Not enough time? Well, you can still dish out fast and tasty meals, writes Ismat Tahseen 

For so many people today, the task cooking is often delegated to the proverbial backburner, with hardly any time at hand for cooking. Nine-to-six routines have become the norm. Post that, its time to rush home, grab dinner and whatever’s left of the evening and finally, call it a night.

Actor couple Aashish Chowdhry and Samita Bangargi say quite sums up how they manage their time. “Our schedules are quite hectic since I have had a lot of films lined up after Dhamaal,” says Aashish, “So most of the time Samita packs me a quick, working lunch. “I would love to spend more time in the kitchen,” joins in Samita. “But my own designing work keeps me bus, so we try to whip up something that’s fast yet healthy, like grilled chicken or salads. For me, I think half the fun of cooking is the clever re-invention of a dish into something totally different using leftovers,” she laughs.

For people like them who are living a ‘salad and sandwich life’, there’s much hope yet.
For, in times of need when you have no time to run to the grocer’s for provision, you can still create delicious meals using leftovers. The adage, ‘Waste not, want not,’ is quite relevant here and with a little thought and planning it is possible to turn a few leftovers into a delicious meal. In fact, a good way to save time and energy is also to ‘cook ahead,’ that is, to cook enough so you might even have leftovers for another meal.

According to Bhairav Singh Rajput, sous chef of Renaissance Hotel, Mumbai, quite a few dishes can be made at home using leftovers. “Like potato soup,” he starts.” All you need is to boil them, add the seasoning – coriander, lime juice and chilli powder. And you can also have fun with chappatis that are slightly stale. “Just cut them lengthwise and blanch them in hot water until they are like pasta. Now, take whatever sabzi you have leftover, heat oil, put in some garlic and chillies, add them and voila! You have Indian-Italian fusion pasta,” he reveals.

In addition to this, leftover chicken can be grilled with fresh vegetables, leftover rice can also be steamed or fried to make a tasty dish, scrambled eggs with leftover vegetables tastes great and leftover cooked cereals can be used as a thickening agent. It’s also a goods idea to make home made croutons with old bread and store this for the future.

In case you are preparing bones in a pot to make some stock, when you are adding your liquid, go ahead and throw in any leftover gravy that you might have from your dinner.

It will add an extra kick to the stock that you are preparing.