The Easy Dish You Should Be Making From Leftover Veggie Trays

Vegetable trays are a quintessential finger food at parties and meetings. Centered around creamy ranch dressing, a hearty veggie tray is usually made with raw broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, celery sticks, radishes, and more. While there's plenty to love about vegetable platters — from their taste to their nutritional value — sometimes you end up with too many leftovers.

You could, of course, scarf down those leftover veggies just to get rid of them, but it might be better to cook them into a delicious stir-fry. Using leftover vegetable platters to make stir-fries is a practical and sustainable way to reduce food waste while enjoying every last bit of your party platter.

Chop up the leftover vegetables from the platter into bite-size pieces, then sauté them in peanut oil with lo mein noodles, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and some aromatics of your choice — all of this will give your vegetables a new life. You can also add in proteins like tofu, chicken, or beef, then garnish with additional ingredients like green onion or pickled ginger for a well-balanced, waste-free meal.

Feel free to mix and match your ingredients and have fun with it. Just make sure to sauté the heartier vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, before adding in lighter vegetables, like radishes and baby carrots. This will ensure that each ingredient is evenly cooked.

As much as we love a stir-fry made with leftover ingredients, that's not the only dish that benefits from your half-empty veggie tray. With a little bit of creativity, you can conjure up equally delicious meals that transform your earthly little snacks into a full-fledged culinary masterpiece.

For a brunch dish, add the leftover vegetables into an egg mixture, then bake them into a vegetarian frittata or quiche. Feel free to add salt, pepper, shredded cheese, and herbs to the mixture, then serve it over a bed of lemon-kissed arugula.

While veggie platters are a tried-and-true party staple, nothing pleases a crowd like pizza. Smother a frozen pizza crust with garlicky red sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil, and top it off with your leftover vegetables, before baking it into an Italian-inspired garden of cheesy, saucy vegetables.

For something accessible and easy to make, take your leftover veggies and roll them into a hummus-brushed wrap for a light, refreshing meal that's perfect for lunch. You can even dip your vegetable wrap in the leftover dressing from the platter. The next time you have a half-eaten vegetable platter, don't throw it away. Instead, put your culinary creativity to the test and breathe a second life into your vegetables.