Christmas dinner is a party. And who says party, says abundance of food. Now that the party is over, you find yourself with a bunch of leftover food that you might be thinking about throwing away because you don’t know what to do with it. How about making other delicious dishes with these leftovers? We give you some advice.
During a festive dinner, it is always difficult to calculate exactly how much food will actually be consumed. So that everyone is well served, it is always better to cook in sufficient quantity. And if you’re worried about ending up with a surplus the day after the party, our suggestions for dishes made from leftovers will bring you new ideas.

full table. source: spm
If other dishes are to be made with leftovers from the Christmas meal or from another event, the recipes will likely be different from kitchen to kitchen because not everyone had the same menus for December 25.
However, the following tips can jump-start your creativity and inspire ideas for turning Christmas dinner leftovers into other tasty dishes:
Bird remains:
you can prepare puff pastry rolls stuffed with turkey or chicken with leftovers from Christmas dinner.
- Finely chop each piece of bird and brown them in a pan with some onions, a drizzle of olive oil and spices to taste.
- Next, spread the preparation obtained over the puff pastry. Make rolls and brush them with a little egg yolk with the help of a brush before putting them in the oven for a few minutes. They will be golden, crunchy and succulent.
- Similarly, if you have pre-baked pizza (or pie) crusts, layer your filling made with leftover poultry and add mozzarella or any other filling of your choice.
- With these same leftovers, make delicious Mexican tacos. Nothing is easier! Fry the julienned chiles with finely chopped onion and a mix of Mexican spices, after 5 minutes add the shredded chicken and sauté for 1 minute. Spread the remaining guacamole from the holiday meal over the taco bread pancake, then carefully spoon 2 tablespoons of the mixture into the tacos. Add fresh cut tomato on top and a few sprigs of coriander, not forgetting a squeeze of lime. Hmm! Taste!
The rest of the mashed potatoes:
You can prepare potato croquettes that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with the rest of the mash.
- Put your puree in a bowl and then add a whole egg. Add herbs, salt, pepper according to your taste and make balls. If you have minced meat, you can mix it in equal parts with the puree to make balls before frying in oil.

Colorful photo of salad. source: spm
Leftover vegetables and raw vegetables:
The day after Christmas, put together in a large bowl everything you haven’t eaten and use to make a salad. Leftover carrots, cabbage, chives, parsley, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, beans, sweet corn, olives, pickles, cooked ham, cheese, turkey, avocado, celery, radish, cucumber, beets, hard-boiled egg, bacon bits, zucchini , etc .
Invent your own mixed salad recipe, season it with your choice of vinaigrette or crème fraiche and olive oil.
However, if you don’t have time to recycle your leftovers, or don’t have enough space in your fridge to store storable food, another solution would be to wrap all that leftover food in trays to offer to the Wanderers.
No matter how hard we try to save, sometimes it’s hard to measure certain expenses accurately. This is the case when, on the occasion of Christmas lunch or another event, eager to entertain his guests, he meets more food than you need. Therefore, the suggestions in this article will give you new ideas to avoid waste.
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