Ten ealthy ways to repurpose left over food
The festive season is over and without a doubt, there is still a mountain of leftover food stashed at the rear end of the fridge for days, overlooked and forgotten. Instead of tossing, here are healthy ways you can use up that chicken, rice or mukimo without getting bored
Make soup
The steamed, roasted food can become soup on another day. For example, in a blender, puree vegetables with three or four cups of vegetable or chicken broth, then warm the soup in a pot.
Season to taste with salt and pepper, and finish the soup with a bit of olive oil.
Stir-fry
Making a stir-fry with leftovers is easy and foolproof. Sauté any leftover food with onion, garlic, and ginger.
Add protein, some wilted greens, and soy sauce and serve it over rice for a delicious meal in a pinch.
Omelette
Omelettes are high in protein and healthy fats. Sauté, especially vegetables with a few eggs and you have everything you need to fry up a delicious, nourishing omelette.
Add a splash of milk to the whisked eggs to make the omelette extra fluffy.
Guacamole
If you have avocados that are a little too soft, you can probably turn them into a delicious batch of guacamole.
Mash up the avocado with lemon or lime juice, red onion, tomatoes, garlic, sea salt, and black pepper.
You can even take the nutrition up a notch by mixing in any leftover, finely sliced leafy greens.
Veggie fried rice
If you have leftover rice, mix up a batch of veggie fried rice. Just sauté carrots, capsicum or even green peas and add the rice in at the end. Add a bit of soy sauce, ginger, or garlic for some flavour.
You can even add a scrambled egg for some extra protein. Fried rice is also a great way to use up leftover cauliflower by steaming the plant and throwing it in.
Chili
No matter what leftovers you have on hand, you can almost guarantee to could turn it into some sort of chili.
Carrot, celery, tomatoes, bell pepper, butternut squash or sweet potato. Throw it all into a pot with a protein like minced meat or beans then add chili spice.
Leftovers for lunch
The simplest way to use up leftovers is to eat them for lunch. If it’s a weekend or if you work from home, it’s easy enough to reheat that chicken leg and the potatoes, put the spinach in a bowl, and sit down to a replay of the previous night’s dinner.
If you don’t want to eat the same thing two days in a row, simply save it for the next day.
The leftover buffet
If you’ve had leftovers from several meals in a row, you find yourself with a hodgepodge of different items stored up in the fridge.
This is the time to serve up a leftover buffet for dinner. Place all the dishes on the table and let family members take turns loading up their plates with whatever they like.
Stuffing breakfast scramble
You can incorporate leftovers such as chapati, mukimo, potatoes, green peas into breakfast. If you have left over chapatis, warm them in a pan with a little oil and put aside. Then, toss in the other leftovers.
Let them cook abit and toss in eggs near the end. Pour the fried left overs on the chapatti and wrap it up. Enjoy!
Cook with leftover wine
Tempted to toss party wine that has lost its luster? Keep it and cook with it! Wine is a great addition to many recipes, and you can think of it a bit like vinegar. White wine is delicious in many fish and chicken dishes, red meat dishes, stews, and soups.
