Whip Up a 5 Star Meal with these Epic Leftover Recipes

Picture the aftermath of an Eid daawat at your place. A sense of impending doom looms over your head as you picture the next two days where amma insists that this is all you’ll be having for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What if we told you there’s a way out? That you could repurpose that food into a completely new dish? We’ll tell you how to convert that plain old (albeit yummy) pulao, aaloo qeema and nihari into something unique that will tantalise your taste buds and keep you reaching for more.

Burritos a la Mutton Pulao

Put a desi spin on the beloved Mexican dish by using flavorful pulao to make hearty Burritos that will make your heart sing.

 Ingredients:

 Method:

• Separate the rice and mutton.
• Put the rice in a frying pan. Add chilli sauce and stir.
• Cut the meat into small pieces. Kick the flavour up a notch by adding red chilli flakes, soy sauce and salt.
• Cut the vegetables, julienne and toss them in a pan with some oil. Sauté the vegetables for around 3-4 minutes on medium heat. Add salt, black pepper and mixed herbs.
• Mix sour cream, black pepper and garlic powder together and mix well.
• Lay the tortilla wrap flat on a surface and spread rice on one side of it, top it off with meat, sauce, vegetables and cheese.
• Wrap it up tightly and put it on a pan on medium heat, flip the side after a minute.
• Once your tortilla wrap is golden-is from all the sides, take it off the heat and enjoy.

Aaloo Qeema Casserole

Give your basic Aaloo Qeema a makeover with this bowl of cheesy goodness.

 For meat:

  Instructions:

• Separate the aalo from the qeema.
• In a pan, add tomato puree to the qeema and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. At this point, start adding the spices.
• Add butter to a saucepan, let it melt and gradually add flour.
• Gradually start adding milk to it while constantly stirring.
• When the consistency is that of a thick liquid, add the spices, mix well and take it off the heat. Your bechamel sauce is done.
• Boil the potatoes from the Aalo qeema for 5 minutes.
• Drain the water and mash the potatoes.
• Put the potatoes in a pan on medium heat and slowly add milk and butter to it while stirring constantly. Add spices. When the texture is smooth and consistent, take it off the heat and set aside.
• In an oven proof dish, start layering by adding the meat into the dish, top it off with béchamel sauce, mashed potatoes and cheese.

Put it in the oven for around 20-25 minutes or whenever the cheese gets golden-brown. Serve hot. 

Patties/Pie from Nihari

• Add oil and butter to a pan and let it melt.
• Add onions and sauté them till transparent. Add in the shredded beef from nihari to it.
• Add flour, mix well, add milk, mix well again.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Lay the puff pastry flat and cut out circles (or any other shape of your preference).
• With the readymade puff pastry, the process becomes 10x easier.
• Take the nihari meat filling and place it on top of the circle, layer it up with another circle of puff pastry.
• Brush the patties with egg and place them inside the oven for around 15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.
• 

Nachos bowl from Raan Roast

• Take an oven proof bowl and add tortilla chips to it.
• Top it off with raan roast, jalapeños, sun dried tomatoes, cheese dip and mozzarella cheese.
• Toss it in the oven for 10 minutes at 180*C and enjoy your loaded nacho bowl.
• Serve with salsa, cheese dip, guacamole or any other dip of your choice

Give some wilayati touch to your desi food and keep things exciting throughout this eid weekend. Using leftovers innovatively is a win-win situation! Here’s to hoping that we can all be mindful of our food wastage this Eid and make the best of leftovers.