Leftover Roti, Daal and Salan: Next-Day Makeovers

Four rotis, a cup of daal, and no plan

Dinner was last night. In the fridge: a stack of four stale rotis, a small steel bowl of daal, and a spoonful or two of chicken salan that nobody finished. Not enough to serve as a meal, too much to throw away. This is where leftover roti ideas, and the same for daal and curry, earn their place.

Below are eight makeovers. First, the rules that apply to all of them, because leftovers are where careless habits cause trouble.

The safety rules first

• Refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Rice sooner, within about an hour.
• Cool in shallow containers, so the middle does not stay warm for hours.
• Reheat until steaming hot throughout, 75 C (165 F). Stir halfway so there are no cold spots.
• Reheat once. Do not heat, cool and heat again.
• Eat within about 3 to 4 days if stored cold, and sooner if you are unsure. If it smells wrong, throw it out.
• If chicken was in the dish, it needs to reach 74 C (165 F) again, and the sauce around it needs to be bubbling.

This is general food-safety guidance, not a promise about any particular pot. When in doubt, throw it out.

Leftover roti

1. Roti rolls with egg. Beat 2 eggs with chopped onion, green chilli and coriander, and cook them like the filling for omelette desi, about 5 minutes. Warm a roti in a dry pan, lay the omelette on it, roll tightly. The roti softens from the steam of the egg. Cook the egg firm.

2. Roti crisps. Cut stale roti into triangles, brush with a little oil, sprinkle with salt, chaat masala or red chilli, and bake or dry-pan until crisp. Good with a dip, or crumbled on soups. Watch closely, as they burn in seconds.

3. Roti chaat. Crisp the roti pieces, then use them in place of the samosa in samosa chaat: chickpeas, onion, tomato, yogurt and tamarind water. It is a snack for the evening, not a meal.

4. Sweet roti. Tear a roti into pieces, warm with a spoon of ghee and sugar. A children's snack in many homes. Use sparingly.

Leftover daal

5. Daal paratha dough. Stir a few tablespoons of thick daal into atta (flour) in place of some of the water, then knead and roll as in aloo paratha but without the stuffing. The daal needs to be thick, not watery, or the dough gets sticky. Add flour until it is workable.

6. Daal soup. Loosen thick daal with hot water or stock, bring to a boil, add a little lemon juice and fresh coriander. It is a quick soup. Reheat to steaming hot.

7. Daal into khichdi. Add rice and extra water to the leftover daal and simmer, as in khichdi, until soft. It will not match the original recipe, but it is a useful way to turn half a bowl of daal into dinner for two. Cooked rice should be freshly cooled and in the fridge within about an hour.

Leftover salan and curry

8. Salan as a filling or base. Shred the leftover chicken from chicken salan off the bone, and heat it in its gravy until bubbling. Use it as a roti filling with sliced onion and a squeeze of lemon, or as the topping on rice. If there is only gravy and no meat, use it as a sauce on boiled eggs, or add some potato cubes and simmer for 15 minutes.

For leftover mince curry, the same method applies: reheat it fully (71 C or 160 F for mince, and steaming hot throughout), then use it in a sandwich or a stuffed paratha.

What does not work

• Fried items that were crisp. Pakoras and samosas go soft. A hot oven or air fryer helps, but they will not return to their first state.
• Anything that was left out overnight. If dinner sat on the counter, it is not a leftover; discard it.
• Rice that has been kept too long. Fresh, cold rice is fine for fried rice, but not rice of uncertain age.
• Daal with a sour smell. It spoils faster than people think in warm weather.

A way to plan it

Leftovers are easier when planned. Cook a little extra on purpose, and decide the second use at the time:

If you track your pantry in an app, Degchi can suggest dishes from what you mark as Have, and a leftover bowl is not tracked, but the staples you would add to it are. Check it for ideas, or ignore it, and do the above with a spoon and a pan.

More in this cluster

Our leftover rice post covers rice in more detail, and use up leftovers without boredom has a broader list. For safe cooling and reheating specifics, see cooling and reheating rice and daal.

The one-minute habit

Label the container with the date when you put it in the fridge. A strip of tape and a pen. It removes the "how old is this?" question, which is the main reason leftovers get thrown out.