7x do this with your leftover rice
Although we can eat a lot of rice in the editorial office, our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs when it comes to rice. No problem, because rice is one of the nicest things to have leftover. FavorFlav’s Emma is happy to eat it cold straight from the pan. But if you’re not such a die-hard rice user: with these preparations, you can turn your leftovers into a delicious dish again.
Rice pudding
Still have room for dessert after dinner? Put the rice in a pan with milk, sugar and a vanilla pod, cinnamon or cardamom for super-quick rice pudding. If you put fruit on top, you can also easily get away with eating this for breakfast. For example, in this recipe for Norwegian rice pudding (risgrøt).
Fried rice
Fried rice is by far our most-used way to deal with leftovers. Leftover vegetables, herbs, onions—it can all go into the pan. Sometimes we even throw leftover lettuce in there; anything goes. Go for Indonesian nasi goreng or the Korean version with kimchi. These are our four favorite ways to fry rice.
Congee
This one is the easiest of all. Put the rice with a lot of water and chicken stock in a large pan and gently bring it to a boil until the rice is soft and you have silky smooth Chinese rice porridge. Season with salt and serve with a boiled egg with a runny yolk, small cubes of silken tofu, fried onions, Sriracha or chili oil, leftover chicken or fried onions. Everything can find its way into the bowl, as long as the finely sliced spring onion isn’t missing.
Gluten-free chocolate cake
Rice cake? Why not. This gluten-free chocolate cake is where you can use up your rice if you have a sweet tooth. Purée the rice with sugar before adding the rest of the ingredients, which makes the cake wonderfully moist.
Rice salad
Mix the rice with a good vinaigrette and anything else you like. Tomato, avocado, arugula, spinach, fresh herbs—the world is your oyster. Here’s how to make the perfect rice salad in five steps.
Soup
Avgolemono is a Greek soup made with chicken and, you guessed it, rice. This recipe uses uncooked rice. If you have leftovers, add them to the soup right at the end so they only heat through and don’t continue cooking.
Veggie burgers
Leftover rice works perfectly as a binder for veggie burgers, these vegetable burgers with rice, carrot, dill and tahini, for example. The recipe uses brown rice, but white rice is also delicious.
Also read:
