Last Night’s Dinner, Today's Hero Lunch

Open almost any fridge on a weekday and there is a familiar landscape:a small container of curry, abowlofrice, alonely piece of roast chicken, afew vegetables that did not makeit to the main meal. The official labelis “leftovers”, but what happens next can turn them into either guiltorquiet satisfaction.

- TDG NETWORK

Neatly stacked tubs of last night's dinner waiting for their second life as tomorrow's lunch.

In many households, leftovers are a simple matter of economy. Food is too expensive, and too bound up with effort, to be wasted. A pot of lentils stretches over two meals. A vegetable dish reappears at breakfast with fresh rotis. Rice is reheated, a littledrier than before, but till serviceable. It is a practical system, nota glamorous one.

Alongside this, though, there isa more creative tradition: the informal “second life” of familiar dishes. Leftover rice fried with a handful of chopped vegetables and an egg. Chickpea curry thickens on thestove untilitsitssnugly inside toast. Roast vegetables blitzed into a soup. None of these are recipesin thestrict sense. They are instincts passed down quietly, often without being named.