Recipe

2 Simple Ways to Upgrade Your Leftover Rice

By Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh at University of British Columbia

For all my life the only proper thing I could ever cook was rice and instant noodles. As a result, my cooking skills are still pretty appalling. But the following two recipes I'm about introduce require no skill, yet the outcome is great. If you don't have cooked rice, you can also use instant rice.

So without further explanation, let's get into our first dish.

The first dish I'm going to introduce is Rizza, or rice pizza. Nice and easy, and the best part is that you get to choose what goes on top.

Rizza

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 15 mins
  • Servings: 1
Ingredients
  • 1 bowl rice
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 tablespoons butter
  • Spaghetti sauce or ketchup
  • Mozzarella cheese

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 1

Preheat a frying pan on low fire.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 2

While the pan is being heated, mix the rice and egg together.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 3

Mix until the rice and egg are completely mixed.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 4

Apply butter on the pan and spread thoroughly.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 5

Gently spread the rice and egg mixture (from step 2 and 3) onto the pan.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 6

Place the toppings on top of the rice. In this case, they are ham and sliced onions (but feel free to be creative).

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 7

Spoon out the spaghetti sauce on top of your toppings and spread.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 8

Place mozzarella cheese on top of Rizza. Put a pan lid on and let it melt for 2-3 minutes.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Step 9

Enjoy your meal.

Photo by Karina Kwok

Our second dish, a more typical Asian food, is called College-Style Oyako Donburi. It also requires absolutely no skill except for slicing an onion (well, maybe a little cash injection for the can of chicken breast). 

College-Style Oyakyo Donburi

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 5 mins
  • Total Time: 10 mins
  • Servings: 1
Ingredients
  • 1 bowl rice
  • 1 chicken breast can
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 onion
  • 4 tablesspoons soy sauce
  • 4 tablespoons Sprite

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

Step 1

Prepare the rice in a bowl.

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

Step 2

Slice the onions and place them on top of the rice along with the chicken breast.

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

Step 3

Beat your eggs with a fork. This is an important step. As the bowl will be entering the microwave, it is important that the white and yellow yolk are mixed well.

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

Step 4

Pour the egg mixture (from step 3) onto the rice bowl with chicken and onions (from step 2) and microwave for 1-2 minutes.

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

Step 5

While the dish is being heated up, mix 4 tablespoons of soy sauce and Sprite together.

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

Step 6

Add the sauce (from step 5) to the microwaved bowl (from step 4), and enjoy your meal.

Photo by Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh

As I mentioned above, you must be brave and fearless at cooking to get better. Everyone starts from scratch, perhaps these two simple recipes may help you to improve your cooking skills (it surely did for me), and feel free to explore and add your own twist to it. But in the meantime, enjoy these dishes that literally takes 10 minutes to cook.