One Million Loaves might seem a bit niche, a site devoted to recipes for good food from old bread. But every day, an estimated one million loaves are thrown away in British households. This site offers recipes that treat bread as a versatile, everyday ingredient just like pasta or rice. If we want to avoid food waste to protect the planet, we need to find more ways to use old bread. And, as chef Massimo Bottura puts it, ‘a recipe … is a solution to a problem’.

One Million Loaves is partly inspired by archive finds from the past and by different national and regional traditions. Some of the recipes are fairly inexpensive and undemanding; others require the luxury of time and a bit more money. Some demand fancy bread while others are perfect for white sliced.

One Million Loaves is NOT about eating sad and unappetising food to use up old bread. It is also not about ersatz dishes that fashion bread into sailing boats or pirate hats. It’s about things you might actually choose to eat. It is also not a preachy site – and, if it were, I should certainly practice what I preach much more. It’s just some inspiration – for me and you – about how to eat nice things and avoid wasting bread.

If you are one of the thousands of volunteers who use supermarket surplus to produce community meals, you may often be inundated with old bread. Hopefully some of the more economical and flexible recipes here will offer some ideas that offer something new to do with those bread gluts.

One Million Loaves is also definitely NOT about eating mouldy bread. That is the stuff of science experiments and health warnings. I do not advise it.

Sharing One Million Loaves

Please share recipes by giving a link to the website. The very point of this site is to get as many people as possible to reduce their food waste.

But please do not steal these recipes and present them as your own. Tell people where you found them. I credit my sources (and they are crucial inspiration for the recipes here). I expect you to do the same.

I will very happily write for money.

Get in touch

Please do! I’m sure you have lots more ideas than me so I’d love to hear them. Constructive criticism is really welcome. If you’d like me to work on a project, I’m keen to hear. If you’d like me to contribute to something, I’m all ears. But if you just want to say hello, that would be lovely.