6 Creative Recipes To Use Up Thanksgiving Leftovers
Thanksgiving holiday means inviting friends and family over for a big meal comprising varied dishes like turkey, stuffing, gravies, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce among others. This holiday also means baking pies and cakes which are served as dessert courses. Yet, while cakes and slices of pie can be had as leftovers the next day, turning savoury dishes into treats on the morning after the thanksgiving holiday can be slightly tricky.
Lots of food is traditionally cooked for the festive feast, meaning there will be some leftovers for the next day which will have to be put to use in creative ways to avoid wasting food. One would essentially have little portions leftover when food is cooked in proportion to the number of guests arriving for dinner. And it is possible to turn these little leftovers into interesting snacks as breakfast or lunch alternatives.
Read on below to know more about some of the dishes that can be prepared using the leftovers from the previous evening’s thanksgiving feast:
Leftover Breakfast Hash
One of the components of a thanksgiving dinner is mashed potatoes which can either be served plain or with the addition of peas, onions and tater tots. This side dish can be leftover once everyone has filled up their plates with the boiled potatoes.
When placed in a covered bowl in the fridge, the leftover potatoes can be brought out the next morning to prepare hash browns accompanying one’s morning eggs.
Alternatively, turkey stuffing and roast vegetables can also be incorporated into this recipe so that all these different elements are sauteed in a skillet before cracking a few eggs on top of them until they set enough to form a tender golden layer.
Turkey And Cranberry Quesadilla
Another interesting leftover from a thanksgiving dinner would be turkey stuffing and turkey. Both of these can be used along with cranberry sauce to prepare delicious quesadillas for a complete meal.
The quesadillas can also be made with the addition of freshly grated cheeses like cheddar or monterey jack. Tortilla shells can be layered with cranberry sauce, roast veggies, turkey and stuffing before placing them on a skillet to be cooked until the cheese melts.
The turkey and cranberry quesadilla can be served with sour cream or a leftover gravy dip as a more flavourful alternative.
Turkey Bolognese Pasta
Spaghetti bolognese is generally made in a sauce comprising ground meat, celery and tomato paste. Put a more holiday-like spin on the traditional pasta recipe to craft a bolognese sauce made from leftover turkey.
Shredded and ground turkey can be combined with tomato paste and some garlic to prepare the sauce required for this recipe. Boil spaghetti al dente and mix it in this tasty turkey and tomato sauce to put leftover foods to culinary use.
Mashed Potato Croquettes
Another fried food that can be made out of leftover boiled or mashed potatoes are classic croquettes. Season these potato numbers with salt and pepper and add to this mix some cheddar cheese and turkey stuffing.
Coat the potatoes in breadcrumbs and egg whites and deep fry until they are crispy and golden brown. Mashed potatoes can be served with salsa or a cream cheese dip infused with dill or rosemary.
Turkey Ramen And Stuffing Dumplings
Introduce a touch of Asian cuisine into the leftover thanksgiving feast by preparing a ramen bowl featuring turkey as its core ingredient. Turkey broth can be used to make ramen soup and slices of the turkey can be added to this noodle mix along with lots of vegetables.
Turkey stuffing can be used to prepare freshly steamed dumplings served with a gravy dip. A drizzle of sesame oil will finish this tasty fusion dish bringing together diverse flavours in a complementary blend.
Thanksgiving Leftover Pizza
What can perhaps be a very tasty alternative across the board is a leftover pizza featuring the meats and veggies that went into the thanksgiving meal.
Use gravy as the pizza sauce and top this off with turkey stuffing and turkey slices and cover completely in grated mozzarella. Place the pizza in the oven until the cheese bubbles.
