What to Do With Leftover Kabsa or Machboos

Start with safe storage

Rice is the part that needs care. Cooked rice can carry bacteria that survive cooking and make more toxin the longer it sits warm. The standard UK food safety advice is simple:

• Cool the rice quickly, ideally within about 1 hour. Spread it on a tray to speed this up.
• Refrigerate it and eat it within 1 day.
• Reheat it once only, until it is steaming hot all the way through.

Keep the meat and rice in separate containers if you can. It cools faster and lets you use them differently.

Reheating without drying it out

Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of water per portion, cover, and warm gently in a pan or the microwave. The steam brings the grains back. Our lamb kabsa and chicken machboos are both written for 4, so a half portion reheats well in a small pan.

Five ways to reuse the meat

1. Mutabbaq. Shred the meat and use it as filling for mutabbaq, a folded, pan-fried stuffed pastry. Our recipe is 30 minutes of prep and 20 of cooking for 4. It is a good way to use a small amount of meat.

2. Sambousek. Chop the meat finely, mix with a little cooked onion, and fill sambousek. They freeze well, so you can save them for another night. Prep is about 40 minutes and cooking is 15.

3. Wraps. Shred the meat, warm it, and wrap it with flatbread, salad and a spoonful of yogurt or tomato sauce.

4. Meat and rice soup. Add shredded meat and a handful of rice to the strained broth, simmer for a few minutes, and finish with lemon. Do not keep reheating soup that contains rice more than once.

5. Salad topper. Put warm shredded meat over a fattoush for a light second dinner.

Quick recipes for the leftovers

These are rough guides, not exact recipes, so adjust to what you have.

Kabsa wraps (serves 2). Shred about 1 cup (150 g) of leftover meat. Warm it in a pan with 1 tablespoon of the leftover sauce or a splash of water. Spread 2 tablespoons of yogurt on 2 flatbreads, add the meat, a handful of lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber, and roll tightly. Wrap the bottom half in baking paper if they are for a packed lunch.

Meat and rice soup (serves 3 to 4). Bring 4 cups (about 1 litre) of stock or water to a simmer. Add 1 cup (150 g) of shredded meat and 1/2 cup (about 90 g) of cooked rice. Simmer 5 minutes, add a squeeze of lemon and black pepper. Make only what you will eat in one sitting, because rice soup should not be reheated twice.

Rice patties (serves 2 to 3). Mash 1 1/2 cups (about 280 g) of cold, properly stored rice with 1 egg, a spoonful of flour and chopped coriander. Shape into small patties and pan-fry in a little oil for 3 to 4 minutes per side until golden. Serve with yogurt or the leftover tomato sauce. Use rice that has been in the fridge for no more than a day.

Stuffed pita pockets. Mix chopped meat, chopped onion and a few olives, spoon into halved pita, and warm in a dry pan until crisp on the outside.

How to tell if rice is still safe

Safety depends mostly on how it was handled, not on how it looks or smells. Bacteria that cause food poisoning from rice often do not change the smell. Use these rules:

• If rice sat at room temperature for more than a couple of hours, throw it away.
• If it has been in the fridge for more than a day, do not eat it.
• If it has been reheated once already, do not reheat it again.
• If you are not sure when it was cooked, throw it out.

Pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weak immune system are more vulnerable to food poisoning, so be especially strict about these rules in those cases.

Freezing leftovers

Cooked meat freezes better than rice for most people, and it is safest to freeze it quickly. Put shredded meat in a bag in 1-cup (150 g) amounts, flatten it, and freeze. Use within a few months, thaw overnight in the fridge, and reheat until steaming hot. If you do freeze rice, cool it within an hour, freeze it straight away, and reheat from frozen until piping hot.

Quick answers on leftover rice and meat

Can I eat leftover kabsa cold? If the rice was cooled quickly and stored properly in the fridge, it is generally fine to eat cold within a day, but it is not the nicest texture. Reheating once, until steaming hot, is safer and tastes better.

Can I reheat chicken machboos twice? It is best not to. Take out only the portion you will eat, reheat it, and leave the rest in the fridge untouched.

How do I stop rice drying out in the fridge? Cover the container tightly, or lay damp kitchen paper under the lid. When you reheat, add a few spoons of water.

What about the crispy topping, such as fried nuts and raisins? Store those separately at room temperature in a sealed jar so they stay crunchy, and add them after reheating.

Do not forget the sauce

A tomato and chilli sauce is part of the meal. If there is any left, it makes a fast dip for sambousek or a spread for wraps.

A note on amounts

If you often have leftovers, try cooking for the number you have. Our recipes use 2 cups (400 g) of basmati for 4 people. Scaling the servings in the app recalculates the amounts, so you can cook for 3 or 5 and have less to store.

Log it

If you track leftover meat or cooked rice in your pantry, the "what can we cook" suggestions can take it into account. See the pantry guide for how it works.