My 10 Favorite Ways to Liven up Leftovers
Leftovers can be tricky. Sometimes food tastes so good that you look forward to eating it cold the next day, but that’s not always the case. I usually end up with leftovers—things I didn’t care for in the first place, or random ingredients I can’t get rid of. However, my curse is that I hate (hate!) throwing away edible food. So, over the years, I’ve gotten better at recycling leftovers, and you can too. Here are my favorite ways to turn leftovers into incredible new dishes.
Recipes for restoring leftover food
I come across two types of leftovers: food leftovers and individual ingredient leftovers. Let’s start with leftovers. In this section, I talk about how I like to transform previous dinners or lunches—like sausage and peppers or chicken casseroles—to give them new life.
Leftovers as pizza toppings
Do I have a borderline problem with eating personal pizza ? Who will say what? But this ongoing experience has given me confidence that leftovers make great pizza toppings. If pizzerias can add chopped chicken tenders and penne to their pizza, then so can you. This is how I like to make leftover pizza . All you need is a ball of thawed pizza dough from the grocery store and some cheese to act as the “glue.”
Egg roll
What do an abandoned container of leftover brisket, green chicken curry from three days ago, and sausage and peppers from Sunday have in common? They all taste great when wrapped in a crispy eggshell. Wrapping leftover eggs is easy with a package of pre-made egg wraps that you can buy in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. Once you’ve placed the delicious leftovers in the center, deep-fry or air fry them for the perfect lunch or dinner.
Fold leftovers into lasagna
It’s helpful to think of leftovers as a component that requires a new vehicle to transport, such as pizza dough or egg roll wrappers. Pasta is also a versatile base ingredient. While you can toss the leftovers into spaghetti, turning it all into folded lasagna is more impressive and I personally think it’s more appetizing. While I’m using Thanksgiving leftovers here , you’re certainly not limited to that. Boil the pasta noodles and use them to layer each layer of leftovers, such as thinly sliced meatloaf, creamed spinach, or steamed vegan dumplings. (You can layer carbohydrates with layers of carbohydrates.)
Risotto, your leftovers
I showed you how to make risotto with leftover rice, but you can also toss leftovers into risotto . Risotto is another one of those healthy carbohydrates that acts as a vehicle for a once-fresh meal. While this recipe is geared toward Thanksgiving leftovers, the concept includes any leftover protein and veggies. Cook the risotto as usual and immediately after you add the last bit of stock, toss in the chopped leftovers to keep warm in the pan.
Make a hearty sandwich
Sandwiches are like old episodes of your favorite show—they’re your fallback when you don’t know what to watch (or, in this case, eat). A leftover sandwich is the solution when you can’t figure out what to do with the huge casserole from your cousin’s brunch. Since leftovers can be irregularly shaped (unlike sliced deli meats), I suggest using large slices of bread and perhaps leaving them untoasted. Then the soft texture will be able to fit better and hold the filling. Here are a few ways to customize the sandwich to make it even more delicious.
Recipes using common leftover ingredients
This section is dedicated to my most common leftover ingredients. These are foods that may not have made it into a full meal yet—like raw celery or leftover cooked rice—but they’re living their final moments in my refrigerator. I’ll be building on these recipes to keep them from becoming trash.
Many iterations of leftover rice
For a year or two, I frequently ordered Chinese takeout and ended up with tubs of extra rice piling up in my freezer. The day of reckoning came once a month when I had to figure something out or I wouldn’t have any freezer space. So I have several ways to use leftover rice. This crispy rice cake , this faux risotto , and this cozy rice salad are all good things to keep in mind.
The problem with celery
Celery is one of those ingredients that will haunt your vegetable drawer for 100 years. I’m not even exaggerating, while it’s there it actually grows more stems. Its only beauty is how crunchy it is, so I wouldn’t recommend rolling it out of eggs or putting it on pizza. My solution to the unused stems is to make this salad with thin, diagonal slices to retain the crunch but reduce the “gluttony.” The vinaigrette adds some much-needed flavor, the Thai chili wakes up the palate, and the hard-boiled eggs make the dish more filling.
Hard boiled eggs
Boiled eggs are a great on-the-go snack, so I often make them at the beginning of the week and store them in the refrigerator. But a few weeks will pass, and I will have a few weeks that I never got around to. Unless I feel like crushing three or four cold eggs, I’ll make sweet potato kai dao salad instead. Shallow frying the hard-boiled eggs gives them an attractive crunchy, chewy appearance, and the lime and fish sauce dressing creates a flavor profile you’ll look forward to eating with your eggs again next week.
Plain cold pasta
It infuriates me that the “correct” serving of dry pasta is two ounces. I’d love to eat a pound of this, but alas, I’ve been socially shamed, so I reluctantly put the supposed extra portion into a container the next day. Thanks to this neat trick, I now look forward to leftover pasta. This works for both plain boiled pasta and pasta with a light layer of sauce. Add butter to the pan and toss the cold carbs into the melted butter. Stir and fluff the pasta when hot, then let it cook until crisp and brown on the bottom. Serve immediately to enjoy the new crispy, soft texture of the pasta restored during frying.
This half a can of coconut milk
Like the cup of pumpkin puree I didn’t need for a recipe, sometimes I end up with an unused batch of coconut milk in the fridge. I don’t particularly like adding it to coffee, but this aromatic and fatty gift of nature cannot be wasted. I decided the best way to use it was to capitalize on its inherent richness and turn it into a luxurious coconut pudding. This simple recipe uses cherry compote as a topping, but you can substitute other fruit, jam, or leave it out and let the silky coconut speak for itself.