When Christmas Day lunch is over, the real food party can start. With the bulk of the work already done – potatoes roasted, sprouts boiled – it’s all about giving your leftovers a new life. We’ve broken the advice of some of our favourite cooks down into ingredient-led sections, but remember: with leftovers, there are no rules. You can make virtually all of these things with whatever you have and enjoy the happy accidents which follow. Merry Twixtmas!
Roast potatoes
Bubble and squeak might already be a part of your leftover game plan, but it is a classic for a reason. “Where can you take it, though?” asks Neil Campbell, head chef at Rovi in London. “Try treating it like a fishcake and breadcrumb the outside, or turn it into more of a croquette.”
And don’t forget the leftover roast potato tortilla from Feast’s Tom Hunt – a delicacy even greater than the sum of its already great parts. Rosie Birkett, author of The Joyful Home Cook, also loves a leftovers frittata, which can be home to your leftover roasties and most everything else – carrots, sprouts, any veg. Her favourite tip is to put your leftover sauces to work here, too; she stirs bread sauce into the egg mix for a really rich, unctuous frittata base. “Cook in an ovenproof frying pan, finish it under the grill, then let it settle in the pan before cutting it up and serving slices with warmed-up leftover gravy for dipping.”
Birkett also suggests taking leftover roast potatoes, spreading them over a baking tray, and scattering with cornichons and leftover grated cheddar (or any cheese) for a winning bake. Take this to the next level for an inauthentic but utterly delicious tartiflette: fry onion and bacon (or leftover ham), add cream and white wine, then rub a baking dish with a peeled clove of garlic, add chopped-up and fried leftover potatoes, and cover the lot in the cream mix. Scatter with leftover cheese and bake for 15 minutes, until golden, and it smells so good, you can’t stand it any longer.
Carrots
Now is the season for dips, so if you’ve got a load of leftover roast carrots to play with, for instance, Elliot Cunningham of Lagom in east London recommends turning them into hummus. Blend with tahini and lemon juice, then season, and it will last for a week in the fridge – perfect for a New Year’s nibble.
Or if the excesses of the big day have left you hankering for a helping of something altogether fresher, add your leftover roast carrots to a salad. Try following Anna Jones’ formula for a hearty one: take a leaf (spinach, rocket or gem lettuce, say) then add the roast carrots (your “hero veg”), some texture (leftover nuts would be excellent, as would crumbled-up tortilla chips or croutons), a top note of some herbs, and a grain, tinned pulse or even some crumbled leftover cheese for some body. Dress with two parts olive oil to one part lemon juice and/or vinegar, a dollop of mustard, a teaspoon of honey and plenty of seasoning.
Sprouts and cabbage
Your festive brassicas could find their way into a Japanese-style omelette that, Cunningham says, is simplicity itself to knock up: “Three eggs, a big handful of whatever greens you’ve got to hand, and panko breadcrumbs, then mix it all together, season and fry.” He’d be inclined to add slices of cooked meat to the mix (he likes pork belly, but “use any Christmas protein you have – roast ham or turkey, say – just so the omelette has a bit of texture”), then top with barbecue sauce, mayo (ideally Kewpie) and, if you have them, bonito flakes. “Now that would be a fun dish to get out.”
Roast veg
Perhaps your Christmas table was home to a tin of golden roast vegetables – parsnips, carrots, swede, turnips, celeriac … If so, Rahel Stephanie, cook, writer and founder of Spoons, an Indonesian supper club in London, suggests giving them a “flavourful, Indonesian twist by stir-frying them in a sambal of your choice, adding a burst of spice and savouriness”, or throwing them into a “delicious” fried rice.
Or give your leftover veg (and turkey, for that matter), a Caribbean flavour with Riaz Phillips’ cook-up rice. The author of East Winds says this is “a real larder, bottom-of-the-fridge, leftover type dish”, urging you to use whatever you have. You could use any of your Christmas leftovers here, sauteeing them with onion, garlic, ketchup and soy, then adding rice, coconut milk, Caribbean all-purpose seasoning, chilli and stock. Boil for five minutes, until the liquid has evaporated, cover, reduce the heat to low and leave for 25 minutes. Serve with avocado and coriander, if you have them, or any chilli sauce.
Also guaranteed to bring the flavour is a quick curry. Phillips starts his off by “sauteeing onions and garlic, followed by a blend of curry powder, cumin, coriander and a touch of chilli”. In goes some coconut milk or water, then bring the mix to a boil, throw in any leftover roast veg, simmer and season to taste: “Within 10 minutes, you’ll have a satisfying dish that’s easy to prepare.” You can’t go wrong if you serve this with plain rice, yoghurt and Boxing Day chutney.
Alternatively, if there’s any old bread lurking about, make a vegetable strata: “It’s almost like a savoury bread-and-butter pudding, where you layer whatever sliced veg you have with bread, then soak it in an eggy cream mixture and bake,” Campbell says. Or go gratin-style, topping your leftover veg with a crown of cheesy breadcrumbs and finishing with “a bit of cranberry sauce once it comes out of the oven”.
Turkey and ham
“Aside from endless turkey sandwiches,” Birkett says, “there are always pies.” Jamie Oliver’s Christmas hodgepodge number is a masterclass in using all your leftovers in a pie with a hearty filling “enveloped in a smooth, silky sauce” (which puts any leftover cranberry sauce and creme fraiche to work, not to mention turkey meat, be it brown or white) and encased in a very easy homemade crumbly pastry. Ever the king of no waste, Tom Hunt’s equivalent from 2021 puts all your leftovers to work in one pie, this time with a rough puff pastry from scratch.
In Campbell’s book, though, you’d be hard pushed to better a toastie cut into fingers and dunked in hot soup, the bonus being that this means you can shift a whole load of leftovers in one go. “Roast carrots, potatoes and parsnips can be cooked down gently in a stock of your choice, then pureed.” The bonus here is that you can use your turkey carcass to make a superlative stock. Be sure to include some miso and acid, too: “You’re working with quite flat flavours here, so even a dash of cheap distilled vinegar will make a massive difference.” The toasties, meanwhile, could house all manner of surplus cooked stuffing, meat, cheese, you name it – and “that’s that job just about done for another year”.
Cheese
Birkett’s cheeseboard tart takes any and all of your leftover cheese, mixes it with eggs and cream, and spikes the lots with leftover pickles or cornichons, Worcestershire sauce and dried tarragon encased in shop-bought shortcrust pastry.
For your Christmas feast to flow seamlessly into a new year one, try making a cheeseboard fondue. Whisk a minced garlic clove and a tablespoon of cornflour into a large (250ml) glass of white wine, set it over a medium heat, stirring constantly, then stir in any leftover cheeses (all the classics count: brie, comté, cheddar, stilton) until they melt into the mixture. Whisk until thick and smooth, transfer to a warm bowl and serve with anything: boiled spuds, crusty bread, pickles, veg. Anything goes. ’Tis the season.
