Leftovers

So many times we have leftovers we wonder what to do with..
Here, I will post ideas what we can do with some of them:

Plain Rice
Rice can be frozen in small portions and added to soups, sauces, or cooked with other ingredients to a delicious meal.

If you are making a puree soup, or you want to thicken the consistency of the soup just add the defrosted rice to the blender and here it is!
You can also add the defrosted rice to chicken, meatball, or potato soup at the end.

Bread

Air dry the bread, cut into pieces and blend it to a fine bread crumbs.
Here you can make Italian bread crumbs, by adding Parmesan cheese, dry basil, thyme or oregano.
Another type bread crumbs: mix in dry garlic powder and black paper;
or cumin, coriander, chili powders;
or paprika, dry parsley and black paper;

The bread can be cut into cubes. Mix oil and any of the above mention combination. Mix both and bake to dry on med temperature for 1 or 1.30. Cool down and use in salads and soups.

Cumin Rice with veggies

This dish is perfect if you have leftover plain rice and need to fix a meal quickly.
I added  peanuts to add more flavor and nutrients to the dish, they can be skipped or replaced with cashew nuts.

3 cups boiled rice ( any type of rice can be used)
1/2 sliced onion
1 table spoon ginger-garlic paste
1/2 table spoon cumin
1/2 cup row peanuts
1 medium red bell pepper( green or yellow will work also)
1/2 cup frozen green peas
3 mushrooms
1 carrot
olive oil
salt
optional : chili powder

Saute onion, bell pepper, carrot and mushroom separately.
Heat 2 table spoons oil  in a pan. Add peanuts and cook for 5 mins on medium flame. Stir few times to avoid the peanuts to burn on one side. Add cumin seeds. They will start to pop once are cooked so be careful not to burn yourself. Reduce to low flame and add the ginger and garlic paste. Cook for 2-3 mins and mix in well the cooked rice and salt. If you are using chili powder add it here. Add all veggies , incl the defrosted green peas. Cook for 5 mins and check salt.

  Serve with chopped cilantro and fresh lemon juice.

Adding shredded coconut to this dish just before serving makes it even better :)

Enjoy!