Friday, December 1, 2017

Holiday Leftover Ideas


Even though it is a bit after Thanksgiving, I had a lot of leftovers of a few things, and as the holidays are upon us, and the food is all pretty similar, here are a couple of decent concepts to make something else out of them.

Leftover Turnovers
for this, use the tart crust recipe from the previous blog post on here, except double the baking powder, leave out the sugar and add a tsp. of curry powder
divide into 6 or 8 dough balls and roll them out on a floured board into circles of the thickness you prefer.
Onto these place any of the following in an amount small enough that you'll be able to fold them over: leftover brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans or green beans casserole, gravy, veggie ham, roasted squash, corn, peas, etc. And any combination you like.
Fold the dough over the filling, fold the edge and press the edge with a fork or something to make a nice pattern. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and baste them lightly with oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, or until browned, check a bit earlier in case your oven runs hot my dear.

Leftovers Soup
This is easy, 2-3 cups of leftovers, might I suggest sweet potatoes and greens, mixed with 1-2 C. broth (more if you like) and pureed, then heated. Some new herbs and minced onions can jazz it up, as can new spices or other random vegetables- obviously you will want to cook that for a bit if adding raw vegetables

Leftovers Meatballs/Croquettes

Mashed potatoes, stuffing or green beans casserole mushed alone or together and then formed into small balls and fried in light oil, turning until browned. These are easy and great, some additional seasoning or binding agent may be a good idea depending on how firm your leftovers are to begin with.

Leftovers Sauces/Gravy

Gravy or Cranberry Sauce can be mixed with a favorite chile sauce and heated if you like, to use as a drizzle over any of this stuff.
Cranberry sauce is also very good mixed with chutney that you like or into a fruit salad or with a mustard.
Gravy with any vegetables, mixed and put in the pie crust (use less baking powder) can make either large pasties or if done in a pan, a pot pie.
Or you can mix the gravy with okra, tomatoes, herbs, chilies, and whatever else and make a gumbo and serve with seasoned rice.

Leftover "hamm" slices roll w/ vegan kreem cheeze and chopped pickles or olives and eat them like that, or baste with cocktail sauce or cranberry sauce and bake them.
Anyway, hope that helps!

PS- the picture is of leftover sweet potato-greens soup, chile gravy sauce and stuffing balls

No comments: