New Life for Holiday Leftovers

Looking for new ways to use your holiday leftovers? Check out these satisfying dishes, starting with latkes. Latkes are often made with shredded potatoes, but these vegetable and dill-flavored potato cakes are made with mashed potatoes. The recipe gives instruction for making the mashed potatoes, but if you have some in the refrigerator, just add the zucchini and leek to what you have. You'll need about 4 cups of mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Mashed Potato Latkes with Zucchini and Dill

Shepherd's pie was originally created as an economical way to use the leftovers from the Sunday dinner roast. It's a savory pie of cooked ground or diced meat that's mixed with vegetables and topped with mashed potatoes, so you can use not only your leftover meat but your potatoes as well. The recipe calls for a 16-ounce package of frozen mashed potatoes, which is about 2 cups.

Recipe: Easy Shepherd's Pie

Samosas are a popular and filling snack in India, and this recipe uses up your leftover mashed potatoes and other veggies like onion, carrots, and peas. Traditionally samosas are fried, but this recipe keeps the fat content down by baking them.

Recipe: Vegetable Samosas with Mint Chutney

Leftover potatoes, peas, and ham are the base for this hearty, comforting soup. To acheive the crusty dinner roll "croutons", place the soup in broiler-safe bowls and top with rolls and cheese; broil in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts. However, if you don't have broiler-safe bowls simply place the roll pieces on a baking sheet, sprinkle with cheese, broil for 3 minutes or until golden brown, and then top the soup.

Recipe: Loaded Potato Soup

In this colorful version of a traditional shepherd's pie, mashed sweet potatoes are used for the topping instead of regular mashed potatoes. For the filling, use any onion or celery that you may not have needed in your dressing. You can also use extra sweet potatoes to make Sweet Potato-Parsnip Latkes.

Recipe: Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

What better use for a small amount of leftover mashed sweet potato–either fresh or canned–than nutty sweet pancakes? You'll also need a small amount of chopped pecans.

Recipe: Sweet Potato-Pecan Pancakes

Use up your leftover turkey and sweet potatoes in this family-friendly dish. Instead of sauce, smooth mashed sweet potatoes onto pizza dough and top with shredded turkey, onions, mushrooms, spinach, and Havarti cheese. You can also substitute the Havariti Monterey Jack.

Recipe: Harvest Pizza

Top toasted tortillas (tostadas) with a mixture of turkey, red bell pepper, poblano pepper, black beans, queso fresco and cilantro. To really put these tostadas over the top, drizzle on a sauce made from your leftover cranberry sauce and chipotle pepper. You'll need 3 cups of leftover turkey and 1 cup leftover whole-berry cranberry sauce.

Recipe: Turkey Tostadas with Spicy Cranberry-Chipotle Sauce

 

Turkey sandwiches are so last year! Top egg noodles with stir-fried mushrooms, vibrant red bell pepper, snow peas, and two cups of your leftover bird.

Recipe: Turkey Noodle Stir-Fry

Give your leftover turkey a spicy Mexican makeover when you add it to this hearty soup. Round out the soup with a variety of veggies and top with roasted pumpkinseeds to add a fun, nutty flavor.

Recipe: Mexican Turkey Stew

If you bought one too many cans of mashed pumpkin for your pies, or if you just happen to have a partial can remaining, use it in these sweet and spicy muffins. The brown sugar topping makes them extra-special.

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

A hearty vegetable soup is a common way to use up all your leftover veggies. This recipe calls for a 32-ounce bag of frozen mixed vegetables with peas, carrots, green beans, and lima beans, but you can use 8 cups of any vegetables that you have on hand. If you have fewer veggies on hand, you can half this recipe and get 9 cups of soup instead of 18.

Recipe: Beef-Vegetable Soup

This light side dish is a welcome break from heavy holiday food. Combine bulgur and 2 cups of your leftover cooked green beans with the bright flavors of mint, red onions and lemon.

Recipe: Green Bean, Feta, and Black Olive Salad

If you've got some fresh cranberries in the freezer, use them as a tangy accent for this tender pumpkin cake. You probably already have some canned pumpkin and walnuts on hand for the holidays.

Recipe: Cranberry Pumpkin Upside-down Cake

Don't serve all of the cranberry sauce with the turkey–you'll want to save half of the can for this decadent créme brulee.

Recipe: White Chocolate-Cranberry Créme Brulee

The classic Old Fashioned gets a true holiday twist when you muddle together fresh orange slices and leftover cranberry sauce with bourbon and a dash of bitters.

Recipe: Cranberry Old-Fashioned Cocktail

The key to great strata is sturdy, dense bread, so leftover bread is perfect. This recipe calls for sourdough bread, but use whatever you have. Because it also contains chopped ham, this strata does double duty for "repurposing" leftover holiday food. Make it ahead and serve for brunch or a light supper.

Recipe: Bacon, Gruyere, and Ham Strata

If you made a few batches of cornbread for your dressing but didn't use it all, make a bread salad to serve with pan-fried trout. Just cut the cornbread into cubes and bake for about 20 minutes until toasted. Then combine with pumpkin seeds, spices, kale, lemon juice and vinegar. Spoon the bread salad onto serving plates and top with a trout fillet.

Recipe: Pan-fried Trout with Cornbread Salad

Not only can you use make the most of the remaining pound cake, you can also use any fresh cranberries you may still have in the freezer. When you're making a trifle, you can actually use any kind of un-iced cake such as pound, angel or a plain yellow or white cake.

Recipe: Cranberry-Orange Trifle

If you have just a little bit of red wine left in the bottle, drink it! Or use it in rich tomato sauce for pasta. This sauce recipe features plenty of on-hand pantry items such as canned tomatoes, dried herbs, and a package of dry pasta.

Recipe: Red Wine-Tomato Pasta