5 Unique Meals From Leftovers
Do you go through the leftover dilemma several times a year? You’ve been cooking some big meals lately and now have a refrigerator full of leftovers. I know the look you’ll get from your family if you attempt to put another plate of the same food in front of them for a third day. I suspect you’ll end up scraping the leftovers into the compost bin if you don’t think up something unique real soon.
You want to invent new dishes from the same old leftovers, but how? When you look at your leftover dish, make a mental list of what you used in that recipe and think about what other recipes you might have or can find that use similar ingredients.
1) Creamy Potato Soup
When you have leftover mashed potatoes, you have the makings for a wonderfully creamy potato soup. Start with a big soup pot. Throw in 3 or 4 slices of bacon, diced, and cook until the pieces are crispy, then remove from pot. In the same pot, cook up some diced celery and carrots. Then add some diced onion and cook until soft. Then put in about 1 Tablespoon of oil, 1 Tablespoon of flour, and 1 1/2 cups of milk, and thicken. Stir in your potatoes and bacon and simmer very slowly. This is a very satisfying creamy potato soup.
3) Spicy Turkey n’ Gravy on a Bun
Take white and dark turkey meat and dice into small pieces or shred up. In a big, heavy skillet, saute some bacon pieces until soft. Add chopped onion and minced garlic, simmering until just fragrant. Now put the cut up turkey in the skillet, and pour over enough leftover gravy to make the turkey a little soupy. Then just flavor the gravy with a little bit of barbeque sauce or dry grilling rub spice, using only enough to make the gravy taste tangy. Cook slowly until nice and hot and pungent. Serve on a leftover dinner roll or any bun.
3) Creamy Cauliflower Curry Soup
Place cooked cauliflower into a food processor and blend until smooth, drizzling in milk until you reach a smooth, soupy consistency. Put about 2 teaspoons of curry in as you blend. You may want more or less curry, so start slowly. In a heavy pot, drizzle a little oil and cook some chopped carrots and onion until just tender. Add your creamy cauliflower mixture to pot. You may now add some cut up turkey that you have leftover. Cook the soup slowly until heated through.
4) Green Bean Tomato Cheese Soup
The classic green bean casserole already has cream of mushroom soup and cheese in the ingredients so it’s perfect for a cheesy soup. Green beans with some nice diced tomatoes will perk this soup up a bit. Start with a big soup pot and saute a bunch of nice big chunks of celery. Then add some big diced pieces of onion cooking until transparent. Add a minced clove or two of garlic. Pour in one can of fire roasted diced tomatoes or regular diced tomatoes with a sprinkle of any good grill seasoning. Add your leftover green bean casserole a little at a time, stirring and heating through until you get the right soup consistency. Add a little chicken broth if you need to thin out the soup. Simmer until all the flavors are nice and savory together.
5) Breakfast Stuffing Cups
Coat your muffin cups with non-stick spray or butter. Put stuffing in cup, working up the sides to form a dish for an egg. Crack one fresh egg in each stuffing cup and top with shredded cheddar or Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, just until the egg is cooked and cheese is all melted. When done cooking, remove and let the muffin tin cool for a minute or two before removing the egg cup.
Using up leftovers is always a challenge. No one wants to look at the same dishes being served time and time again. If you give some thought to the ingredients that went in to creating the dish in the first place, you’ll no doubt be able to add complimentary food items to build a whole new dish out of the old one.
