Wednesday, May 09, 2007

What to do with leftovers...

So last week this house reached the peak of end-of-school frenzy. The cupboards were bare, the few remaining produce items were going limp in the fridge, there was no time to go food shopping, and the Chinese menus were becoming more and more attractive. One night we ordered some Hunan style tofu, which turned out to be spicy and good. The tofu, accompanied by tons of veggies and black bean paste, was crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside, just perfect. And the portions were so big!

The next day, I had a ton of leftovers. How to eat them?



Behold the Hunan tofu pasta salad: chunks of tofu, brown rice pasta (hey, it's made of rice, so it's kind of like rice, right? right?), celery and celery leaves, and cilantro tossed with the sauce from the tofu plus some apple cider vinegar. It was surprisingly good and refreshing!



To accompany it, a salad made with the last handful of mesclun greens, some apples, and some celery, this one tossed with a smidge of balsamic vinegar and garnished with a few slivers of scallion.

Not a bad lunch. It provided a peaceful respite from the chaos of the last couple of weeks.

To all of you college students or teachers, or for anyone living with one, I hope the stress of finals is done, or close to being done, and that everyone survived intact and well-fed!


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19 comments:

Carrie™ said...

One of my brothers is once again a student, but he is finished for the year already and has gotten his marks back. I also have some friends who are finishing up the last little bits. I can only hope they've eaten as well as you have.

Judy said...

How did I miss the below post? Everything in it looks so good, I love the smiling cupcake.

This salad is brilliant. What a great way to use up leftovers.

Kati said...

Way to re-purpose that Chinese takeout! I would probably just eat it out of the carton...but your version looks much more appealing.

Hope the end of the semester goes smoothly for you!

scottishvegan said...

Very inventive. I would never have thought to do that. I must try to remember next time I get Chinese food :) Hope you're not too stressed out by school.

scottishvegan said...
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scottishvegan said...
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scottishvegan said...

Sorry for the multiple comments...I am a dummy!

MeloMeals said...

omg, it looks delicious... and very creative..

Theresa said...

Ooh, the end of the semester. We've got 4 weeks left, so the chaos is just starting on my campus.

Very creative use of leftovers. I'm inspired!

laura k said...

Yes! Leftover meals can sometimes be the greatest... putting things together that you wouldn't normally and watching how wonderfully everything comes out. I love that salad, by the way. The Hunan tofu sounds delicious.

Samantha said...

Those left overs look fabulous! I'll never look at left overs the same again!

anna/village vegan said...

Yum. I made a big bowl of pasta salad to tide me over finals week, too. But yours looks better. I never would have thought of making an asian-ish salad with ordinary noodles! Anyway I finished my finals yesterday...such a relief! Good luck with yours (or will you be grading others peoples'?)

urban vegan said...

Goodbye stress. Hello tofu hunan salad. Glad things will be a bit easier on you after the last few weeks.

aTxVegn said...

I love leftover meals. Salads are great for leftovers and yours sound delicious! Chase finished finals this week and I've been stressing right along with him. I'm so glad school is out.

JENNA said...

Peter usually takes leftovers to work for lunch the next day..i'm going to have to stop him next time so i can make something nice like you did!

JENNA

Scott at Real Epicurean said...

I'm a great believer in using up leftovers. Great idea.

Neva said...

For some reason Chinese leftovers are good in salad. That looks really good, not at all like something thrown together during finals.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Now, that's a pasta salad worth get excited over!

Emmy said...

Hunan tofu pasta salad....what a great idea :) WTG on inventing new recipes with your leftover takeout.