The post-Thanksgiving conundrum: How to use up all those leftovers.
I’m Scotch-Irish and French, which seems to mean that I am genetically disposed to make enough food to feed an army regardless of the situation. This was never more apparent than this Thanksgiving.
Once everyone had gone home, we still had a lot of squash, some sweet potatoes, an absurd amount of mash potatoes and at least 15 pounds of turkey.
When I heard my awesome in-laws were coming down to help us get our wood in, I decided to take the opportunity to use up as much as possible with a post work-party lunch.
Just in case you’re looking for interesting ways to use up leftovers, here are the recipes for a post-Thanksgiving feast that will rival Thanksgiving itself. These can all work with whatever amounts you have left so the measurements are approximate.
Thanksgiving leftover soup
2-3 cups of leftover squash 2-3 cups of leftover sweet potatoes 2-3 cups of turkey broth (made from the carcass of the turkey) 1 tablespoon of roast garlic 1 cup of coconut milk (leftover from the vegan pumpkin pie) Garlic powder, basil, salt and pepper to taste
Pop leftover squash and sweet potatoes into a pot with the turkey broth and garlic. Stir together as it heats then use an immersion blender to get it nice and creamy. Once it’s heated up add coconut milk. Add garlic powder, basil, salt, and pepper to taste.
Simple and Tasty Potato Bread
Follow the link to The Spruce Eats for some of the best bread you’ve ever had. This was absolutely amazing with the soup! It was also super easy. I’m not the most gifted bread maker, to my chagrin, but this came out perfectly even though I was distracted by working wood detail in between steps. I’ll never worry about leftover mash potatoes again.
Thanksgiving sliders
Slider rolls Leftover breast meat, sliced to desired thickness Leftover stuffing Leftover cranberry sauce Mayonaise
I think this one is fairly self-explanatory. Put the desired amount of mayonnaise on rolls, add one slice of breast meat, add about two tablespoons of stuffing, and half a slice of cranberry sauce(or 1-2 tablespoons if you use real cranberry sauce).
Thanksgiving Burritos
This one came about because I only had a few slider rolls leftover and needed to get creative. This isn’t going to work unless your family also makes an amazing mushroom side at Thanksgiving. My Aunt makes Polish mushrooms for me every year and for once, we had leftovers.
1-2 cups of Polish mushrooms with liquid 1-2 cups of cubed leftover turkey meat 1-2 cups of leftover stuffing leftover cranberry sauce Flour tortillas
Warm the polish mushrooms in a saucepan. Add turkey and stir. Warm on low heat until turkey absorbs most of the liquid. Warm leftover stuffing in microwave or oven. In the middle of each tortilla put about half a cup of the mushroom and turkey mixture, about 3 tablespoons of stuffing, and the equivalent of one slice of cranberry sauce (2 tablespoons or so of the real stuff). Roll like a burrito.
This feast filled us up after a few hours of lugging wood. I also used the tinfoil pie tins from the crust my husband had bought for the Thanksgiving pies to make a couple of pot pies with a stuffing topping. Those are in the freezer for when we feel ready to even look at turkey again.
What’s your favorite way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers?