You can make a variety of meals with leftovers such as stir-fry, soup, or salad. Use your creativity and try incorporating different flavors and ingredients!
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Leftovers are a great opportunity to create new, exciting meals without wasting food. One option is to make a stir-fry, which is a quick and easy way to use up leftover vegetables, meat, and rice. Heat up a large wok or frying pan, add oil, and stir-fry your leftovers with some garlic and ginger. Add some soy sauce or hot sauce for extra flavor and serve with a side of vegetables.
Another great option is to turn your leftovers into a soup. Heat up your leftovers with some broth or water and blend it all with a hand-held blender or a food processor. Customize your soup with spices and aromatics, such as onions and cilantro. Soup can also be stored in the fridge or freezer for later.
If you are in the mood for a salad, you can easily create one by combining leftover protein, such as chicken or fish, with some lettuce, vegetables, and a homemade vinaigrette.
A famous food writer, Tamar Adler, once said, “the perfect meal, or the best meals, occur when you don’t keep them to yourself.” Sharing your leftovers with friends and family is always a good idea, especially if you have a lot of food left over.
Some interesting facts about leftovers include that Americans waste over $218 billion worth of food each year, which includes leftovers. Additionally, many cultures have different ways of repurposing leftovers, such as using rice to make sushi in Japan or frying noodles into a crispy dish in China.
Here is a table of some ideas for using leftovers:
| Leftover Food | New Meal Idea |
|---|---|
| Roasted Vegetables | Vegetable Quiche |
| Grilled Chicken | Chicken Quesadilla |
| Steak | Steak Nachos |
| Mashed Potatoes | Potato Cakes |
| Pasta | Pasta Frittata |
| Soup | Add noodles or dumplings for a heartier dish |
Remember to use your creativity when cooking with leftovers! By doing so, you can not only reduce food waste but also create new and exciting meals for yourself and others.
Video answer to “What dinner can I make with leftovers?”
In this YouTube video, five leftover recipes are shared by different people. Among these, some interesting dishes include podushka made with leftover mashed potatoes, a cafe-style curry cream udon made with leftover tsukemen broth, and takikomi gohan made with leftover fried chicken. Another meal involves cooking uncooked rice with leftover chicken to create a sweet and brothy flavored rice. Lastly, a Bacon Wedge Salad is introduced, which is made with leftover bacon and simple ingredients like lettuce, onions, tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, black pepper, and ranch dressing. The video encourages using leftovers to create new and exciting meals with layered flavors.
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- Spiced French toast. A star rating of 5 out of 5.
- Creamy curried chicken & rice soup. A star rating of 4.9 out of 5.
- Four & twenty chicken & ham pie. A star rating of 4.8 out of 5.
- Turkey pasta bake.
- Fridge-raid soup.
- Cheeseboard soufflé & seasonal salad.
- Lemon chicken soup.
- Prawn & cod cakes.
- Create leftovers purposefully.
- Store leftovers smartly.
- Dedicate a leftovers night.
- Turn dinner into lunch.
- Think “ingredients,” not “leftovers.”
- Make soup.
- Salvage stale bread.
- Stash vegetable scraps.
- Don’t throw them out. Whether you’re eating at home or out at a restaurant, don’t let leftover edible food go to waste in the trash or compost bin.
- Make them tomorrow’s lunch. Saving leftovers is a quick way to pack a low-effort lunch.
- Reinvent them.
- Freeze them.
- Swap them.
- Prevent them.
- Soup/stew (79%)
- Pizza (63%)
- Meat (62%)
- Pasta (60%)
- Rice (55%)
- Vegetables (54%)
- Chinese food takeout (53%)
- Roasted potatoes (52%)