When wondering what to do with leftover curry, an omelette might not be your first thought. But once you try this 20 minute one pan wonder, Leftover Curry Omelette will be the first thing you think of next time! This quick brunch or dinner dish is super versatile so you can use almost any leftover homemade or takeaway Indian curry, curry sauce or side dishes – delicious!
There are a lot of things you can do with leftover curry including sandwich filling (weird but it works) but above all the best thing you can do is turn it into an omelette. It is so easy to do, helps reduce food waste and above all tastes absolutely delicious.
It may sound a bit odd but once you try the leftover curry omelette I promise you’ll be ordering extra dishes just to use the next day for brunch! This is a great recipe for using leftover takeaway and leftover Indian curry in particular. The strong flavours of the curry give the curry omelette a delicious taste.
So next time your eyes are bigger than your belly and you order enough takeaway to feed a small village, you’ll know what to do. No matter how you came by it, if the extra food is there, make sure to use it.
I used to love a day old curry with some fresh crusty bread to dip in it, but now I have something even better… Leftover curry omelette.
The only problem with this meal is that once you try it you will find yourself possibly buying extra takeaway so you can make this for brunch the next morning. You have been warned!
Is leftover curry safe to eat?
Yes of course! In fact I think curry tastes even better a day or two later as all the spices and flavours have really infused. Making it far more delicious!
For optimum food safety, any leftovers should be covered and put into the fridge as soon as they are cool. Heat them up until piping hot. They are best used within 2 to 3 days.
If you want to keep them any longer, simply pop them into the freezer. Make sure to label everything properly or you will regret it later! Defrost thoroughly in the fridge before starting to make your omelette – ideally overnight.
It is recommended to eat or freeze leftover rice within 24 hours by the NHS.
As with all reheated food, you should make sure it is piping hot all the way through before eating.
Using Leftover Curry Sauce
This omelette recipe words just as well if you only have curry sauce to use up. You could always add in some extra fresh vegetables and/or meat if you want to make the meal more hearty.
Don’t feel like you can only make this recipe when you have leftover Indian takeaway to use up. You can also use any jarred sauces, leftover homemade curries and the side dishes too.
What Indian Takeaway Dishes Can You Make Omelette with?
This leftovers omelette or frittata is really flexible.
Any of the traditional Indian curries like balti, jalfrezi, rogan josh and korma will all be perfect. You can also add in the rice based dishes like biriyani. Side dishes like saag aloo (spinach and potatoes) and tarka daal (lentils) are perfect too.
I love having a bit of a leftover spinach based dish as it helps to add a beautiful look to the finished dish.
Tandoori dishes like tandoori chicken, shashlik kebabs and lamb chops can also be used. It is important to make sure that you remove any bones before starting to cook the omelette.
Adding any leftover rice sides gives great texture and body to the omelette.
I prefer to keep any very crispy dishes like pakoras out of the omelette. But they are amazing crisped up and reheated in the oven or airfryer and served on the side – don’t let them go to waste!
The same is true for breads like naan, chapatis and parathas as well as poppadoms. These all make excellent accompaniments to the omelette.
Sauces, chutneys and pickles are also best left to their original purpose too.
What about Homemade Curries?
Yes! Any! Even your Boxing Day turkey curry!
How Spicy is Leftover Curry Omelette?
This will entirely depend on how hot your made or ordered your curry in the first place. Using mild curries will give you a mild omelette. And of course using hot and spicy curries will make a spicy omelette.
My preference is to have a mix of mild and spicy curries. You get great taste throughout but with pockets of spicy. Either way, I’ve had tongue tantalising flavour every time I’ve made this dish.
Can I make a Vegetarian Leftover Curry Omelette?
Absolutely! When I say that you can use any curry, this means that you can use any meat, seafood, fish or vegetarian curry and other dishes. Although my photos show a chicken curry omelette, you can be as flexible as you need to be.
What should I serve with leftover curry omelette?
You can serve the curry omelette on it’s own but you can also serve with it a range of tasty things like:
- fresh salad
- a sprinkling of fresh thinly sliced onion
- fresh coriander (cilantro)
- yoghurt (if the curry is hot it’s a nice cool down)
- mango chutney
- fresh lychees to add a cool and juicy bite to the hot omelette
Leftover Curry Omelette – It’s never the same twice!
Unless you really do order exactly the same thing everytime and then eat the exact same amount and end up with the exact same amount of leftovers. Actually that does sound quite plausible – if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it right?!
But most of the time this leftover curry omelette is a winner every time but it is differently delicious.
As I make this after most Indian takeaways to use any extras I couldn’t eat. Sometimes I even leave leftovers on purpose or actually order extras!
Ingredients for leftover curry omelette
All the ingredients are actually very simple and you’ll most likely have them in your house already.
For roughly 2 portions of left over food you will need 4 eggs. This will serve 2 hungry people or 4 for a lighter lunch with sides.
You will need:
- 2 eggs per person
- Milk
- Salt
- Pepper
- Butter
- Leftover curry dishes – can be mixed
I would recommend cutting up any large pieces of meat and vegetables.
How to make the leftover curry omelette
It isn’t complicated at all, I promise. It’s just a little bit of whisking and mixing followed by some some gentle frying. The smell will make your mouth water but luckily it’s a quick cook so will be with you on your plate soon.
- Whisk together the eggs and milk with the salt and pepper.
- Chop up any large pieces of meat or vegetables in the curry.
- Add the curry dishes to the eggs and stir in.
- Turn your grill on to preheat.
- Heat a pan to a medium heat and add a dash of butter.
- Pour in the curry mix into the pan.
- Move it around gently in the pan until it starts to firm up.
- Once the base seems to be firm, pop the omelette under the grill to cook the top for approximately 5-8 minutes until the omelette goes golden brown.
- Serve straight away with mango chutney, fresh onion salad or have it on it’s own. Always delicious.
Top Tips
As the leftover curry omelette cooks it is hard not to keep poking it too much. Really do try!
Make sure the handle of your frying pan is grill safe and also be prepared that it will all be very hot after grilling.
The omelette will go golden brown and firm on top. I like still a bit squidgy in the middle! You need to keep an eye on it as it will cook quickly. Cook it to your preferred level of done.
More Leftover Curry Ideas
Whilst making an omelette is an amazing way to use up leftover Indian takeaway curry, there are some more lovely ways you can use a curry to create something new:
- Try frying leftover curry along with cooked potatoes to make a lovely Indian flavour infused side dish.
- Turn leftover curry into a marinade for meat. This is a perfect way to flavour meat for barbeques, picnics and summer dishes.
Pop the curry in a dish and add the meat you want. Give it a good stir and a leave to the marinade.
Cook as normal and enjoy your food with the extra flavour.
Pin this Leftover Curry Omelette recipe for later
Leftover Curry Omelette
Equipment
- Oven safe frying pan
Ingredients
- 4 (4) eggs (2 per person)
- 100 ml (100 ml) milk
- 2 portions leftover curry dishes mixed
- salt
- pepper
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) unsalted butter
Instructions
- Whisk together the eggs and milk with the salt and pepper.
- Chop up any large pieces of meat or vegetables in the curry.
- Add the curry dishes to the eggs and stir in.
- Heat a pan to a medium heat and add a dash of butter.
- Pour in the curry mix into the pan.
- Move it around gently in the pan until it starts to firm up.
- Heat up the grill (For our American friends it's the Broiler) to a medium hot heat and pop the omelette under to cook the top for approximately 5-8 minutes until the omelette goes golden brown.
- Serve straight away with mango chutney, fresh onion salad or have it on it’s own. Always delicious.
Notes
- If there are large pieces of meat for examples chicken, lamb or beef. It is best to cut them up so they heat up all the way through.
- The estimated nutrition estimate assumes 2 450g portions of chicken tikka masala with pilau rice are used. The actual nutrition values will of course vary wildly depending on which curry/takeaway ingredients you choose to add.Â
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition information provided above is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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What a great idea! I never would have thought of it. It’s delicious and the perfect twist on serving leftover curry! Thank you for the great recipe!
Thank you so much x
what a great idea! I can’t wait to try this with our leftovers!
I really hope you enjoy it.
I love this! So delish and really easy to make!
Thank you so much <3
Hello from California, Sisley,
I’m using your interesting recipe tonight, and I want to thank you for putting it out there. I’m writing from California. A brief note concerning cooking nomenclature for your cousins across the Atlantic. I had to translate the term “grill” in your recipe, as I was confident you didn’t want me to take the omelet pan out to my barbeque. I think I’ve got it sorted out: Here in California (and the rest of the US), the heating element set inside an oven on top, used to quickly brown something from above, is called a “broiler,” whereas to “grill” food here usually means to put food on a grill grate (such as on a barbeque) with flame from below. If I understood your instructions correctly, then I hope this is helpful to your American readers.
Cheers,
Steve
Hi Steve, thank you so much for that knowledge I had no idea it was called that at all!
The result of this method is a frittata, not an omelet. Still sounds delicious, thinking about trying it with some leftover channa aloo gobi. Looks much easier than fussing around with making samosas.
Thank you for the comment, I think they’re a mix of omellete and frittata. As long as they’re tasty lets just call it yummy!