Warming Up Food: This Is How Often You Can Warm Up Food

It often happens with noodles, as well as with rice dishes or a vegetable side dish: you have cooked too much and there is food left over. Of course, you can then quickly warm up a meal the next day. But what is there to consider and how often can you actually heat up food?

Whether it’s the remaining portion of pasta or the remaining piece of pizza – we don’t eat many dishes until the next day. Because if you cook a lot yourself, you know the problem: you don’t always estimate the right amount of pasta and co. correctly, so that everyone gets full but nothing is left over.

At the same time, pre-cooking is very practical: in the home office you can quickly have a warm lunch the next day and especially with children you don’t find the time to cook freshly every day. But when it comes to reheating, a few questions arise: Is it easy to reheat any dish? How often can you reheat food? And which method is best?

Warming up food: You should pay attention to this

The good news first: You don’t have to worry about the vast majority of foods and dishes, because you can reheat them without any problems.

Some foods are even healthier when reheated. This includes potatoes and pasta. The reason for the effect is the resulting indigestible, so-called resistant starch. This is good for the intestinal flora.

With the following tips and tricks, the heated food tastes delicious and remains enjoyable:

It is best to warm up noodles in hot water so that they do not stick together.
Pizza stays crispy if you heat the pizza slices in a pan without fat for a minute or two.
Soups and stews often get even better when they are reheated because the flavor then fully develops. Simply reheat in the saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring regularly. You can easily reheat soups twice.
Heat perishable foods such as fish and meat only once and cool them well beforehand. If you are unsure, do the smell test: spoiled fish in particular has a strong smell.
The golden rule is a temperature of at least 70 degrees Celsius for at least two minutes. From this temperature, any germs on the food are killed better.
When heating up in the microwave, the following applies: Distribute the food as evenly and flatly as possible on the plate or container and also cover it. This saves energy and the food is heated evenly.

How often can you reheat food? Be careful with these 5

Warm up mushrooms?

The myth that mushrooms should never be reheated persists. But if you have freshly prepared the mushrooms, chanterelles, etc. and quickly put the dish in the fridge after cooking, you can heat it up the next day without any problems. However, you should strongly heat the mushroom dish and do not reheat it more than once.

Warm up the spinach

With spinach, too, the rule has long applied that you should never reheat the green vegetable. The reason for this is the nitrate in spinach, which can convert to nitrite. However, this only occurs if the spinach is not kept refrigerated. If you put the spinach in the fridge quickly after preparing it, you can heat it up in a saucepan and eat it the next day. You should only be careful with younger children and better not serve them warmed spinach, as they are more sensitive to nitrites than adults.

Reheat rice

With rice, you should also make sure that you put it in the fridge quickly after cooking and do not store it at room temperature. Otherwise, bacteria can develop that are not killed when the rice is reheated. When reheating in the micro, make sure that all of the rice is well heated and steams. Alternatively, heat it up in a saucepan with butter, margarine, or a little water and stir regularly so that the rice does not burn. As a precaution, you should only reheat rice once.

Warm up fish

Fish is a very delicate food. However, if you quickly put cooked fish fillets in the refrigerator in a clean, sealed container after preparation, you can easily reheat them the next day. But please only warm it up once and then eat it up completely.

Always fully reheat the meat

Meat should only be reheated if it has been thoroughly cooked beforehand. After eating, quickly place in a clean container in the refrigerator. When reheating, make sure that the meat is thoroughly heated on all sides. When reheating in the microwave, be sure to use a lid and set a high temperature. Don’t reheat meat more than once.