Letitia Paul won $5,000 with her leftover recipe.

Leftover recipe wins big

When Bay of Plenty woman Letitia Paul entered the Best Foods Best Kiwi Recipe Challenge, she never thought she'd win the competition with a recipe of leftovers.

Letitia's prizing-winning recipe was born out of combining leftover meat and vegetables with a large dollop of mayonnaise, to make crumbed croquettes.

Her recipe for Boil up Croquettes took top honours in the challenge, and she walked away with a prize of $5000.

'There was one day left to enter the competition,” explains Letitia, 'so I stayed up all night thinking about the classic Kiwi recipes I'd made in the past using mayonnaise.

'I really wanted to win in order to help get my family ahead, so I submitted four recipes, including the Boil up Croquettes, and it has really paid off!”

With her recipe taking out the completion vote on Facebook, Letitia won a prize of $5000.

She says the money will go towards her small coffee cart business and her crusade to help other families working within tight food budgets.

Letitia's own experience with food budgeting began two years ago. Alongside her husband, they left jobs in Auckland to buy a home and a coffee cart in Rotorua, but found it difficult to make ends meet - especially during the winter months.

Letitia began growing her own vegetables and started cooking and baking everything from scratch.

'I would surprise myself with what I came up with,” she says, 'and thought that other people going through a similar situation could benefit from these recipe, too.

'I still can't believe my bowl of leftovers won me $5000!”

Letitia's Boil up Croquettes Recipe:

Makes: 18-20 balls

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

A medium sized bowl of leftover boil up, vegetables or any leftovers you have available.

2 large dollops of Best Foods Mayonnaise

2 eggs

2 cups of bread crumbs seasoned with:

1 tsp. salt

Vegetable oil to shallow fry

Method:

Chop any leftover vegetables into small pieces and mash any potatoes or kumara. Place into a large bowl.

Drain the liquid from the boil up. Strip all meat off all bones and stir into the vegetable mix.

Season to taste and add the Best Foods Mayonnaise.

Roll your mix into small balls and place on a lined tray. Refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Remove the croquettes from the freezer and coat them in egg wash and dip into the breadcrumb mixture.

Heat a large frying pan with cooking oil and shallow fry the croquettes until golden and crunchy. Set aside to cool for five minutes and serve with Best Foods Mayo dipping sauce.

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