6 Ways To Reinvent Your Cooking Skills And Use Leftover Ingredients And Meals

Shopping habits have changed drastically during the Coronavirus quarantine. No longer can you idle for hours in grocery stores, pop over to buy ingredients for a dessert recipe you saw online or make any spur-of-the-moment decisions with respect to cooking or shopping. It's take what you get and eat what you have or else you'll go to bed hungry. After scooping up what you can while shopping and cooking your best with it, you might find yourself with leftover ingredients or even meal portions going untouched. Since every last drop of gravy and grain of rice is important, there's are ways to reinvent it into a different form and prevent it from being wasted. If any of these are in your fridge right now, here's how you can transform them into a whole new dish.

(Also Read: 3 Immunity-Boosting Recipes To Make At Home During The Coronavirus Quarantine)

1. If You Have Fruits...

Stew them or turn them into a cake or pie. Don't let fruits like bananas and apples sit on the counter till they turn black and have to be tossed. Firmer fruit like apples and peaches can be stewed and stored away in jars to consume with toast, oats or yogurt for breakfast. Softer ones like bananas can be transformed into banana bread or banoffee pie.

2. If You Have Vegetable Sides...

Turn it into filling. The sabzi that no one touched or mashed potato that is left over can be mixed with other vegetables like carrots and capsicums to serve as a filling for sandwiches, tacos or frankies.

3. If You Have Rice...

Make fried rice. When everyone has had enough of steamed rice, toss it in a pan with scrambled egg, vegetables, shredded chicken and sauces like soya and sriracha to make a quick and tasty fried rice.

(Also Read: 7 Delicious Recipes To Cook Up For Your Family This Weekend)

4. If You Have Chicken...

Segregate into multiple dishes. Remaining roasted chicken (or any other meat for that matter) can be used in innumerable ways like adding to pasta, curry, casseroles and sandwiches to elevate the flavour immensely.

5. If You Have Vegetables Or Bones...

Turn it into stock. Entire vegetables which are not being used can be chopped, boiled and stored away as stock. The same can be done for meat bones to produce meat stock. They can be used in soups, gravies and many other recipes to add depth and flavour.

6. If You Have Bread...

Turn it into pudding or French toast. Bread that is a few days old only needs a couple of ingredients like egg, sugar and milk to be turned into an entire pan of French toast or bread pudding.

(Also Read: 4 Simple Recipes To Make With Everything You Already Have In Your Kitchen)