Why throw leftover rice away? Use it to make a sweet dessert!

When cooking, sometimes you may prepare more food than needed, and end up with a lot of leftover food in your fridge. Some people may think that throwing away all these extras can be the simplest solution.

Nowadays, this happens to be wrong. The best solution would be to give the leftovers smarter uses and prepare new and delicious meals.

For example, if you cooked twice the pasta needed for dinner, you could turn it into a frittata. With those extra vegetables from yesterday, you can make a delicious soup today. The roasted chicken will be a perfect filling for sandwiches. And the remaining rice can be the starting point for fillings and desserts.

How to use leftover rice?

Rice is so versatile that even its leftovers can be used in countless dishes. Additionally, preparations made with leftover rice are very easy and fast, since rice is already cooked and will not need cooking time.

Some of the dishes include salads, taco fillings, fried rice, soups, risotto balls, and so much more.

You can also prepare sugary dishes with leftover rice and cook delightful desserts such as rice cakes, rice and fruit pots, sweet risotto, and of course rice pudding.

Rice pudding is the most famous rice dessert worldwide. It’s a simple dessert consisting of rice, milk, sugar, and spices. Most countries have their version of rice pudding, with some differences in the type of milk and species used.

They also differ in the toppings added, which may vary from fruits to chocolate chips, whipped cream, and seeds. Maybe you have already eaten rice pudding, or know how to cook it with packed rice, but you also can cook rice pudding with leftover rice.

Rice pudding recipes with leftover rice

There are as many leftover rice pudding recipes as normal rice pudding preparations. So, let's take a look at some of these preparations, and decide which one to prepare with that extra rice stored in your fridge.

Baked rice pudding

This is a recipe using the traditional way of cooking rice pudding in an oven. Rice pudding with this technique is thicker with a custard-like texture.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 1 cup of leftover rice.
• 2 cups of milk.
• 2 large eggs.
• 1/4 cup of sugar.
• 1/3 cup of raisins.
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Ground cinnamon to taste.

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, pour milk and cook at medium-low heat, add rice. Stir constantly to avoid burning and sticking. Lower the heat and let it simmer.
2. Mix the eggs in a bowl with vanilla extract and sugar.
3. Add ½ cup of simmered milk to the egg mixture, and stir very well. Then add all this preparation to the saucepan with the remaining milk.
4. Incorporate raisins and ground cinnamon. Combine very well.
5. Use a baking tray to put the mix and bake it for 35 minutes at 350 F.
6. It will be ready when you see brown custard, and a knife you insert comes out clean.
7. Let it stand and serve warm.

Creamy rice pudding on the stovetop

This is a fast way of preparing rice pudding. It gets very creamy with extra sugar flavor.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 1 ½ cups of leftover rice.
• 2 cups of milk.
• ¼ teaspoon of salt.
• ⅔ cup of golden raisins.
• 1 beaten egg.
• ⅓ cup of white sugar.
• 1 tablespoon of butter.
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Pinch of salt.

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, pour 1 cup of milk, rice, and add a little bit of salt. Cook at medium heat for 20 minutes.
2. Add remaining milk, raisings, eggs, and sugar. Stir carefully to avoid the mixture from sticking.
3. Take out the pan from the heat and incorporate the vanilla extract and the butter. Mix until all ingredients are well combined.

Leftover rice pudding

This preparation is ideal for a special breakfast.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 2 cups of leftover rice.
• 1 cup of whole milk.
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
• 3 tablespoons of agave nectar or honey.
• Pinch of salt.
• Pomegranate to taste.
• Chocolate chips to taste.

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, pour whole milk and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat.
2. Add rice, agave nectar or honey, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and salt.
3. Stir very well and continue cooking for 20 minutes until the rice starts to thicken.
4. Serve in individual bowls and add pomegranate and chocolate chips at the top.

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