Leftovers will be difficult. Often, you’ll have a meal so good that you just truly stay up for scarfing it down chilly the subsequent day, however that is not all the time the case. I normally have fine details of leftovers—issues I did not take care of within the first place, or stray elements I can’t appear to do away with. My curse nonetheless, is that I hate (hate!) tossing edible meals. So through the years, I’ve gotten higher at remodeling leftovers, and you may too. Listed here are my favourite methods to repurpose leftovers into unbelievable new meals.
Recipes for utilizing leftovers
I run into two kinds of leftovers: leftover meals and leftover single elements. Let’s begin with leftover meals. This part is how I like to remodel prior dinners or lunches—like sausage and peppers or hen salad— to provide them a brand new life.
Leftovers as pizza toppings
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Do I’ve a borderline downside with consuming private pizzas? Who’s to say. However that continuous expertise has given me the arrogance to say leftovers make for nice pizza toppings. If pizzerias can put chopped hen cutlets and penne on their pizza, so are you able to. Right here’s how I prefer to pizza my leftovers. All you want is a ball of thawed pizza dough from the grocery retailer and a little bit of cheese to behave as your “glue.”
Egg roll ‘em
What do the stray container of leftover brisket, the inexperienced curry hen from three days in the past, and the sausage and peppers from Sunday have in frequent? They’d all be nice with a crispy egg roll shell wrapped round them. Egg rolling your leftovers is very simple with a pack of premade wrappers that you may purchase from the refrigerated aisle of your grocery retailer. When you’ve secured your scrumptious leftovers within the middle, deep fry or air fry them for an exquisite lunch or dinner.
Stack leftovers right into a lasagna
It helps to consider leftover meals as a element that wants a brand new automobile to hold it, like pizza dough or an egg roll wrapper. Pasta noodles are a flexible predominant ingredient too. When you might toss your leftovers with spaghetti, turning all of it right into a stacked lasagna is extra spectacular, and personally I believe it’s extra appetizing. Whereas I’m utilizing Thanksgiving leftovers right here, you actually aren’t restricted to that. Boil the pasta noodles and use them to sandwich every layer of leftovers, like thinly sliced meatloaf, creamed spinach, or vegan steamed dumplings. (It’s okay to layer carbs with carbs.)
Make a pleasant brunch casserole
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Casseroles are all the time a wondrous mish-mash of elements. What makes them sliceable is the addition of some kind of flavorful binder, like eggs or cheese. I added a couple of eggs, a torn up English muffin, and shredded cheddar to the leftovers of my seven-layer dip recipe and baked it for about 20 minutes at 350°F to make this positively delicious casserole. You’ll be able to casserole something from leftover waffles to rice and beans with this technique.
Risotto your leftovers
I confirmed you methods to faux risotto with leftover rice, however you can too throw your leftovers into risotto. Risotto is one other a kind of useful carbs that act as a automobile to your once-fresh meals. Although this recipe is geared towards Thanksgiving leftovers, the idea stands for any leftover protein and veg. Make your risotto as standard and simply after you ladle within the final little bit of inventory, drop in your chopped leftovers to heat up within the pot.
Construct a satisfying sandwich
Sandwiches are like previous episodes of your favourite present—it’s your back-up while you don’t know what to observe (or eat, on this case). A leftovers sandwich is the answer when you possibly can’t work out what to do with that large casserole out of your cousin’s brunch social gathering. Since leftovers will be irregularly formed (versus sliced deli meats), I recommend grabbing giant slices of bread and probably leaving them untoasted. Then the delicate texture can hug and maintain onto the fillings higher. Listed here are some methods you possibly can tweak a sandwich to make it much more pleasant.
Make the most effective oatmeal of your life
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
For the longest time, I believed I hated oatmeal. It seems, I used to be simply not including sufficient enjoyable stuff to it. Oats are bland, which makes them a horrible predominant occasion, however an amazing supporting act for different bolder elements. Your leftover dishes from the week are already cooked and filled with taste. Merely make a batch of savory oatmeal and nestle your hen parmesan, Thai gaeng keow-wan curry, or vegetable korma into the bowl with it. Here is my recipe for spicy, savory oatmeal with herbs and kimchi.
Recipes for frequent leftover elements
This part is dedicated to my most typical leftover elements. These are issues that perhaps haven’t made it right into a full meal but—like uncooked celery or cooked leftover rice—however they’re residing their final moments in my fridge. I’ll lean on these recipes to maintain them from changing into trash.
The various iterations of leftover rice
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
There was a 12 months or two that I might order Chinese language meals take-out regularly, and find yourself with tubs of additional rice stacked up in my freezer. A day of reckoning would come as soon as a month once I would should determine one thing out, or I’d don’t have any freezer house. So I’ve a couple of approach to make use of up leftover rice. This crispy rice cake, this faux risotto, and this comforting rice salad are all good to take into account.
The issue with celery
Celery is a kind of elements that may hang-out your crisper drawer for 100 years. I’m not even exaggerating, it truly grows extra stalks whereas it is in there. Its solely attraction is how crunchy it’s, so I wouldn’t suggest egg rolling it or placing it on pizza. My answer for unused stalks is to make this salad which depends on skinny, diagonal slices to keep up crunch however cut back “stringiness.” The French dressing provides a lot wanted taste, the Thai chili wakes up your palate, and the laborious boiled eggs create a extra satiating dish.
Leftover pie crust
Whether or not it is store-bought pie crust sitting in your freezer otherwise you by no means acquired round to utilizing the opposite half of that double-crust pie dough recipe, there is not any purpose to let that flaky pastry go to waste. Use it to make a filling quiche and blend in any leftover greens you might need within the fridge. Avoiding eggs to save cash? That is fantastic, use this recipe to make a lazy pot pie along with your leftover crust and a can of creamy hen soup.
Further laborious boiled eggs
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Boiled eggs make an amazing on-the-run snack, so I’ll usually cook dinner up a bunch initially of the week and maintain them within the fridge. However some weeks will wrap up and I’ll have a couple of that I by no means acquired to. Except I really feel like crushing three or 4 chilly eggs, so as a substitute I’ll make a yam kai dao salad. Shallow frying the hard-cooked eggs give them an interesting crispy-chewy exterior and the lime and fish sauce dressing creates a taste profile you’ll stay up for consuming once more with subsequent week’s eggs.
Chilly plain pasta
I discover it infuriating that the “correct” serving of dry pasta is 2 ounces. I want to eat a pound of it however alas, I’ve been shamed by society, so I’ll begrudgingly put the supposed additional in a container for the subsequent day. With this intelligent trick, I now stay up for leftover pasta. This works for each plain boiled pasta or pasta that has a lightweight coating of sauce. Add butter to a frying pan and tip the chilly carbs into the melted butter. Stir and loosen the pasta because it warms up after which let it fry so it will get crispy and brown on the underside. Serve it instantly to get pleasure from the brand new crunchy-soft texture of your stir-fry-revived pasta.
That half-can of coconut milk
Sort of just like the cup of puréed pumpkin I didn’t want for a recipe, I’ll sometimes find yourself with an unused portion of coconut milk in my fridge. I don’t notably prefer it in my espresso, however that flavorful, fatty present from nature can’t be wasted. Though you possibly can freeze it, I made a decision one of the simplest ways to make use of it up can be to capitalize on its inherent richness and make it into an expensive coconut pudding for one. This straightforward recipe makes use of a cherry compote to high it off however you might substitute one other fruit, jam, or go with out and let the silky coconut converse for itself.
