How To Perform An Exorcism On The Leftovers That Are Haunting Your Fridge
Nothing keeps me up at night like the thought of leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge for 2 days or longer (besides maybe the mortality of my loved ones). As someone who cooks frequently for me and me alone, I tend to accumulate a lot of leftovers. At any given time my fridge is stuffed with tupperwares full of rice that I’m definitely going to turn into fried rice, currys and bean stews that I will inevitably freeze, wilting herbs, rotting half squeezed lemons, giant loaves of bread that I’m going to to give one more day before transforming them into croutons. Spoiler (literally) alert, for a lot of these leftover plans, the next day never comes. The herbs shrivel, the lemons mold, and the bread becomes inedible. The bean stews and curries are banished to the freezer where they are doomed to spend eternity until they are unrecognizable and eventually discarded.
My question is why? Why is it so hard to stay committed to the contents of your fridge? Sure sometimes you buy too much and you’re only one person. Time gets away from you, life gets busy and there’s not enough time to cook. By “you” I mean me, and for me what it really comes down to is lack of discipline and the tendency to distract easily.
My instagram feed is like a dating app for the meal I could potentially eat next, each post promising to fulfill a different culinary need and dominating my cravings from moment to moment. A bowl of curry udon on the @cabbages.world page, a frisee salad on @chloecooks, an Eater post about a restaurant that happens to only be a 10 minute walk from me. I see it, I want it. Even now as I write this post, I’m exercising restraint as I try to remain loyal to the jar of pickled herring I have in my fridge as the smell of popeyes wafts over into this coffee shop’s backyard.
Generally, if I see something I just need to make, I will go to the grocery store, buy all the ingredients and make it. This piles on to the surplus of ingredients I already have, and 2 days later those ingredients join the ever growing stock of undesirables. Here, I have compiled a list of ways to get rid of leftovers as well as remain loyal and respectful to my fridge, who is always there for me and has never shown signs of a wandering eye. Here’s to you dear fridge, I promise to do better.
Feed Leftovers to Your Friends
One woman’s trash is another’s treasure. Those 3 quarts of lentil stew may be nauseating to you after 3 days, but to your friend who’s hungry and snooping around your fridge, it’s a new and exciting homemade meal. Suggest leftovers you’re trying to get rid of before they find that 15 dollar block of artisan cheese you got from the farmer’s market.
2. Get Creative And Embrace Laziness
I didn’t want to start with “Get Creative” because it's the most quintessential and heavily repeated piece of leftover advice you could get. However, certain aspects of creativity and laziness can pair nicely when it comes to fridge clean-out. Listen to that little voice inside you that doesn’t feel like leaving the house. Think of the trek to the grocery store, the human interaction involved in getting takeout. Embrace your inner couch potato and use those potatoes that are wrinkling and turning green on your produce shelf.
Now that you’re repulsed by the thought of setting foot outside, survey the ingredients in your fridge and think of what flavors go well together. It could be inspired by any recipe or traditional dish, or a completely new and delicious (or disgusting) creation of your very own! Try to let the rotting leftover’s lead the way. Peel off a few layers of shriveled onion, pluck the remaining green leaves from that bunch of browning cilantro, add some heat and/or acid, and eat it up! In my brain taking foods that have almost all but gone bad and combining them together actually renews the clock on the shelf life of all of it. Eat your leftover creation right away or let it sit in the fridge for a few days only to use it in some other concoction that restarts the clock again (but in actuality food does go bad eventually and if something is on its second life you should probably just eat it).
Some bean and potato tacos I made when I didn’t feel like walking 5 blocks to Taco Bell
3. Become the Influencer
This is an extension of step 2, but I often find that while I’m scrolling on instagram the beautifully plated dishes that I see home cooks making are the result of “using what you have.” Put yourself in the position of the influencer. Insteading of following the trend, set it. You can create a version of the food on your feed by utilizing similar techniques with your own resources. Originality is the secret ingredient in so much delicious food;)
4. Get Creative and Feed The Leftovers to Your Friends
Combine steps 1 and 2 by creating something from your soon to spoil food and spoil your friends!
5. Crack an Egg In the Middle
Everyone knows that adding an egg makes that dish a whole new thing. Tomato sauce becomes shakshuka, leftover curry becomes leftover curry with an egg in it, the possibilities are endless. Eggs add protein, richess, and a pretty yellow yolk for a pretty yellow yolk picture.
Pretty red pepper soup with a pretty yellow yolk (and cheesy garlic bread)
6. Freeze and Forget
This is probably not the best advice, which is why it’s last (is that how it’s supposed to go?). I inherited a disease from my mother that forces me to compulsively freeze things instead of eating them fresh or throwing them away when their time is near passed. My freezer is stuffed with pre-cut baguettes, whole fish I saw for a good price, and chicken soup I couldn't finish 4 months ago. But I’d be lying if I said that every once in a while a half a pint of frozen kimchi and bean stew from the back of my freezer didn’t come in handy in a pinch. Look, ya never know! Better frozen than sorry.
Some Japanese Curry that I actually defrosted and ate
While it can be difficult to stay faithful to your fridge, I hope this post can help you listen to your grumbling stomach as well as that week old box of spinach that you bought aspirationally that is now on its last dying breath. Don’t let its life be for nothing.
These are not strict rules that I live by, just things I do every now and then that seem to help lighten the leftover load. I’m definitely not qualified to be giving advice about disciplining yourself to always finish your leftovers over ordering from that new Caribbean Asian fusion restaurant that just opened up down the block. It’s just something I’m trying to do more of, you can too if you want.
