Quick Breakfast & Tiffin Ideas Using Leftover Food!

Kitchen stress often revolves around breakfast and tiffin ideas, especially when you’re looking to add creativity and flavour to meals. Balancing the need for exciting and appealing dishes, especially in tiffins, can be a challenge. However, the solution lies in a bit of creativity and utilizing kitchen leftovers to upscale your meal preparations.

If you have kids or adults or even need to prepare a tiffin for yourself, you would know that one needs to be creative and think of delicious and yummy recipes. Because, a tiffin is not just a meal, but is a break from routine and one looks forward to having something interesting and appealing in it. 

When you combine both these stresses and just use some creativity, bam! You get yourself a recipe that makes use of your kitchen leftovers and serves as a base for breakfast and tiffin preparations. You create an entirely new dish, it looks and tastes divine and you’ve emptied space in your refrigerator too!

So the next time you have these leftovers, check out the recipes and use them to upscale your breakfast and tiffin recipes.

Idli 65

Idlis are usually made in bulk, and it is very common to have leftover idlis. The commonest use of these idlis is to fry them up, but why give them a spicy twist and create this unique fusion recipe? Here is how you make it.  

Total time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2-4 servings

Ingredients

• 6-8 leftover pcs of idli
• 1/3 cup maida
• 2 tablespoons corn starch 
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 6-7 fresh curry leaves
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp urad dal
• 2 tsp freshly chopped coriander
• Oil to fry

Method

• Chop the idlis into 4-6 pieces each. Now prepare a slurry by mixing maida, corn starch, with water to form a slurry of medium thickness. To this, add the red chilli powder, cumin powder, salt and lemon juice. Dip the idli pieces in the slurry, such that they are all well coated.
• Heat some oil in a kadhai, and fry these idli pieces in medium-hot oil, until they are crispy. 
• Once the idlis are fried, prepare a small tadka to elevate the taste. 
• In a tadka vessel, add some oil and heat on a low flame, add urad dal until it turns light golden, now add mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Turn off the flame and add the curry leaves and once they crackle, spread it over the idlis and toss them so that the tadka evenly coats the idlis. 
• Serve hot with a dip of your choice, or as it is. 

Leftover Tandoori Chicken Wrap

If you have prepared or ordered tandoori chicken, having it as a leftover loses all its fun. Simply use the meat to create a lip-smacking wrap and your tiffin duties are sorted. 

Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients

• Tandoori chicken leftovers at least 5-6 pieces
• 4 whole wheat rotis / parathas
• Mint coriander chutney
• 2 tsp curd 
• 1 cup very thinly sliced onions
• 1 cup chopped lettuce
• 1 tsp chat masala
• 1 tsp cumin powder

Method

• Pull out as much meat on the pieces as possible. Shred the chicken roughly and keep it aside. Whisk the mint coriander chutney add some curd to it, and whisk until it is well mixed. 
• Keep one roti and spread this chutney evenly across the roti, place some chopped lettuce and onions on it, in a line along the diameter of the roti (so that it can be wrapped easily.) 
• Now place the shredded chicken on it. Top it with chat masala and jeera powder. Roll it into a tight wrap, and wrap it in aluminium foil or wrapping paper. 
• Repeat the same process for all rotis and enjoy. 

Egg Bhurji Momo

Egg bhurji is a spicy quick preparation that is good to eat and easy to prepare. But when you have leftover egg bhurji, it is rarely used again and is wasted. A simple tweak can upscale this recipe into a hot and spicy snack. 

Total Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 bowl leftover egg bhurji
• 1 cup maida
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp grated cabbage
• ½ tsp grated ginger 
• ½ tsp green chilli chopped very finely

Method

• Add the grated ginger, cabbage and chillies to the egg bhurji to change the flavour profile to a slightly authentic one. Mix the ingredients well. Form a soft dough using maida, salt with water. Allow the dough to rest for a few minutes. 
• Now take a small portion of the dough and roll out a small roti (make sure to use very small portions else the momo will become very big in size) Fill the egg stuffing in between and fold the edges to get a momo-like shape. Now boil some water in a steamer and place the momo in it, steam them for 5-10 minutes and serve piping hot with a hot and spicy sauce.

Leftover Cake Pops

We all know that ‘leftover’ cake is a myth! But there are enough times when a cake-baking session does not go as planned. So you have something that has all the ingredients of a cake, tastes like a cake but doesn’t look anything like it! Some simple miscalculations can lead a light and fluffy cake into a flat, thick and doughy mess. 

No need to throw it away! Use some simple tricks and make them into attractive cake pops! No one needs to know that you messed up a cake. 

Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 leftover cake
• 2 tsp melted butter
• 1 cup chocolate ganache  (melted chocolate) 
• ½ cup sprinkles

Method

• Crumble the cake and try to make it into a fine powdery state. Now add melted butter and knead it lightly so get a slightly firm consistency. 
• Make sure you add the butter little by little to avoid making the cake difficult to mould. Once the mixture is nice and smooth and holds firmly, roll small smooth balls out of the cake. 
• Poke the cake pops using toothpicks to give them a perfect cake pop-like appearance. Dip these cake pops in melted chocolate and hold them until they stop dripping. Roll them into some colourful sprinkles and refrigerate them for about an hour or so.
• Enjoy the cake pops cool or at room temperature.