Christmas dinner leftovers: delicious leftovers

Over-buying for Christmas dinner ensures delicious leftovers to last through the festive break

A couple of rules to remember: the best methods for reheating turkey and veg are stir-frying, flash-frying or sautéing, or combining meat and vegetables with a sauce to add to pasta. Make sure to only heat leftovers through, as overcooking will make them mushy. One good thing about using up leftovers is that you can creatively combine ingredients.

For example, blue cheese goes really well with cold turkey, so make a salad with slices of crisp apple and mixed leaves, then make a dressing from a light oil and apple juice to go with it.

Here are some other leftover ideas:

Turkish delight

Sandwiches are de rigueur for Boxing Day and beyond. To make them more exciting, serve turkey with warmed special breads like tomato, walnut, ciabatta and sour dough. Alternatively, cut almost all the way through a baguette, then layer the turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, chunks of raw celery and salad leaves.

To make a turkey supper dish:

Cook a finely chopped onion in 1 tbsp oil, then when it is soft, add 350g cold turkey cut into strips
Sprinkle with the zest of 1 lemon and 1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Make a white sauce by melting 25g butter. Stir in 25g plain flour for 1 minute off the heat, then gradually add 275ml milk
When the sauce has thickened, add to the turkey mixture along with 50g halved walnuts
Stir in the juice of 1 lemon to offset the richness of the sauce, then sprinkle fresh breadcrumbs over the top and season
Place under the grill for a few minutes to brown. Serve with pasta.