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Dinner Tonight, Dinner Tomorrow: Round One

Tonight's dinner can give you a big—and delicious—head start on tomorrow's.

Published June 9, 2025

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Charred and Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Green Olive Salsa Verde. All photos: Sam Muller

Sure, leftovers are great for the next day’s lunch. But what if tonight’s meal ended up as tomorrow’s supper—yet in a totally new, unexpected way? Welcome to Dinner Tonight, Dinner Tomorrow, a series that we hope you find as useful as we do.

Sometimes, unaltered leftovers serve exactly the right purpose—cold pizza for breakfast never hurt anyone, and pasta salad that’s had a good night’s sleep in the fridge  makes a comforting and refreshing lunch. What’s even better, though, is crafting a delicious dinner tonight that can easily transform into something equally enticing but totally different the next night.

Both convenience and waste reduction should remain top of mind in this process. Today’s cooked sweet potatoes can become tomorrow’s za’atar-forward flatbread. Today, spending time with a vegetable peeler might end up looking like something adjacent to sushi while tomorrow, the peeler can remain clean while a hearty salad comes to life.  (Note that, for those with smaller appetites or less ambition, just one dish can be the meal for each night.)

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