Restaurant Leftover Redo

"Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories.  Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart."  Thomas Fuller

Two of my favorite redo meals come from restaurants.  First on the list is a dish not pictured here because we ate it.  This is a redo of a vegetarian fajita as served in most restaurants featuring southwestern food.  This dish generally comes with some tortillas, beans, rice, lettuce and other goodies, along with a generous platter of sauteed veggies.

What I generally do is eat up all the side items wrapped in the tortillas and take the sauteed veggies home.  At home I reheat the veggies with some soy sauce and serve them over rice.  It makes a meal large enough for two and better yet, it's in a completely different ethnic setting!

The dish pictured here is the leftovers from a curried lentil and sweet potato dish that I enjoyed at a different restaurant.  Because I also had an appetizer and dessert I was able to take half of my entree home.  With dishes that contain beans and/or lentils the redo is generally a soup.

To my leftover curried lentils and sweet potatoes I added:
  carrots, diced
  onion, diced
  celery, diced
  veggie broth, about 2 cups
  salt, to taste
  2 T nutritional yeast (optional)

I sauteed the veggies in a splash of oil for a few minutes and then added the broth.  When the veggies were tender, after about 10 minutes of simmering, I added the leftover curried lentils and sweet potatoes along with a pinch of salt and some nutritional yeast.

Another addition that can add a bit more color and nutrition is parsley powder.  This is an ingredient I have around by accident, like two of my children.  It seems that grocery stores are not willing to sell parsley by the sprig and so I usually end up purchasing a bunch.  From this bunch I use a sprig or two and then watch the rest of the bunch slowly deteriorate in my refrigerator. 

One day, as the faerie tale goes, I decided to dehydrate extra parsley in my dehydrator (an oven on low would probably work) and then whipped up the dried parsley sprigs in my blender.  I now have a little jar of parsley powder to use in soups or for parsley tea.  I also still have the two children who went on to create beautiful accidents of their own.  Life is good!

Loveya
The Mom