Your Thanksgiving Leftover Reinvented with a Modern Twist

You’ve carved the turkey, feasted on mashed potatoes and eaten all the pumpkin pie that you can handle. But now that Thanksgiving is over, there is still enough for multiple meals! What is one to do with all of those leftovers? Some of us will eat Thanksgiving dinner for the next week to come and not think twice. Then there are others that dread the idea of eating the same thing for the next five days or so. I happen to like an encore presentation of leftover Thanksgiving, but then again sometimes I like to change things up a bit.To accomodate both sides of the issue on leftovers, I have come up with a few clever, non-tradition ideas for all those lovely leftovers! This is not your typical turkey tetrazzini!

Make a Soup.

One of my sister's favorite ways to use up leftover turkey is in a creamy, lemon and rice soup! For the past two years I’ve spent Thanksgiving with my sister and her husband and I GLADLY look forward to her clever use of leftover turkey. Since the turkey is already cooked, this soup comes together in about 30 minutes or less. The lemon juice adds a brightness to what could be a heavy soup (especially if you’re using dark meat) and milk adds a comforting creamy texture. Add your mirepoix of celery, onions, and carrots and you have enough soup to feed another four people or more!

Thanksgiving Enchiladas

Here me out on this one. We all love turkey sandwiches with all the fixings on top, so why not roll these yummy tidbits into a flour tortilla? Eureka! Saute’ leftover turkey with a little bit of onions, perhaps corn/cornbread pudding and gravy until heated through. Roll your mixture into flour tortillas, adding in any additional side dishes that make sense in a tortilla (sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes would work here) , place in a baking dish, cover in lots of gravy and add shredded havarti cheese to the top. Bake until bubbly perfection.

The Ultimate Turkey Sandwich

Find a really good quality crusty bread such as sourdough or ciabatta, cut into thick slabs, layer it up with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing (or dressing depending where you grew up), lemon aioli (google it!) and a nice fat slab of brie cheese. Not a cranberry fan? Spread some fig preserves and toast that bad boy until the cheese is melted and your mouth is watering… just like mine is right now.

Shepherds Pie

Have enough mashed potatoes to re-grout your tile floors? Instead, use them in a savory shepherd's pie. Brown lamb or grass fed ground beef with onions and savory spices (thyme, savory, marjoram) and layer with any remaining green beans, corn, and carrots and then top them off with those mashed potatoes. Have mashed sweet potatoes too? Swirl them together for a sweet and savory dish. Finish it off with shredded cheese of your choice; I would go with a sharper variety such as a yellow or white cheddar.

Turkey Pot Pie

Take all of those meaty tidbits of the leftover dark and light meat and turn them into a creamy turkey pot pie. I’m not a huge fan of pot pie, but this is a really efficient way to use up those tiny pieces that are just too good to throw away. Besides, food waste is never a good thing, especially if you’ve shelled out a pretty penny on this meal. Pot pies are another fantastic way to use up any miscellaneous veggies floating around in your fridge.

Turkey Breakfast Hash

Dice up those candied yams, throw them in a cast iron skillet with onions, shredded turkey, a little bit of bacon, top with a fried egg and you’ve got an amazing hash to feed those morning hunger pangs. Hash is fun in that you can get really creative with the starch component; use carrots, diced beets, potatoes, whatever is on hand to create something amazing!

Well I don’t know about you all, but I’m getting pretty dang hungry just thinking about all of these amazing foods. I won’t know what leftover revamp my family will do this year, but there are tons of options!