Your Christmas feasting may be over but that doesn’t mean your fridge isn’t stuffed to the brims with Christmas leftovers. You are now stuck in this position where you enjoyed all of your Christmas meals the past couple of days, but you would rather have something new to eat, yet you have all of these leftovers that you don’t want to go to waste. Well, have no fear. We have you covered. We are here to show you how to turn your leftovers from Christmas into new meals without feeling like you are repeating the same wheels or end up finding yourself just throwing all the leftovers away.
Before we get into sharing some yummy recipes, let’s first remind you about your freezer. A lot of staples in an American Christmas dinner are things like turkey, ham, vegetables, potatoes, etc which means a lot of these foods are perfect for storing in your freezer. You can throw these items in your freezer and make meals out of them for weeks or save them for a month from now when you decide you are ready to eat ham again. You can wait until you’re ready to use them to see what you feel like making.
Also, a huge win with leftovers like those found in a Christmas meal is to make stock. Use all of the leftover peels, stalks, random bits, bones, and whip up a stock. If you aren’t into making a stock just yet, you can throw all of those odds and ends into a freezable container too and freeze them until you are ready. If you want to save them for a while, chuck the bags in the freezer ready for when you need them.
Go the complete opposite of a traditional Christmas meal and throw together a curry with your leftovers.
Christmas Leftovers Turkey Curry
recipe by: BBC Good Food
ingredients
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large onion, thickly sliced
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp curry paste (or gluten-free alternative)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
400g can chopped tomato
300g leftover turkey, diced
300g leftover cooked potato (either boiled or roast), diced
2 tbsp mango chutney
small pack coriander, roughly chopped
rice to serve
instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pan over fairly high heat.
- Cook the onion and pepper for 3-4 mins until starting to soften and brown slightly.
- Stir in the curry paste and garlic, then cook for another 1-2 mins.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and 150ml water.
- Bring to the boil and bubble for 5 mins.
- Turn the heat down, stir in the turkey and potatoes, and cook for another 2-3 mins, then season and add the mango chutney.
- Scatter with coriander and serve with rice.
Leftover Christmas Ham Pizza
recipe inspired by Cooking Light
ingredients
12 ounces refrigerated gluten-free pizza dough
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
5 fresh figs, quartered
1/3 cup sliced red onion
2 ounces leftover ham
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons balsamic glaze
instructions
- Place a pizza stone in oven; preheat to 500°.
- Let pizza dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Combine ricotta cheese, sour cream, 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper in a bowl.
- Brush pizza crust with olive oil.
- Spread ricotta mixture over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border.
- Top with figs, onion, and ham.
- Slide onto the pizza stone in the oven.
- Bake 12 minutes.
- Sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves, 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Drizzle with balsamic glaze.
