Recycle your yummy leftover sweets

Turn gulab jamuns into a delicious parfait or create a colourful mithai chaat. Here’s how to recycle leftover Diwali sweets into something fun and yummy

As Diwali festivities come to an end, we are often left with loads of pedas, barfis, chocolates, and even dry fruits that we don’t know how to utilise. Experts tell us how we can innovatively reuse these leftover food items or increase their shelf life.

Chef Nishant Choubey suggests increasing the shelf life of mithais by turning them into kulfis. “Lad dhondas, pedas, an can be churned i mixer. Add condensed mil and cardamo the mix and freeze,” suggests Choubey. Yo can add cinnamon or coffee powde the mix to cre different flavou kulfis.

Dry fruits can be turned into granola ba Take the nuts, chop them coarsely, and roast them on a non-stick pan until crisp. Add some honey and put the mixture into small moulds and let the bars set. You may use the nuts by adding them to oats or your morning milk for a healthy twist. You can also vacuum pack dry fruits and store them in the freezer so that they remain crisp.

If you are looking to make something innovative, try mixing and matching the sweets. Chef Rakesh Sethi suggests making tawa mithai chaat or even rasmalai gujiya from the leftovers. “You can crush motichoor ke ladoo, stuff it into bread, and pour rasmalai ka doodh over it,” he says. Another idea is to dice leftover mithais, sauté them on a tawa, add rabri, and stir well. You can serve this mithai chaat garnished with nuts. “But remember that these are very high on sugar so have them in moderation,” cautions Sethi.

We are also left with lots of chocolates that we are tired of eating after days of festivities. You can melt them into a ganache, add milk and chilli to it, and freeze them in an ice tray. These recycled and flavoured chocolates are a nice change from the usual ones.

You can use them to make milkshakes as well. Melted chocolate can also be added to omelette or besan chilla to add a twist to the flavours. The ganache can also be used as chocolate spread for sandwiches or dips that you can have with biscotti or chips.

If you have leftover gulab jamuns, chop them into small pieces and add them to your cake batter. You can also layer up barfis, rasgullas, and gulab jamuns to make a parfait. Place mithai at the bottom of a glass and layer it with custard, and later ice cream. You can do the same with barfis and pedas. Mash them and add hung curd or whipped cream and chopped fresh fruits.

Chop leftover gulab jamun and add to the cake batter

Use chocolate to make milk shake

Dry fruits can be turned into granola bars