A fabulous feast is a highlight of the holiday season when families gather together and celebrate with a spread of festive food.
But when the holidays are over, almost everyone wonders what to do with the leftovers!
Do not let those leftovers go to waste – we have a host of delicious ideas to turn your leftovers into tempting meals you will love to eat a second time around.
Have fun with those veggies
Those carrots, peas, Brussels sprouts and squash might not seem like the most versatile leftovers, but you are sitting on a culinary goldmine.
Throw any of your favourite vegetables into a breakfast hash to make it more filling, or finely chop your leftover vegetables and add them to your morning omelette.
Make a vegetable quiche or frittata featuring your leftover holiday fare – for a hearty option try a leftover carrot, caramelised onion and potato frittata, or broccoli and spinach if you have a surplus of greens – or simply add leftover vegetables to your turkey soup or pie.
Alternatively, keep it simple by topping mixed leftover vegetables with a dressing of your choice for a quick and easy “roasted” vegetable salad.
Leftover meat
My favourite thing to do with leftover meat is to chop it up, cook it with a sauce, and add it to pasta. You can also make a stew or a sauce-based dish, like an Asian dish. You can also make sandwiches with leftover meat.
Melted chocolate topping
If you are not sure what to do with the stockpile of chocolate gold coins you have collected during the holidays, why not turn them into chocolate topping?
Melt the chocolate gold coins in a saucepan together with some butter over a very low heat.
Meanwhile, make some fruit kebabs by threading fruit slices onto skewers. Dip your kebab into the chocolate sauce for a delicious treat.
Use up old bread
Use up leftover herbs and stale bread in your food processor to make herby breadcrumbs, then freeze. These make for a great coating for fried or baked fish or add cheese and make a topping for baked mushrooms.
Leftover wine
We know. Leftover wine is a rare phenomenon. But if you have lots of guests with different wine preferences, or when all that good food finally induces mass napping, you might be left with a few unfinished bottles.
With leftover wine you can make sweet wine syrups. Pour wine in a saucepan and add sugar. Then boil down the wine into a thick sweet syrup. Wine syrup is lovely over a pound cake, ice cream, and seasonal fruit.
Or you can add depth to chilli or soup. If you feel like your chilli or soup tastes a little flat you can pour in a generous splash of wine to add depth and intrigue. Use white wines for creamy soups and red wine for chilli and hearty stews.
Do not throw away your crème fraîche
If you have a small amount of crème fraîche left in the tub, add it to mashed potato instead of milk, or combine it with chopped anchovies, lemon juice and chives for a quick Caesar-salad-style dressing.
Mashed potatoes
Creamy, buttery (and sometimes garlicky) mashed potatoes are too tasty to waste – and, thankfully, you do not need to!
Use the leftover mashed potatoes to make a comforting shepherd’s pie. Try a traditional one featuring beef, peas, carrots and parsley.
And if you are not in the mood for a hearty pot pie, turn your leftover mashed potatoes into kid-friendly mashed potato tots – perfect for dipping into ketchup or ranch dressing.