Raise your hand if you're guilty of buying/ baking too much bread or cooking too much rice! We've got plenty of delicious ways to re-purpose these staples and save them from ending up in the garbage
Bread
- Toasties: Extra crispy bread + extra melty Puck mozzarella cheese = winner. It is that simple and that tasty!
- Make your own bread crumbs It’s easy. Just preheat your oven to 150 C, place slices of stale bread right on the oven racks, and leave them in there for 30 minutes. Remove them and toss them in a blender or a food processor to make finer breadcrumbs.
- Make croutons simply cut the bread into cubes, arrange it on a baking sheet (bonus points if you add some garlic, herbs and olive oil) toast in 150C oven for 20 minutes. (remember to turn them halfway through) these make a deluxe topping for soups and salads.
- Crusty bread salad aka Panzanella. This is a much-loved Italian bread salad that usually pairs ciabatta(but you can use any kind of stale bread really), ripe, juicy tomatoes, olive oil, olives, capers, and peppers. The bread soaks up all the wonderful juices and the fact that it is stale is actually a plus in this recipe!
- Savory bread pudding: Just take a baking dish or casserole, coat it with oil or butter to prevent sticking, and add several slices of bread. For every slice you add, beat two eggs in a bowl with a splash of Puck cooking cream along with whatever savory flavorings you’d like – diced onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, cooked sausage, and so on. Pour that mix right onto the bread, then top it with a layer of Puck mozzarella cheese.Bake in the oven until the edges are golden and irresistible and the center is done
- Pita bread quick pizza: in the mood for pizza but you don't have the time or energy to make one from scratch? Use pita bread! Top it with your favorite sauce, Puck Mozzarella cheese and off to the oven
- French Toast: stale bread is actually better than fresh bread for making french toast. It soaks up the flavors, holds its own and does not turn into mush at the mere mention of moisture!
- Use old bread as a topping for French onion soup. Another great use for old, dry bread is to simply put it on top of a bowl of French onion soup, top it with Puck mozzarella and your favorite cheese blend and place it under the broiler for a few minutes till it is hot and bubbly
- Jazz it up and bake it into bruschetta. Bruschetta is basically crusty bread with toppings, so bread that’s somewhat stale is almost perfect for this appetizer/ suhoor idea. All you have to do is brush slices of dry bread with olive oil, bake them in the oven at about 150 C for a few minutes, then top them with whatever sounds delicious on bruschetta. We like to use diced tomatoes, Puck mozzarella, or Puck Feta cheese and basil or mint, but add whatever sounds good to you. Once you’ve topped the bread, return it to the oven, place it under the broiler for a few minutes. It’ll be an amazing appetizer or side dish!
Rice
You overestimated how much rice you'll need and now you have a ton left over. What do you do with it? It’s an absolute waste of time and money to throw out rice, so instead, we find some creative uses for it.