When it comes to cheesemaking, I am 2 for 3. Dreamy ricotta came together with the insurance policy of heavy cream to help hold it together, but an attempt at mozzarella from a kit I ordered from Amazon died a hundred deaths. That attempt ended in me loudly banging pots and quietly muttering to myself while I was left with cloudy hot water, burnt fingertips and no mozzarella for pizza night. Hello emergency trip to Harris Teeter. My latest non-meltdown and major cheese success is a squeaky paneer that got dropped in a sauce of greens for saag paneer.

There is an Indian restaurant less than 3 blocks away from my apartment but I am very lazy and very gluttonous. I always order way too much food but somehow never end up with proper leftovers. 4 bites of each random dish does not make another meal.

And I am a leftover FIEND.

Whether it’s peeling back the foil on a cold piece of pizza or forking a meatball from a container in the fridge, I do not discriminate against things that were once the main event but have since been cast aside. To help my Indian food leftovers along, I make my own and make so much more, and lay a fried egg on top.

Making paneer was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It actually comes together quicker than ricotta, so in theory you can have fresh paneer in less than an hour. The recipe suggests you strain the cheese using cheesecloth but I don’t keep cheesecloth on hand and I don’t think my cheese knew any better that it wasn’t being swaddled in a finer material. I also upped the veg factor and used mustard greens that had been living in my crisper for a few too many days. The extra greens also balances out my desire to eat all of the cheese that the saag paneer recipe makes.

You can also skip the egg and serve the saag paneer over rice or with warm naan. Or both because a runny egg yolk loves to be sopped up with warm bread.