Use Leftover Sticky Rice to Make Crispy, Chewy Waffles

Leftover rice is one of the greatest blank canvases of the culinary world. After its primary role as the hot, fluffy center of the dinner table, rice transitions to the perfect texture for rice pudding, rice balls, or rice pilaf. I stew my leftover rice with chicken broth and aromatics to turn it into congee, send it into the wok with bacon and eggs to make breakfast fried rice, and fry it with a little potato starch for crispy cakes. But I have never considered what to do with leftover Thai sticky rice: Turns out I should waffle it.

Mango sticky rice is a dessert that mixes the sweetness of coconut milk with rice and combines it with soft, fragrant mango. Food blogger Joy Huang posted on Instagram about making a microwave version from The Pepper Thai Cookbook and then showed off what she did with the leftovers. It’s tempting enough that I want to make mango sticky rice just to use the leftovers. 

I’ve waffled leftover rice before (and highly recommend), usually topping it with a fried egg and other savories, but I’ve never considered doing it with sweetened sticky rice. And I certainly hadn’t thought about doing it the creative way that Huang does: topped with a blended coulis of the leftover mango, passion fruit pulp, and honey. 

Waffling sticky rice is pretty straightforward — you just pop the rice into a waffle iron and cook. “The interior retains its chewy texture,” she explains in the caption. “But the outside gets all hot & crispy in the most spectacular way.” She also offers one very important tip for making this: “Just make sure you grease your waffle iron very generously if you want to try this at home.”