Have leftovers from the holidays and looking for some creative or new ideas to use them up rather than just popping them on a plate and nuking them?  I think I might be able to help!  Here are a few Joyful Food Journey Kitchen tried and true ideas for using up some of those leftover sides and turkey.

Let’s start with those leftover side dishes. 

• Mashed potatoes are great made into patties and fried up as a substitute for hash browns for breakfast, or serve as fried patties for dinner with some caramelized onions, cabbage, and polish sausage (polish sausage for the holidays has always been a tradition with my family).
• Brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes are great together as a hash with some bacon or sausage and a poached egg on top (similar to what I referred to in my Playing with Food blog post).  If your sweet potatoes are mashed and have been made with brown sugar or orange juice, add some Cajun seasoning or cayenne to spice them up and make them into patties for that hash.  If those sweet potatoes are made with marshmallows though, you’re on your own – that’s basically dessert.
• I’ve never made stuffing/dressing myself for the holidays so don’t yet have any suggestions there (except to try making waffles with it – hmm, that might be good topped with some sausage gravy and a runny fried or poached egg). Here’s a recipe idea though, Cornbread Stuffing Fried Rice – let me know if you make it, or what else you’ve done to doctor-up leftover stuffing/dressing.

Here are a few ideas for transforming those turkey leftovers.

• Top your leftover turkey and sweet potatoes with red curry peanut sauce/dip.  When cold this sauce/dip acts more like a dip (bottom pic), and when warm acts more like a sauce (top pic).  So it’s great for dipping pita chips and veggies, but also great warm as a sauce on turkey or chicken and sweet potatoes.  It could also be used as a simmer sauce for a mishmash of leftovers (I’m thinking turkey, sweet potato, and green beans) and served over rice or grain of choice.
• Instead of chicken salad, why not turkey salad?  I like it with avocado, a little plain greek yogurt for creaminess, lime, jalapeno, red onion, cilantro.
• My favorite, though, is a recipe for turkey and broccoli pasta.  The first year my mom and I made this, we used leftover turkey and some uncooked sausage patties we had left over from making dressing.  It really transforms the turkey into something special with the flavors and fattiness from the sausage, freshness from the lemon, and the creaminess from the goat cheese. It’s really simple and quick to make and hits a lot of nice flavors and textures.  This can also be made using uncooked ground chicken or turkey.

I have absolutely no recommendations for leftover desserts because, quite frankly, leftover cold pie by itself is already pretty much the perfect breakfast during the holidays.

Below is the recipe and my notes for turkey with broccoli pasta. Let me know if you try any of these suggestions and what you think. Please also share your holiday leftover ideas and transformations, would love to see what you do!