For rice eaters like us, there is the problem of leftover. In the olden days, we throw the leftover rice when it is not substantial in volume like 3 tablespoon only. But we found a way of making use of the rice by keeping it in the fridge. The vegetable area of the refrigerator is a good storage place for leftover rice. And when the leftover is already in good volume, you can either reheat it by the microwave or have fried rice with it especially if you have eggs and some green vegetables to go wth it. So now we don’t waste leftover rice no matter how little amount, it just goes straight to the fridge.
Same here. We keep it in the fridge and when we have to eat it, we just sprinkle a little water and heat it in a covered pot. It heats up nicely. The second option is to have fried rice. The problem we encounter is when we have left over chappatis (Indian bread). Nobody wants to eat that. And I have no idea how to re-use it. Hence, we have to throw it away to give it to some animal to eat.
Us too we do the same. Saving money in ways to keep us healthy and well fed is wonderful, except when the rice gets too dehydrated in the frig. When it's too dehydrated we feed the birds with it. It feels nice when others get fed too. Just this week a mama zebra dove brought her 2 chicks she is weening and they learned to eat, safely and are growing up nicely. I'm a birdwatcher so it's so much fun seeing nature in action right in front of you. There is no waste.Log In
We do the same for the rice. @anupamas2 The left over chapati can be fried in one very tasty manner. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves in little oil. Let mustard seeds splutter then add buttermilk. Let it come to boil and then add salt, chilli powder, little turmeric and small pieces of chapatis. Let the whole mixture get cooked for say about 3 minutes and it's done.
Here in my home, the leftover rice is eaten the next day with curd or buttermilk. Or else the rice is soaked in water and the next day the water is drunk which is very healthy. The water will make you stronger and even it is certified as one of the healthiest foods in the world recently.
Or you can put it inside an omelette! Riced stuffed omelettes is really popular in Japan. I have backyard chickens, sometimes I give them some leftover rice too to give them some carbs.
If the left over rice is quite many then it may not be good idea to waste it by throwing away. You can safely keep that in the refrigerator for the future. If you have pets then you shouldn't have problem handling left over meals, be it rice, meat or other foods. Just package them together and serve them to the pets in addition to their normal routine food.
@Alexandoy Although I don't eat rice very much, when I do eat it I always make too much. I don't bother to reheat it either as I always give my leftovers to my dogs. As long as I haven't put any spices in the food I cook and that it is healthy for them, I give them all my scraps. I think they like to eat what was left on my plate. It goes into their bowls on top of their food and I am sure they love it.
Leftover rice is so easy to cook, and as someone said using it for stuffed peppers or mushrooms is easier as it's not as soft. I also like to use it to make veggies burgers too, so there are lots of things to do with it. Rice balls are another idea, and then to fry them. They can be a bit fiddly, but taste great. Another idea is the oriental congee soup which many people love. I don't, but adding veggies and stock to it makes for a dish in itself.
@janemariesayed This reminds me of the olden days when many in the neighborhood were taking care of a pig or two precisely for that purpose – to take care of leftover food. I did that once, bought 2 piglets that I kept in the backyard and fed with leftover rice not only from our home but also from the neighbors. The pigs grew and I was able to sell it for a good amount. And I was really happy to realize that I only spent very little in that 6 months of taking care of the piglets. Most of the feeds were from the neighbors.
Giving scraps to my dogs though means that I have to cook my food differently than I normally would. I don't add any salt for example as they will end up with some. I put the salt on the food that I put on my plate and only over half of it in case I don't eat it all. Even when I make a curry or chilli I add the spices a bit at a time. It's a pain but I love my dogs so it's worth it to know that even scraps are good for them and don't have any additives that may harm them in some way. Sometimes cooking for one is not feasible, so I cook for three. They love it when it's a roast dinner day or a stew day but they are disappointed when I have a salad. Summer is coming so I may make them some nice veggie soup instead or a quiche. The trouble with quiche though, is that I love it so much I couldn't share it! Piglets are so cute @Alexandoy I have seen some videos of them that have really made me smile. Like this one for example, (better watched with the sound on)
You said "when leftover is in good volume", so for how many days you keep collecting them till you get good volume. Or you are talking about one day only. I wonder if those rice can stay fresh for long duration (I mean till 3 to 4 days). Here we used to fried the leftover rice of previous night on next day morning. But we don't use it if it is older than that.
In our case, we have 4 pets, so whatever leftover rice that we have, it automatically goes to them. Even bread. I remember when we had chickens, we also give to them the leftover rice and bread, but it's mixed with chicken feeds as well. It makes for a great extender of the chicken feeds.
Whenever there is a lot of rice left in the house (which happens sometimes), my mother usually make some specific recipe with it, for example: rice dumplings. They don't come on my favorite food list, but it's a cool recipe.
We seldom have left over rice but whenever we have one, we just put it in the fridge and reheat it the following day or have it fried. We also make chow-fans out of left over rice which is totally mouth watering We normally cook rice just as much as we'll consume so we won't have any left overs if we're not planning on making fried rice the next day. That way simply help us to save money
Thanks there are some useful ideas here. Many times leftover rice is stored in the fridge only to be thrown away after a while. I think I would be interesting to try some of the suggestions here which would help to eliminate some of the wastage.
I have pet cats and dog and there's no such thing as leftover rice for us. In fact, we often cook more rice to accommodate them, They love rice with meat, fish, or stew. Rice is both filing and nutritious. My child doesn't think so but I don't give him the option to refuse rice. When I was a child, my grandma used to dry leftover rice under the sun, fry them the next day, and sprinkle some sugar in them. It's called popped rice.
It seems that we have no more leftover cooked rice after we eat our meals. We have two domestic cats. We see to it that they have something also to eat. I see to it that I have left for them. Now, our problem is the overcooked rice. We cook our rice in the LPG stove. When it is left unattended, the lower portion of the rice in the cooking utensil or the caldron is always overcooked. We could give them to our cats. We have to throw them to the garbage. Hope we could devise a system of overcooking our rice.
I also belong to rice eating culture. Rice is a staple food for us. In our culture, throwing away food is considered very bad, therefore, we never through food even though it may be in excess quantity. When rice is more than we can eat for lunch or dinner, we keep it in fridge and use it the next day. In case quantity of rice is big, we prepare various dishes with leftover rice.
@Alexandoy Let me share a secret with you, I am basically a wheat eater so I like eating leftover rice more than I do eating freshly cooked. I always invent newer ways to make a different dish of leftover rice, like I add cheese, peas and potato, butter and spices to give it a different taste. I have used it like a dessert mixing it with milk and sugar and heating it enough. There are few other ways one can use leftover rice which tastes better than fresh rice.
