Leftover Recipes: 10 Ideas for Rice, Bread, Veggies & More

Hello lovelies,

something is left over in our kitchen almost every day: a bowl of rice, half a head of broccoli, two slices of bread or bananas that turned brown faster than expected. Hardly any of it gets thrown away, because most leftovers are already halfway to the next meal.

In this post I'll show you what I cook from the most common leftovers, sorted by bread, rice, vegetables, pasta and potatoes, bananas and half-used packages. You'll also find how long leftovers keep in the fridge, how to reheat them safely and how to plan for leftovers while you cook.

Why are leftover recipes worth cooking?

Leftover recipes turn food that's already cooked, or ingredients that are already open, into a new meal instead of sending them to the trash. Part of the work is done before you start: the rice is cooked, the vegetables are chopped and the bread is baked.

The scale of the problem is bigger than most of us think. According to Harvard's Nutrition Source on food waste, up to 40% of all food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten, and about 95% of discarded food ends up in landfills.

So why do leftovers get skipped? Utah State University Extension on using leftovers lists three things that keep us from using them: we aren't sure if they are safe, we forget about them, or we see leftovers as less appealing. The same page points out that using your leftovers can also help you save time, labor and money. In my experience, all three hurdles are easy to clear at home.

In our house, leftovers rarely fail on taste. They fail on visibility: whatever sits at the back of the fridge gets forgotten. That's why I treat leftovers as an ingredient I already plan with when I shop.

I've gathered my 10 favorite ideas in one table. The recipes behind them follow in the sections below, sorted by the kind of leftover.

Stale bread and dry rolls

Day-old bread is hard, but it isn't lost: it can become breadcrumbs, croutons or dumplings. It just needs to dry out properly without turning moldy.

In our kitchen, bread ends go into an open bowl until they're completely dry. Then I grate them into crumbs, or I cut them into cubes and toast them in a little olive oil in a pan for croutons. Croutons turn a creamy soup into a dinner with some crunch, like my zucchini kohlrabi soup. Bread I won't finish in the next few days goes straight into the freezer.

Homemade crumbs work well for my crispy kohlrabi schnitzel with a sesame crust. The recipe uses panko because its coarse flakes stay airier, but it works just as well with ordinary breadcrumbs. Because of the eggs in the coating, the schnitzel is vegetarian, not vegan.

And if one is left over, that's tomorrow's lunch: it's lovely cold the next day in a sandwich with some salad. A quick reheat in a dry pan brings the crunch straight back.

Day-old cooked rice

Cooked rice is the leftover we end up with most often, and 2 of my recipes work best with cooled rice anyway.

For my stuffed peppers with a rice and artichoke filling, the rice has to be cooked and cooled. Cold rice from the day before is ideal here, because the grains then mix into the filling instead of clumping together. The stuffed halves bake for 30 minutes, and the grated cheese makes the dish vegetarian.

My rice donuts are completely different, but just as handy. For the rice donuts made with basmati rice, you can also use leftover rice from the day before, as long as it is well cooled. Then it presses firmly into the mold. Top them sweet or savory, for example with mango and berries, with avocado and sesame, or with tomato and cashew mozzarella.

Rice does need a little care, though. According to University of Maine Extension on leftover rice, if rice sits at room temperature for more than 2 hours, B. cereus spores grow and produce heat-stable toxins. Reheating the rice to a high temperature might kill the bacteria, but it won't remove those toxins. So store cooked rice in the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, or within 1 hour if the room is 90 °F (32 °C) or warmer, and eat it within 3 to 4 days.

Leftover vegetables: oven, curry or wok

For half vegetables and that one lonely carrot, there are 3 dishes that take almost anything: a sheet pan, a curry and a quick stir-fry. Toward the end of the week I pull everything that's sitting on its own in the crisper drawer to the front, so I can see right away what needs using up.

With the colorful sheet pan vegetables with bulgur, you simply use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge. Pumpkin, fennel, eggplant, carrots, parsnips and beets all roast beautifully, and zucchini, bell peppers or sweet potatoes work just as well. Of the 60 minutes, up to 40 are oven time, and whatever is left over reheats easily the next day or makes a cold salad with a simple dressing.

When the goal is to clear out the fridge, a curry is my first choice. The mild broccoli curry with coconut milk and bulgur is made for exactly that: cauliflower, zucchini or peas work in place of the broccoli. It has no heat at all, so it's mild enough for kids.

It's even faster in a wok. For the veggie stir-fry noodles for leftover vegetables, the cooking takes just 15 minutes, and the wok is perfect for turning leftover veggies into a crisp, colorful meal. Cut all the vegetables before you heat the wok, then everything comes together in a flash. I keep the noodles mild so the girls will eat them and put the chili on the table separately.

Pasta, potatoes and yesterday's dinner

Cooked pasta, potatoes and whole dishes from the day before often just need a new combination.

Boiled potatoes from the day before I slice and fry in a pan. It's the fastest side dish I know, and whatever is left of those goes into crêpes the next morning.

My favorite example is the savory crêpes with a veggie filling. I also love using leftovers for the filling, and a ratatouille or fried potatoes work beautifully. You can cook the crêpes completely the night before, stack them with baking paper in between and warm them briefly in the pan in the morning. With eggs, milk, butter and cheese, they're vegetarian, not vegan.

I like to reheat yesterday's pasta in a pan instead of the microwave. The recipe for my pasta with beets and flower sprouts says the same: leftovers taste wonderful the next day if you toss them briefly in a little olive oil in the pan.

With these 4 recipes, the leftovers are good the next day too, whether crisped up in a pan, lukewarm or cold as a salad:

Pasta with Beets and Flower Sprouts

Sweet Potato Rösti with Cheese and Fried Egg

Stuffed Pumpkin with Rice, Feta and Pomegranate

Autumnal oven veggies with vegan feta

Overripe bananas

Brown-spotted bananas don't belong in the trash. They're exactly right for baking.

For my vegan banana bread with walnuts, use the ripest, brown-spotted bananas you can find. They're sweeter, make the bread juicier and give the best flavor. Plan on 80 to 90 minutes, 60 to 70 of them in the oven.

How ripe is ripe enough? For banana bread, the peels can have plenty of brown spots. For my chai banana bread, I even let the bananas sit until they have really brown spots.

This walnut banana bread keeps for 3 to 4 days in a tin. Frozen in thick slices, it's always ready when you want a piece: just warm a slice in the toaster.

And if there's no time to bake, peel the ripe bananas, cut them into slices and freeze them flat in a reusable bag or box. Later they turn into banana nice cream in minutes.

And here are 3 more of my banana recipes:

Chai Banana Bread

Peanut butter banana bread

Banana bread with cranberries and white chocolate

Half-used packages: muesli, coconut milk and more

Half-used packages are the quietest leftovers, because they just sit at the back of the pantry. Before I shop, I check what's already open and use that first.

I love using these apple muesli buns made with yeast to use up muesli leftovers: whether with pieces of strawberry, nuts or dried fruit, it all tastes great. The recipe makes 12 buns, and leftover buns freeze beautifully and refresh briefly in the oven.

Half a can of coconut milk freezes well too. I freeze it in an ice cube tray, and the cubes go into the next curry, a few at a time.

How long are leftovers good for in the fridge?

Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days or frozen for 3 to 4 months, according to the USDA. Get them into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking and reheat them to 165 °F (74 °C).

That's the guidance on the USDA's leftovers and food safety page. The reason behind the 2-hour rule: bacteria grow rapidly between 40 °F and 140 °F (4 °C and 60 °C). To cool large amounts of food quickly, the USDA recommends dividing them into shallow containers.

Frozen leftovers are safe indefinitely, the USDA notes, but they can lose moisture and flavor when they're stored in the freezer for longer. That's why I freeze in small portions and eat the oldest boxes first.

How long individual make-ahead dishes keep and how best to store them is covered in my guide on how long meal prep lasts in the fridge. Whatever you won't get to in time belongs in the freezer, ideally in single portions. Which dishes handle that best, I show in my roundup of vegetarian meals for the freezer.

Plan for leftovers: cook once, eat twice

The best leftover recipe starts at the store. Utah State University Extension calls it "Cook Once, Eat Twice": you plan your meals around key foods that can be prepared in larger quantities. If you don't want the same meal for days, it suggests freezing leftovers and eating them at a later date, and single-serving portions make easy, low-cost lunches.

In our house, Friday is that kind of day: whatever is left in the fridge goes into the curry, the wok or onto the sheet pan. And on Monday we reheat whatever is left of Sunday's big pot. I show how I plan a week like this in my vegetarian meal plan with a grocery list, with leftovers built in for lunch.

So nothing gets lost at the back of the fridge, our leftovers go into containers you can see into, front and center on the shelf.

Using up leftovers doesn't have to be perfectly planned. Start with the leftover you end up with most often and try one new idea for it. If you'd rather cook ahead from the start, my make-ahead vegetarian meal prep recipes have 8 dishes for the week. Now it's your turn: what do you end up with most often, and what do you cook from it?

Yours, Verena

Recipes to try

Zucchini kohlrabi soup

Vegetarian Sushi Bake with Tofu and Avocado

Black Rice Salad with Mango and Tempeh

Winter vegetables with cabbage