s empty. It’s the same in the bathroom with the toothpaste tube and shampoo 🙂

Lots of people I work with already do this, but if you don’t, it’s a good place to start getting into the habit. When you’ve emptied a tin of tomatoes, put some water in the tin and swirl around to pick up any bits of tomato that are left then add them to your dish. Quite often you’ll need water for your recipe anyway so it saves on getting out a measuring jug.

Pour warm water into a @marmite jar when you’ve scraped out what you can, give it a shake and add it to a stew, chilli, ragu or Bolognese for extra umami flavour. The method can be used with your tomato sauce (Ketchup) and concentrated stock bottles.

The last scrapings of mayonnaise or mustard in a jar could be used to help make a dressing. Add garlic, lemon juice or a vinegar of your choice, oil, salt and pepper to your mustard jar and give it a good shake. Taste to check the balance of flavours then dress your salad. To the mayonnaise jar, add a little natural yoghurt, lemon juice, pepper, garlic and a drop of water (you could also add tahini, harissa or other flavourings). Again give it a good shake, taste, adjust and dress a slaw or salad.

Add warm milk to your empty chocolate spread jar and you’ve got yourself a hot chocolate. You might need to warm it further once you’ve given your jar a good shake and poured it into your cup.

Nut butters are notoriously difficult to get every last bit out of the jar. A good flexible spatula is helpful but I’m sure there’s more that can be done! Anyone got a good suggestion?