Recipe: Ideas for Thanksgiving Leftovers
Use the extra turkey for a quick and easy pasta topping!
It’s almost been a week and you still have Thanksgiving leftovers? Here are a few recipe suggestions for creative ways to use the last of your bounty.
Cranberry Relish/Sauce:
If the sauce is fresh (with uncooked cranberries)
- Add it to sangria or spiced wine
- Add it to yogurt with a little brown sugar or maple syrup
- Use it for a salad dressing, add a little oil, vinegar, and make a raw Brussels sprout slaw
- Use it in muffins in place of dried cranberries
If the sauce is cooked (with a thicker consistency):
- Use it to top eggs and biscuits, the acid will cut through the richness of the egg yolk.
- Make a salsa! Check out this great cranberry salsa recipe
Turkey
- Make a casserole
- Use it in a spicy turkey and Swiss chard soup (check back tomorrow for the recipe)!
- Make a curry: Prepare any vegetable curry recipe and add diced turkey in the last few minutes, just until it warms up.
- Make a quesadilla, burrito, or tacos. You can even reheat the turkey by sautéing it in taco seasoning (cumin, paprika, chili powder) to give it an extra kick.
- Add it to your wrap! Turkey will add extra protein and flavor to a wrap and it’s a lot lower in sodium than deli meat.
Sweet Potatoes
- Make a sweet potato pie
- If yours is already pureed, cook another squash and puree, combine the dishes and create a winter squash soup.
- Use as a filling for tamales; just add a few extra ingredients and steam in a corn husk! Try Bobby Flay’s recipe.
- Make a Shepard’s Pie (you can use the extra turkey for this too)!
- Sweet potato fritters – just lightly sauté sweet potato patties on both sides. Add savory or sweet herbs and spices to your “batter”.
Green Beans
- Eat them with hummus – just because they’re cooked, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them as a snack
- Add them to a Nicoise salad
- Add to pasta, lasagna, or other pasta dish.
- Cut into small pieces, mix with washed, canned beans, and make into a 2, 3 or 4 bean salad.
The simplest idea and my preferred leftover dinner: Take everything and throw it in a stir fry. Serve it over brown rice. After seemingly endless dishwashing, this one pot recipe is the way to go!
