A bit of advice I keep coming across in cooking tips articles is that you should cook more grain or rice than you need, say twice as much, so that you have leftovers. The idea is that if you double your batch of rice, bulgar, quinoa or other grain you’ll have conveniently cooked grains leftover for making a salad, fried rice, pilafs, etc.
This advice bugs me so much that I wanted to post my opinion on it even though it is doubtful many will ever read this particular article. I place this kind of cooking advice into the ‘happy-homemaker’ category.
If you are that together, good for you. Most of us are not. We do, however, like to tell ourselves we can be that organized, find advice like this, and end up wasting a bunch of cooked rice. What is ironic is that this tip is meant to help you be frugal and use your food budget more wisely. Leftovers happen, but let me give you one piece of advice that will serve you much better and keep you from wasting a precious resource: Never make more than you need!
We go through a lot of rice at my house and the truth is that I frequently have plenty of rice left over. Leftover rice is actually best for making fried rice because the rice dries out some. But, I don’t go planning for leftovers on the misguided promise that you will actually want to use them in the next day (or two). It sounds practical but in reality, it’s just well-intentioned and ultimately wasteful.
Extend the same attitude to any cooking tips that tell you to make extra food so you can use the extra for something else the next day. Be honest with yourself: You probably will not. Waste is waste, no matter how well-intentioned.