Amid a busy week, it’s often not sensible to cook dinner and put together three meals and two snacks each single day. Meal prepping and batch cooking play an unlimited function in establishing wholesome habits and getting meals on the desk, however figuring out the right way to jazz up these leftover meals and substances is a singular ability that may prevent an immense quantity of money and time. Plus, reworking leftovers into one thing new helps to vastly cut back meals waste.
Should you’re questioning what to do together with your leftovers, listed below are some frequent leftover substances and how one can breathe new life into them.
What to Do with Leftovers
Cooked Rice + Different Gluten-Free Grains
We really prefer to cook dinner additional rice and gluten-free grains particularly so we’ve some left over! When you’ve got leftover rice readily available, use it to:
Almond Pulp
We like making nut milk from scratch, so we find yourself with loads of leftover nut and seed pulp! Save the pulp in a bag or jar within the freezer, and while you’ve bought sufficient listed below are 9 methods to make use of it.
Cooked Hen or Turkey
A standard leftover ingredient, particularly across the vacation season. Right here’s what you are able to do with cooked hen or turkey leftovers:
Burgers
Veggie or meat burgers are nice recipes for batch cooking, however typically you don’t wish to have them the identical previous means in buns or lettuce leaves. As an alternative, strive serving leftover burgers:
- With a aspect of wholesome baked French Fries
- Crumbled up over a salad
- Damaged up into hamburger soup or lasagna soup
- In a bolognese sauce with gluten-free pasta or zucchini noodles
- As a wholesome pizza topping
Salad Greens
Didn’t expend all your darkish leafy greens this week? That’s OK! Get additional life out of your greens earlier than they go unhealthy by:
- Juicing them with low-glycemic fruits
- Blanch, chop and freeze for later
- Blitz with olive oil, lemon, dietary yeast and sunflower seeds for a nut-free pesto
- Make a couple of inexperienced smoothies and freeze them
- Wilt them on the finish of cooking one-pot meals or Immediate Pot meals
- Bake kale chips
Roasted Greens
We prefer to eat numerous veggies right here on the Academy of Culinary Diet, and roasting them actually enhances their flavour. With any leftover veggies you could have readily available, you’ll be able to:
- Fold into an omelette, frittata or scrambled eggs
- Toss into savory oatmeal or savory pancakes
- Use in a stir-fry with leftover rice
- Bake a casserole with a thick and creamy sauce
- Whip up a fast and straightforward soup
- Stuff them into rice paper wraps or lettuce wraps
- Mix them with chickpeas to make a veg-infused hummus or dip
- Make a veggie pot pie
- Use for pizza toppings
- Combine right into a salad with beans or grains
- Fold them into gluten-free flatbreads and different baked items (puréed squash and pumpkin are nice for this!)
- When you’ve got recent veggies you didn’t get round to roasting, strive pickling them
Stale Bread
There are solely so many days you’ll be able to eat avocado toast! Take your leftover gluten-free bread and:
- Blitz in a meals processor for breadcrumbs (save in jars within the freezer for later use)
- Bake a gluten-free and dairy-free bread pudding
- Mix with walnuts, roasted pink peppers and spices for muhammara
- Make croutons
- Create a bread salad with a great deal of recent veggies and tomatoes
Overripe Bananas
Photograph: That Clear Life
Tremendous brown bananas can be utilized in quite a lot of methods:
Crushed Tomatoes or Tomato Paste
Typically you don’t expend the entire jar or BPA-free can! Strive:
- Freezing in ice dice trays for successful of flavour you need to use later in recipes
- Prepare dinner with onions, garlic, herbs and veggies to create do-it-yourself tomato sauce
- Make salsa, plum sauce, ketchup or sizzling sauce
- Fold into scrambled eggs or omelettes
- Use as a pizza sauce
- Mix with soaked cashews for a vegan ‘cream’ of tomato soup
Recent Herbs
When saved correctly, recent herbs can final at the very least per week within the fridge. Should you aren’t in a position to make use of them up earlier than they wilt, then:
- Combine with olive oil, then freeze in ice dice trays
- Blitz to make a fast pesto, then freeze
- Dry them out, and retailer in sealed jars within the pantry
- Make herbes salees or infused vinegar
- Add to smoothies and juices
- Substitute half of your salad greens with recent herbs
We hope these concepts spark your creativity – love your leftovers and use them properly!
