The Waste-Conscious Breakfast Hack Perfect For Leftover Salad

Salads are usually served as a side dish or a main course, but what if we told you that you could turn a bowl of lettuce into a delicious breakfast? Despite the fact that salad is probably the last thing that you want to nibble on first thing in the morning, there is a method to the madness. Rather than chuck leftovers into the bin, there's a waste-free way to transform last night's leafy entrée into a morning meal fit for a gourmand. All you have to do is use a bit of imagination.

Whether you're dining out or at home, it can be hard to resist loading up your plate with salad when it boasts so many fresh, crisp, and colorful ingredients. However, if you've fallen victim to your eyes being bigger than your stomach, then find comfort in knowing that leftover salad can easily be stored and eaten the next day. In fact, Substitute Cooking shares that salads can be kept up to five days so long as lettuce is free of any moisture, which means that salads should ideally be undressed.

Unfortunately, eating the same thing several days in a row can get boring. Likewise, if you've loaded on the vinaigrette, then eating a salad (still served as a salad) can be unpleasant. To make leftover salad more palatable and avoid needlessly throwing away food, it could be wise to rethink your salad as an ingredient rather than a dish of its own.

Repurposing leftover salad is tricky — to say the least. But, rather than look for out-of-the-box ideas, the solution could be as simple as including the leafy greens into your morning fry-up. According to Lifehacker, almost any leafy or lettuce-free salad can be effortlessly added to scrambled eggs — just allocate two eggs for every half cup of salad.

Adding texture and another dimension of flavor to otherwise simple eggs, making a "salad scramble" is a genius way to minimize waste and feed your culinary creativity. Considering that other bits and bites of bacon, cheese, or bell peppers are often added to some of our favorite egg-based dishes, the idea of incorporating dressed salads isn't actually so strange, after all. Plus, you don't have to limit yourself to scrambled eggs. Omelets, frittatas, and quiches can also be the ultimate vessel for leftover salads, per AllRecipes.

Moreover, if a salad is undressed and you find yourself completely blinded by the sum of its components, you can simply deconstruct it and craft an entirely new dish. For example, tomatoes from a caprese can be chopped into a zesty shakshuka, meanwhile bacon and blue cheese from a Cobb salad can be added to shirred eggs, per Carb Manager.