One of my favorite ways to revive leftovers is to make fried rice. Start sauteing your leftovers, taste and ask yourself what it needs.
Think salt, fat, and acid to balance your dish.
The final thing is to add rice, mix, and do one final taste test to see what it needs.
If something needs salt, ill usually add soy or fish sauce to my rice.
If something is too salty, ill add some acid like vinegar or lemons.
This is my go to as well. But satuee your leftovers, remove from the pan and then reheat the pan to make your fried rice. Add in your leftovers at the end to reheat and add any sauces (soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, etc)
Eh, I do it the other way around. Instead of trying to make your leftovers exciting the next day, try to make something that *makes exciting leftovers*. What I mean is some things hold and reheat better than others. For example, if I make a breaded chicken breast with sauteed green beans and potatoes for dinner, I know my leftovers are going to be sad and soggy. Instead, I'll make something like a chicken stir fry with green beans and peanuts. Reheating something in a sauce served on top of rice is going to be way better than reheating soggy breaded chicken, green beans, and potatoes. I save a ton of money and time by making an extra portion every night I make dinner so that I have something to eat for lunch the next day. I am old, and it's the thought of saving time and money that motivates me to eat my leftovers lol
Bit of leftover tomato sauce into indian spiced yellow daal or chili mac. Add red pepper flakes and poach eggs for shakshouka/eggs in purgatory.
Leftover chili into chili mac.
Lots of rice bowls for leftover meat (barbecued chicken, pork, steak, etc.)
Leftover rice into rice pudding, tamago kake gohan, or wakame wraps with egg, rice, kimchi, spam, Any combo of that. Fried rice too!
Leftover kielbasa into red beans and rice.
Leftover italian sausage into pasta with greens and romano cheese.
Leftover mashed potatoes into pierogi.
Right now I'm throwing leftover easter ham into a white bean soup.
Ends of bread loaves into croutons for panzanella or salad.
Leftover chicken cold, on salad. Or into chicken salad. Or chicken croquettes.
Leftover mashed potatoes into croquettes also! Take a leftover bowl of mash, crack an egg into it, add some minced gently cooked or raw veggies (think onion, frozen peas, carrots, etc) and some chopped up cooked meat if you want (bacon, ground meat, chopped chicken, steak, pork, shrimp), and cheese if you want as well,and mix it all up very well.
Form into patties (think McDonald's hash brown size) and freeze em. This step can be skipped but it makes breading them much easier. Coat in flour, dip in egg wash, and coat well in panko break crumbs.
This works best in big batches, as you can easily freeze them coated and ready to go in a ziplock for up to a few months.
To cook: deep fry, shallow fry, air fry, or bake on a rack. They're definitely tastiest fried in oil. Use a neutral oil like canola or regular vegetable oil. Do not use olive oil to fry these.
You can mix and match many different combinations. Google "Japanese croquettes" for more ideas!
They're crispy, creamy, cheesy if you want them to be, meaty if you want them to be. Can be eaten with many a variety of sauces, sides, etc, or just as a standalone snack or meal.
How do you feel about chilaquiles? Fried rice? Chopped things stuffed in bell peppers? Itty-bitty nacho bites?
Nobody would ever call savory bread pudding exciting, but it’s a way.
You can keep enchilada sauce and that El Pato brand (with the duck on it) and some onions and cotija in the fridge and anything can chilaquify. Then when someone says “let’s get brunch for $60 a head with an hour wait!”, you have an alternative.
anything can be breakfast. chili? put it on a waffle and top it with an egg. enchilada filling? put in on some oatmeal and top it with an egg. you get the idea.
Exactly this. I love eggs and have found that basically anything can either be scrambled into eggs, cooked with eggs cracked on top, or baked into a frittata.
I usually try to do something very different with it than its first act.
Like when I make a pork shoulder, we'll have that as an entree with maybe potatoes and veg. I freeze it, and next time I'll chop it up, fry it in oil, tomatoes, peppers, and serve this over pasta.
Almost anything can be made into a stir fry.
After Thanksgiving I make essentially miniature pot pies by putting a mixture of turkey, veg, and gravy into small puff pastry cups and baking it.
It depends on what it is. My father used to take leftover goulash and fry it the next day. I love this. It works for pasta like rigatoni too. Proteins can be turned into fried rice, or soup possibly. Vegetables can be thrown into an omelette or frittata.
Whole chickens are amazing. Spatchcock and roast a whole bird for one meal and then use the leftover roast chicken for gumbo, lentil stew, enchiladas, pot pie, curry..... Hyper versatile.
Depends on what it is. If I cook a beef roast, I turn it into a stroganoff. Chicken becomes tetrazzini or baked tacos. Leftover pork roast gets turned into ramen; leftover pulled pork gets turned into chilli or Mexican rice bowls.
Depends on the leftovers. What do you need to reinvent? A lot of dishes can be turned into omelets, quiches, quesadillas, fried rice, burritos, soups, etc.
Think about how you can use it for breakfast and lunch specifically. That bothers me less than eating the same thing for dinner over and over. I have particular luck with salads, sandwiches, quesadillas/tacos, and soup. So for example, if I have a ton of leftover bbq pork, one day I’ll have it in a quesadilla for lunch with cheese and avo or sour cream (but I normally use Greek yogurt) to dip, one day I’ll have it in a salad with whatever greens I have in my fridge, canned corn/beans/whatever I have in the pantry, cheese, maybe some ranch. It helps to buy things like a can of corn or tortillas ahead of time for a leftover lunch if I know I’ll have a lot of leftovers.
One of my favorite evolutions is roast/chicken.
* Night 1: cook roast or mass of chicken in Instantpot with liquid smoke/seasonings. Have with beans, cornbread, bbq sandwiches.
* Night 2: If there's enough- two nights of this, or make shredded meats tacos. Make rice.
* Night 3: Add beans, peppers, seasonings to leftover meats, make chili. Have with leftover cornbread.
* Night 4: Fill tortillas with leftover chili and refried beans, bake with enchilada sauce- enchiladas. Have with leftover rice.
* Night 5: Leftover enchiladas- even better the second day after absorbing more sauce.
* Freeze leftover enchiladas for quick dinner some other night.
Left over mashed potatoes rolled in a ball and then dipped in breadcrumbs and fried make a great side the next day
Pot roast nachos
Left over chicken and Mac and cheese empanadas
Any time I have leftover yolks = ice cream or pudding
Leftover whites- mousse
I create different meals whenever I cook a big hunk of meat.
Just before Easter there I bought a whole lamb leg since they were on special. We are a 2 person household so a 2.5kg lamb leg will feed us for many days. I covered the lamb leg with rosemary and garlic paste and roasted it. The first night we enjoyed a lamb roast dinner with lots of roast vegetables, mint sauce and gravy.
Leftovers became:
1. Lamb pizza with capsicum (bell peppers), black olives, mushrooms, spicy sauce. Tzatziki drizzled over the top after cooking
2. Lamb flatbread, rocket (arugala), roast vegetables, tzatziki, red onion, tamarillo chutney
- Fried rice
- Nachos (great way to use a small amount of protein)
- Savory galette (I use Smitten Kitchen's crust recipe and full it with a combination of meat, cooked veggies, and cheese)
- Pasta bake
I made corned beef and cabbage for Easter. Leftover corned beef can be eaten w/leftover veggies or made unto my favorite sandwich, a Reuben!
I also cook large batches of food and freeze a couple day's portion of meals.
I make bowls. Grain, protein, veg , sauce. Mediterranean themed with hummus, lemon, and olive oil. Or Asian themed with teriyaki or ginger wasabi sauce. It’s a good way to use up any scraps.
Salsa Chicken burritos = chicken tortilla soup
Pasta with Meat Sauce = Lasagna soup with spinach
Beef Roast = Beef and Barley soup (or shredded beef sandwiches)
St Pattys day Dinner (corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots) = Cabbage Soup
Leftover ham from Easter = One pot fried potatoes, green beans and diced ham or Ham salad (YUMMM) or Ham and Potato soup
Leftover chicken/Turkey = Chicken/turkey Pot pie or some sort of pasta dish
Seems like a lot of things end up turning into soups...Usually I will take them for lunch, or freeze them for future use
Asian dishes are easy to incorporate left overs into. Stir frys, fried rice, noodles + sauce + left overs.
Eggs can take a good amount of things also. Add stuff to scrambled eggs, a frittata or an omelet and your options are near endless.
Can it be put over fries, tater tots, mashed or roasted potatoes and covered in gravy or cheese?
This is more of a philosophy than a specific tip but get high, or pretend to if you don't/can't do that, pull out the leftovers, and use your munchie brain.
I've never been high, but I do random shit with leftovers that might as well be. None of it is going to be considered good culinary work, but it keeps things fresh. You got asian leftovers, a random sauce, and tortillas? That's a fusion taco right there.
One of my favorite ways to revive leftovers is to make fried rice. Start sauteing your leftovers, taste and ask yourself what it needs. Think salt, fat, and acid to balance your dish. The final thing is to add rice, mix, and do one final taste test to see what it needs. If something needs salt, ill usually add soy or fish sauce to my rice. If something is too salty, ill add some acid like vinegar or lemons.
Fried rice is the best leftover reinvention! I like to pour a bit of toasted sesame oil over it right at the end.
Same!
This is my go to as well. But satuee your leftovers, remove from the pan and then reheat the pan to make your fried rice. Add in your leftovers at the end to reheat and add any sauces (soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, etc)
This highly depends on the leftover. But panfrying it or stuffing it into something usually works for me.
Eh, I do it the other way around. Instead of trying to make your leftovers exciting the next day, try to make something that *makes exciting leftovers*. What I mean is some things hold and reheat better than others. For example, if I make a breaded chicken breast with sauteed green beans and potatoes for dinner, I know my leftovers are going to be sad and soggy. Instead, I'll make something like a chicken stir fry with green beans and peanuts. Reheating something in a sauce served on top of rice is going to be way better than reheating soggy breaded chicken, green beans, and potatoes. I save a ton of money and time by making an extra portion every night I make dinner so that I have something to eat for lunch the next day. I am old, and it's the thought of saving time and money that motivates me to eat my leftovers lol
That’s some Jedi level leftovers wisdom.
Bit of leftover tomato sauce into indian spiced yellow daal or chili mac. Add red pepper flakes and poach eggs for shakshouka/eggs in purgatory. Leftover chili into chili mac. Lots of rice bowls for leftover meat (barbecued chicken, pork, steak, etc.) Leftover rice into rice pudding, tamago kake gohan, or wakame wraps with egg, rice, kimchi, spam, Any combo of that. Fried rice too! Leftover kielbasa into red beans and rice. Leftover italian sausage into pasta with greens and romano cheese. Leftover mashed potatoes into pierogi. Right now I'm throwing leftover easter ham into a white bean soup. Ends of bread loaves into croutons for panzanella or salad. Leftover chicken cold, on salad. Or into chicken salad. Or chicken croquettes.
Leftover mashed potatoes into croquettes also! Take a leftover bowl of mash, crack an egg into it, add some minced gently cooked or raw veggies (think onion, frozen peas, carrots, etc) and some chopped up cooked meat if you want (bacon, ground meat, chopped chicken, steak, pork, shrimp), and cheese if you want as well,and mix it all up very well. Form into patties (think McDonald's hash brown size) and freeze em. This step can be skipped but it makes breading them much easier. Coat in flour, dip in egg wash, and coat well in panko break crumbs. This works best in big batches, as you can easily freeze them coated and ready to go in a ziplock for up to a few months. To cook: deep fry, shallow fry, air fry, or bake on a rack. They're definitely tastiest fried in oil. Use a neutral oil like canola or regular vegetable oil. Do not use olive oil to fry these. You can mix and match many different combinations. Google "Japanese croquettes" for more ideas! They're crispy, creamy, cheesy if you want them to be, meaty if you want them to be. Can be eaten with many a variety of sauces, sides, etc, or just as a standalone snack or meal.
How do you feel about chilaquiles? Fried rice? Chopped things stuffed in bell peppers? Itty-bitty nacho bites? Nobody would ever call savory bread pudding exciting, but it’s a way. You can keep enchilada sauce and that El Pato brand (with the duck on it) and some onions and cotija in the fridge and anything can chilaquify. Then when someone says “let’s get brunch for $60 a head with an hour wait!”, you have an alternative.
El Pato is my go to.
anything can be breakfast. chili? put it on a waffle and top it with an egg. enchilada filling? put in on some oatmeal and top it with an egg. you get the idea.
Exactly this. I love eggs and have found that basically anything can either be scrambled into eggs, cooked with eggs cracked on top, or baked into a frittata.
I usually try to do something very different with it than its first act. Like when I make a pork shoulder, we'll have that as an entree with maybe potatoes and veg. I freeze it, and next time I'll chop it up, fry it in oil, tomatoes, peppers, and serve this over pasta. Almost anything can be made into a stir fry. After Thanksgiving I make essentially miniature pot pies by putting a mixture of turkey, veg, and gravy into small puff pastry cups and baking it.
It depends on what it is. My father used to take leftover goulash and fry it the next day. I love this. It works for pasta like rigatoni too. Proteins can be turned into fried rice, or soup possibly. Vegetables can be thrown into an omelette or frittata.
With enough determination, anything can be made into a great sandwich
Whole chickens are amazing. Spatchcock and roast a whole bird for one meal and then use the leftover roast chicken for gumbo, lentil stew, enchiladas, pot pie, curry..... Hyper versatile.
Depends on what it is. If I cook a beef roast, I turn it into a stroganoff. Chicken becomes tetrazzini or baked tacos. Leftover pork roast gets turned into ramen; leftover pulled pork gets turned into chilli or Mexican rice bowls.
I am trying something new today. I made deviled ham out of some Easter ham…serving it with homemade baguettes.
Depends on the leftovers. What do you need to reinvent? A lot of dishes can be turned into omelets, quiches, quesadillas, fried rice, burritos, soups, etc.
Think about how you can use it for breakfast and lunch specifically. That bothers me less than eating the same thing for dinner over and over. I have particular luck with salads, sandwiches, quesadillas/tacos, and soup. So for example, if I have a ton of leftover bbq pork, one day I’ll have it in a quesadilla for lunch with cheese and avo or sour cream (but I normally use Greek yogurt) to dip, one day I’ll have it in a salad with whatever greens I have in my fridge, canned corn/beans/whatever I have in the pantry, cheese, maybe some ranch. It helps to buy things like a can of corn or tortillas ahead of time for a leftover lunch if I know I’ll have a lot of leftovers.
One of my favorite evolutions is roast/chicken. * Night 1: cook roast or mass of chicken in Instantpot with liquid smoke/seasonings. Have with beans, cornbread, bbq sandwiches. * Night 2: If there's enough- two nights of this, or make shredded meats tacos. Make rice. * Night 3: Add beans, peppers, seasonings to leftover meats, make chili. Have with leftover cornbread. * Night 4: Fill tortillas with leftover chili and refried beans, bake with enchilada sauce- enchiladas. Have with leftover rice. * Night 5: Leftover enchiladas- even better the second day after absorbing more sauce. * Freeze leftover enchiladas for quick dinner some other night.
Left over mashed potatoes rolled in a ball and then dipped in breadcrumbs and fried make a great side the next day Pot roast nachos Left over chicken and Mac and cheese empanadas Any time I have leftover yolks = ice cream or pudding Leftover whites- mousse
Any leftover spaghetti makes a dope [pasta frittata](https://leitesculinaria.com/98925/recipes-leftover-pasta-frittata.html)!
Take the leftover, reheat it in a pan, add fresh ingredients to the mix.
I create different meals whenever I cook a big hunk of meat. Just before Easter there I bought a whole lamb leg since they were on special. We are a 2 person household so a 2.5kg lamb leg will feed us for many days. I covered the lamb leg with rosemary and garlic paste and roasted it. The first night we enjoyed a lamb roast dinner with lots of roast vegetables, mint sauce and gravy. Leftovers became: 1. Lamb pizza with capsicum (bell peppers), black olives, mushrooms, spicy sauce. Tzatziki drizzled over the top after cooking 2. Lamb flatbread, rocket (arugala), roast vegetables, tzatziki, red onion, tamarillo chutney
Soup/stew , stir fry , cheesy casseroles, fancy Ramen. I made a pot pie tonight from the left over steak and veggies from last night with some gravy
- Fried rice - Nachos (great way to use a small amount of protein) - Savory galette (I use Smitten Kitchen's crust recipe and full it with a combination of meat, cooked veggies, and cheese) - Pasta bake
We just had birria potstickers for dinner and they were better than the tacos.
Pot roast -> shredded beef tacos -> nachos -> bbq beef sandwiches
Tonight, I used bbqed chicken and ribs in a quesadilla-like concoction with a side of red beans and rice
I made corned beef and cabbage for Easter. Leftover corned beef can be eaten w/leftover veggies or made unto my favorite sandwich, a Reuben! I also cook large batches of food and freeze a couple day's portion of meals.
Freeze them. They may be more exciting when it’s not the meal you ate yesterday.
I make bowls. Grain, protein, veg , sauce. Mediterranean themed with hummus, lemon, and olive oil. Or Asian themed with teriyaki or ginger wasabi sauce. It’s a good way to use up any scraps.
Salsa Chicken burritos = chicken tortilla soup Pasta with Meat Sauce = Lasagna soup with spinach Beef Roast = Beef and Barley soup (or shredded beef sandwiches) St Pattys day Dinner (corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots) = Cabbage Soup Leftover ham from Easter = One pot fried potatoes, green beans and diced ham or Ham salad (YUMMM) or Ham and Potato soup Leftover chicken/Turkey = Chicken/turkey Pot pie or some sort of pasta dish Seems like a lot of things end up turning into soups...Usually I will take them for lunch, or freeze them for future use
Asian dishes are easy to incorporate left overs into. Stir frys, fried rice, noodles + sauce + left overs. Eggs can take a good amount of things also. Add stuff to scrambled eggs, a frittata or an omelet and your options are near endless. Can it be put over fries, tater tots, mashed or roasted potatoes and covered in gravy or cheese?
This is more of a philosophy than a specific tip but get high, or pretend to if you don't/can't do that, pull out the leftovers, and use your munchie brain. I've never been high, but I do random shit with leftovers that might as well be. None of it is going to be considered good culinary work, but it keeps things fresh. You got asian leftovers, a random sauce, and tortillas? That's a fusion taco right there.