Leftovers Don’t Have to be Left Over

A long, long time ago, someone invented the microwave. Okay it was a man named Percy Spencer who accidentally melted his snack 70 years ago when he was testing some military machinery. Sounds like my kinda guy.

Anyway, he made this miracle box and suddenly everything had changed. Now, instead of waiting for your stove or oven to heat up, you can just zap your food and it’s warm! Wooo, science! These days, leftovers and the microwave have become a synonymous pair.

Here’s the thing though. I kind of hate the microwave. Well, that’s a strong word. It has its place, I use it sometimes (to boil water or melt butter) but I lived without one for almost a year and didn’t miss it. 

While it does cut down on time, the microwave sucks the actual life (aka moisture) out of my food and then the food is sad which makes me sad. Have you ever reheated some leftover General Tso’s? Suddenly that saucy crispy chicken becomes a gluey, gummy blog of something resembling protein and it’s terrible. Pasta becomes rubbery, vegetables go limp. Soup does okay, but that’s because it’s liquid.

I’ve found that taking the extra couple minutes to heat up my leftovers makes them actual worthwhile meals instead of the sloppy seconds from whatever I ate the night before. Plus, if you do a teeny bit of cooking, you have an opportunity to jazz them up! 

Chinese Food

Stove. Always stove. PLEASE. Save yourself the heartache of inedible leftovers and just heat up a pan. Fried rice deserves a little oil and a hot frying pan. If it was previously fried, it needs to get crispy again, so you can throw it in a pan or in a toaster oven. Just be mindful that the middle of the food will take longer to get warm.

Pizza

Oh dear god please do not microwave your pizza. If you live in New York City and I catch you ever microwaving your pizza, well, I will weep and we might not be friends anymore. You’re better off eating it cold than zapping it. A toaster oven or the regular oven will do. And if you don’t have either of those, just warm up a cast iron pan on the stove. You can even put a pot lid over it to help melt the cheese. It might get a little overly crispy but it’s still better than a weird gluey mess of crust and sad cheese.

Proteins 

Beef can withstand a little microwaving but make sure to put some water in the bowl and only zap it for like a minute or two, just to bring it back up to a regular temperature inside. Then throw it in a pan with a little more of whatever sauce you had made or even just some olive oil to revive the flavor. Chicken also requires moisture and a similar process. Hydrate that white meat back to an edible texture!

Vegetables

So versatile! If they were roasted or baked previously, try the toaster or the oven. Similar to fried foods – crispy before means crispy again. If they were steamed or sautéed, just reheat them in a pan with a water then a little olive oil to help them regain life. They will have broken down overnight in the fridge so I wouldn’t try to toast previously sautéed veggies, but something like a baked potato or roasted cauliflower will want to be reheated in that original cooking form.

Leftovers don’t have to be disappointing; they can be an opportunity for creativity! Put your leftover chicken and vegetables in a tortilla with some cheese – boom, a taco. Keep eggroll wrappers in your fridge and then you can make everything into a handheld appetizer. I make intense grilled cheeses or sandwiches out of random leftover veggies or proteins sometimes, as long as it fits on the bread, it’s good to go! 

Or, if you’re like me and you have an air fryer, just put literally everything you can find in there. As my mom stated last night, I will eat literally anything if it’s crispy.