Don’t Throw It Out: Almost Empty Jam Jar

You know when your jam is almost finished, and getting the dregs out with a knife requires too much effort? Don’t throw it out. Make a jam jar salad dressing!

I love opening new jams. And I get impatient with those jars that have just a tiny, unappealing bit lying at the bottom and around the sides. Well, the best way to use this up and not commit the sin of throwing perfectly good food away, is to make jam jar salad dressing. It makes perfect sense. We’re bored of the flavour on our toast, so we mix it up with oil and vinegar (or whatever our imagination tell us to) and pour it over a salad. And the best part? No trying to get it all out of the jar. We just combine all the ingredients in it and shake shake shake. This cleans the jar and uses up all the precious jam that would otherwise be wasted, and saves us from washing yet another bowl. Genius.

In terms of flavours, all jams work. Marmalade too. I might even try a chutney at some point as well. For very sweet red jams balsamic vinegar is perfect, and for anything orange coloured (e.g. apricot jam, marmalade etc) I have a feeling a splash of soy sauce might work well, together with some rice vinegar. If your marmalade is quite bitter, the dressing might benefit from a touch of honey. And anything else your imagination can conjure. Oil of course is a must, as is salt and pepper.

Here I used our sweet yellow pepper and almond jam, the one developed for charity by myself and the companies Simply Greek and Amvrosia Gourmet. It made the perfect salad dressing. Go ahead, see what combinations you can come up with.