Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain from Leeds chats about her new BBC2 series

The 39-year-old British television chef, whose life changed considerably after winning the sixth series of BBC’s Great British Bake Off in 2015, was born on Christmas Day to a Bangladeshi family living in Luton, where there were strict rules about the wastage and repurposing of food: you weren’t allowed to throw anything away, even if it had mould on it.

Even though Hussain and her husband Abdal Hussain have now moved down south from Leeds with their three children, it’s this same philosophy that is applied in her home that she hopes viewers will benefit from after watching her newest BBC Two six-part cooking series Nadiya’s Cook Once, Eat Twice.

The author — Hussain will also be releasing her forthcoming cooking book of the same name — will be showing the nation how to make the most of the ingredients in your kitchen, create recipes that consider the cost-of-living crisis, and help the idea of eating something for the second time more appealing.

In each episode, the television personality will get creative with leftovers and cook two innovative meals from her “cook once, eat twice” recipes, whilst sharing her trademark tips and tricks on how to not compromise on fun, flavour or quality.

Hussain will also share how other cooks and chefs are being resourceful with food scraps and turning them into delicious meals that prove how cost-effective it can be to help save the planet one recipe at a time, whilst still keeping the use-by and best-before dates in mind.

“You’re supposed to follow whatever the use-by date says,” explains Hussain, who has also hosted the documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya and TV cookery series Nadiya’s British Food Adventure.

“But I think people get really confused by the best before [date] because often people look at it and think they better get rid of it. All that’s suggesting to you is that it’s not going to be at its best, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t use it. And so that is where I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding.

“I mean, I come from an immigrant household. We don’t throw anything away, even if it’s got mould on it. You pinch the mould off and you eat it. That’s what we would do at home because that’s just the way we were raised. But if people spoke about it more and demystified it, then I think people would throw away less [food].”

Hussain vividly remembers her parents recreating meals for her and her three sisters and two brothers, using a combination of leftovers and staple ingredients you would usually find in your cupboard, including fish curry.

“We would buy one jackfruit a year because they were really expensive and eat it. But the innards of the jackfruit can be used to cook curries as a vegetable. So part of it is a fruit, and the other part is like a vegetable, and you cook with that,” says Hussain.

“But simple things, like my parents always used orange peel. So whenever you ate an orange — it can either be a clementine or orange — I would need to put that on the window sill. That’s my life now. My window sill has always got orange peels on it, and it’s so normal for the kids.

“We dry the orange peels and would then use them for fish curries. But I also make a really delicious clementine sugar with it, and then top things like hot chocolates to sweeten to taste. It’s so good. Once you start drying clementines or oranges, I’m telling you, you’re never going to throw them away. They’re just so delicious. You can make such yummy things with them.

“And things like banana peels… So banana peels are something that I can guarantee pretty much everyone throws away, but banana peels are full of potassium, full of fibre, and really good as a vegetable in a curry. And I’ve got a really delicious banana peel curry in the series, which I think people are going to love.

“You literally just chop them up and put them in a curry, along with some spices, and onions and once you’ve cooked it down, it keeps its shape and a bit of a texture, but you would not know you were eating it.”

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When you look at the raw and cooked food that goes inside your food waste bin each week, which takes a lot of fresh water, land and labour to produce, it cannot be denied that so much of the food we cook and produce is lost or wasted. But is it an issue that is affecting this generation more?

“Food wastage is a personal mission for me,” Hussain admits. “It’s why I definitely don’t want to gatekeep because it’s a way of living that can really help you save time and money.

“I think people are much more conscious of not wasting food any more, because the cost of food has gone up so much. They may just not know how to tackle it, especially if it’s not something that comes naturally to you. People are probably thinking, ‘Where do you start? How do you start?’

“I’m really hoping that the show, alongside the book, is a stepping stone for people to say, ‘Do you know what? I can give this a go. And this does look fun, and like something I can do’. I hope it can be the thing to bridge that gap.”

You can watch Nadiya’s Cook Once, Eat Twice on BBC Two at 7.30pm each Tuesday from 17 September. Episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer weekly.