Thanksgiving was about a week ago. The glasses and dishes are washed and (finally!) back in place, the extra tables and folding chairs are stacked and stored away and the fall decorations are securely wrapped and packed away for next year (or, at a minimum, “carefully placed” in grocery bags and random boxes on the floor in the unfinished part of the basement; strategically placed so that you are forced to climb over them to retrieve 100 bags of Christmas lights??? Hmmm…) OK. Ya. New subject.
So do you know where your turkey leftovers are…? I will admit that I do enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers. It’s so relaxing to re-heat a plate of turkey and dressing and sweet potatoes and gravy… and then plop yourself down on the floor, in your ratty pj’s in front of the TV, with a glass of wine and no timers going off. Tastes SO much better the next day. But for me, that thrill lasts about, well… once.
Ya – I’m not one of those who can do the whole “Thanksgiving leftover thing” – day after day after day…! But I don’t want to waste anything, either. So what to do??? Simple. Repurpose that Thanksgiving meal! So earlier this week, that’s exactly what I did. I challenged myself to “get creative” with what was leftover.
I started with the roasted sweet potatoes and onions. A little chicken/turkey broth and some sort of milk (in our case, a mixture of coconut milk and almond milk for dairy free) plus a handful of fresh herbs… Voila! Sweet potato soup. I mashed up about half the potatoes with a potato masher which thickens the soup nicely without any additional thickeners. Delish!!
Next came the dressing. I started by forming it into little patties, kinda like a burger. I then made two little mixtures. First, an egg beaten with a little ground sage and thyme. Second, the leftover crunchy onion thingies that you put on top of the green bean casserole mixed with some Panko bread crumbs.
The next step was to heat a skillet with a little oil, dip the “dressing patties” into the egg mixture , then the crunchy topping and, finally, into the skillet until crispy on the outside and warmed through.
Last up was… the turkey. For starters, we did not have a lot of turkey leftover, so I decided to make a light little “turkey salad”. I cut up the turkey into bite size pieces and mixed with a little light mayo, some leftover fresh cranberry/orange relish, a handful of toasted pecans and a little green onion.
I decided to top the little dressing patties with the turkey salad and garnish with a little extra fresh cranberry relish, toasted pecans, green onions… Whatever floats your boat. So easy!! No recipe, just a little creative thinking. And that, my friends, is Thanksgiving dinner; repurposed!! Gobble, gobble!
