Nadiya Hussain on giving scraps a new lease of life in BBC Two's Cook Once, Eat Twice

Unconvinced? A half-hour in the effervescent company of the former Bake Off winner - not to mention her thoughts about what to do with potato peelings, wilting vegetables and even the gloopy water from a can of chickpeas that we carelessly dispatch into the bin or down the sink - may get you thinking differently.

At least, that's what 39-year-old Nadiya hopes to achieve with her six-part series, Nadiya's Cook Once, Eat Twice, during which the mum-of-three showcases inventive ways to utilise leftovers and make the most of what's lurking in the murky hidden corners of the nation's fridges.

It's no surprise to anyone who has watched Nadiya cook that the series (with its accompanying book) is full of easily digestible handy tips and quick fixes - but as she ferments, preserves, blitzes and bludgeons breadcrumbs and peelings, it's also clear this show is driven by a very personal passion.

"Not wasting has been a big part of my entire life," she explains. "I grew up in an immigrant household, we lived from wage to wage, we were always saving, using up everything that we had - waste just wasn't an option. So it's something that's been ingrained in me. I will find some way of using everything; I will never, ever throw anything away."

Growing up in Luton as one of six in a second-generation British Bangladeshi family, money was tight and nothing went to waste. But it goes further than that - the family returned to Bangladesh once a year, where the relationship between humans and the food chain was consistently reinforced.

"In Bangladesh if you were to eat rice, you grew your rice; if you wanted vegetables you grew vegetables," she says. "It sounds obvious, but what happens with society now is that if you didn't grow it, you don't know how it got there, so if it gets wasted, it doesn't matter to you, and that's where the disconnect has happened.

"Today we have a culture of instant gratification where you click a button and food gets delivered to your door. And I suppose by doing a show and a book like this, we're trying to bridge that gap. By not wasting, you definitely start to understand the value of that ingredient."

• Nadiya Hussain's new book Cook Once, Eat Twice is available to order now

Her enthusiasm is infectious, but it's fair to say even the irrepressible Nadiya has something of a mountain to climb on this one: despite a cost of living crisis - and a time when we are more than aware of what industrial food production is doing to the planet - many of us, frankly, simply can't be bothered to do much else than scrape our plates into the bin and throw out the sad old carrots in the salad drawer.

"Oh I know," she agrees. "Leftovers don't have a great reputation. They're there in the fridge, clingfilmed or in some tupperware, and a day goes by, then two then five days, and you think, 'I'm just going to have to bin them.' I get it. This is about showing people that leftovers can be really fun and you can re-create them into something really amazing without using too much brain space. It honestly doesn't have to be a faff."

So how about trying Nadiya's recipe for a chickpea and chicken traybake and then using any leftovers to make her spiced chicken-topped hummus?

Nadiya shows us how to make a potato peel gratin (a crunchier version of an old favourite), clementine peel sugar and even gives instructions on how to make meringues with discarded chickpea water.

Nothing goes to waste in the Hussain household - and with peels and scraps all finding a delicious new purpose, there isn't a compost bin in sight in her kitchen - "No need," she grins, "there's a use for everything."

Nadiya also has misgivings about the British tradition of the "big weekly shop".

"If you're forcing yourself to go every Sunday, are you really thinking about what you have at home, and whether you are using those ingredients up before you go?" she asks. "For me, I find the biggest thrill is if I can stretch all my ingredients to not just one week, but maybe even 10 days or, dare I say it, 14. I love that. When we get to two weeks and the fridge is bare and my husband is suggesting we go to the shops, I'm still saying, 'We could use this or that…' I love that challenge!"

When she does go to the supermarket near the family home in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, it's armed with a list from which she doesn't deviate - other than to snap up discounted items close to their sell by date.

"I love a yellow sticker," she beams. "I'll find broccoli, carrots, that kind of stuff, prep them all and just stick them in the freezer. Bread is great for freezing, too. You can just pop a slice straight into the toaster or blitz it for breadcrumbs."

Make no mistake, though, while Nadiya is militant about not wasting a morsel she's also a mum of three teenagers - she and husband Abdal have Musa, 18, Dawud, 17, and 13-year-old daughter Maryam bringing up the rear. That means the odd takeaway and the odd bit of junk food, although she confides that her boys in particular, would happily eat their mum's homemade rice and curry every day. "My daughter likes it, too, although we get to three days and then she's like, 'It's not curry again tonight, is it?' Which is when I tell her if she doesn't want the curry, she knows where the kitchen is and she can go and make some pasta."

With even her youngest just a few years off adulthood now, she's also found herself reflecting on what the future may hold once her brood have left the nest. "Because they love their bedrooms, they'll often just chill out there, which is absolutely fine, so I'm definitely finding I've got a lot more time to myself and I see more time on the horizon, which is great. Maybe I can do some more travelling," she says. "At the same time, I'm also really dreading it - I'm definitely getting that feeling of an empty nest a little bit." Though there is, apparently, a novel solution to partially fill the void. "I have told my husband recently that I really want to get a macaw," she says. "I really, really want a beautiful macaw."

Nadiya has also recently taken up archery, although she confides she is scattergun about her hobbies. "I really love archery but I'm guilty of starting something and not fully committing to it, then I'll just stop. So we'll see." What must Abdal make of it all? "He says he can't deal with all my random ideas," she laughs.

Of course, he's used to his wife's capricious ways - they've been married for 19 years, and it's Abdal who has been by Nadiya's side since she won Bake Off in 2015, catapulting her to nationwide fame.

Television series and books followed and in 2020 she was awarded the MBE. "That was huge for me," she says. "When my grandad came to the country he was abused really badly by racists, and he was left for dead three times. But he refused to leave, because he could see that his children and grandchildren would have a better life here than in Bangladesh. And he made that sacrifice, despite knowing that he wasn't welcome. I know he would be so proud of me because he now has a granddaughter with an MBE, and it would signify belonging."

Along the way Nadiya has also opened up about the panic attacks and anxiety that have been a recurring part of her life, and says that while she was understandably apprehensive about going public, she now sees choosing to be so candid as "definitely one of the best things I did".

Today she says she has got a much better understanding of her boundaries. "It comes down to understanding my body," she reveals. "When I know that I'm feeling a little bit fragile and I'm not quite right, and I'm just struggling, I will not look at certain things; I actively protect myself. That's something that I've learnt over the last ten years - that I can't control all the external factors, but if I can manage me, that makes all the difference."

She turns 40 on Christmas Day this year, a milestone that she confides she initially felt apprehensive about, but which she has now chosen to embrace on her own terms. "I think when you get to a milestone birthday, you do feel like you have to make some big changes and that puts all this added pressure on yourself. Then I thought, 'Why am I doing this? I just want to go to Mexico.' I'm not Taylor Swift, I don't need to reinvent myself."

Instead - in a move that many of the same age will surely recognise - it's her kitchen that's getting the overhaul. "I'm finally getting the kitchen I want," she says. It will come complete with a 22-seater dining table and a sparkling water tap - though no compost bin, of course.

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Nadiya's Cook Once, Eat Twice begins at 7:30pm on Tuesday 17th September on BBC Two and iPlayer – you can order Nadiya's new Cook Once, Eat Twice companion book now.

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