What To Do With All Those Thanksgiving Leftovers (And Why Kids Should Help!)
With the stress of Thanksgiving over, it’s time to remix your leftovers. Get kids in on the action with the easy recipes below from GC Graphic Designer (and resident talented chef) Eidia Moni Amin. With Thanksgiving now past, it’s a good opportunity to teach kids some basic recipes that involve fundamental kitchen skills. We offered options based on our botanical Thanksgiving meal but the recipes are adaptable to whatever goods you may have post-turkey day. If you can make them last until Monday, these recipes also offer great options for a packed lunch. Roll up your sleeves and dive in!
Turkey Frittata
For breakfast the next morning, try mixing up morning eggs by making a frittata. Eidia recommends drawing on what’s in season to best complement the rich turkey. Sauté together some spring onions, bell peppers, and collard greens before you add the eggs. Just before you move the frittata from the stove to the oven, sprinkle crumbled goat cheese on top. An easy recipe for kids to master– and one they can easily learn to customize according to their own preferences.
Farro with Turkey
Looking for something filling and nutritious post-Thanksgiving decadence? Cook up a pot of farro (which is a great high fiber food that has a more substantive texture than quinoa and rice), let cool, and toss in thick chunks of turkey, and any roasted veggies sides you may have packed up in tupperware. Squeeze a lemon or lime on top for a simple, fresh dressing. Adaptable to just about any leftover combination, farro salad is always a solid option to have in your packed lunch (and a healthy one kids can come to rely on for years to come).
Turkey Noodle Soup
“Don’t expect to wake up the next day,” Eidia warns of this potently delicious twist on an all-time classic. Perfect for the colder weather, Turkey Noodle Soup allows one to use their favorite, passed-down recipe and simply swap out the chicken for turkey. But if you’re feeling adventurous, try infusing an East Asian flavor profile by using rice noodles (instead of more traditional pasta shapes) and adding lemongrass, chiles, rice wine vinegar, and ginger. No one should be without a noodle soup recipe for when they’re under the weather!
Squash Soup
For our GC Thanksgiving, we made Dijon mustard acorn squash wedges, which easily last a couple days (provided they aren’t immediately devoured!). If you want to mix things up, simmer coconut milk and vegetable stock, and then add that mixture to a mash of the squash (skins removed). Blend everything up with an immersion or standard blender. Kids will have fun mashing up the squash!
Harvest Salad
Impress holiday visitors with this easy-but-decadent salad. Toss together endives, cranberries, thinly sliced granny smith apples, goat cheese, raisins, pecans, and drizzle a bit of balsamic vinaigrette on top. The medley of flavors is a rich ode to Fall before winter sets in for good in December. Get kids to help toss the salad (we think it’s one of the most fun kitchen tasks).
