Ideas & Recipes for Your Christmas Leftovers

Whether your Christmas involves seafood and salads or roast and veggies, we have collected some of our favourite ideas and recipes for your leftovers from Boxing Day onwards!

After an incredible session of eating and drinking, we focus on regaining a balance with plenty of colour, variety and of course, flavour!

We have used a mix of recipe links from our Knowledge Hub and external options that we like the look of. First, when do we need to use those leftovers by?

This has to be one of our favourite things to have leftover. It makes the most delicious addition to so many of our favourite recipes at all times of the day!

Breakfast:

Enjoy your glazed ham warmed for breakfast with poached eggs, in an omelette or as part of our Green Eggs & Ham. Another lovely idea is to muddle up your leftover ham and roast veggies into a breakfast hash. How good does this recipe look!

Snacks:

You just cannot go past veggie fritters or Frittata when it comes to leftover ham!

Lunch:

After a deliciously indulgent Christmas, leftover ham makes a great protein to add to any of your favourite salads or onto a salad sandwich. Another idea is to substitute ham in this recipe and you’ll have yourself a delicious ham and avocado toastie!

Our favourite to add it to is our Broccoli Salad in place of the usual ham (pictured) or, serve up your frittata or fritters with a side salad and hey presto – lunch is sorted!

If you have both leftover ham and turkey (or roast chicken), then I don’t think you can look beyond a Pie. Or if you only have ham left, a ham and cheese quiche would be perfection! Serve either with a side of salad (or even better, leftover salad!) and it is a winner all round! A Fried Rice is also a perfect spot to add some leftover ham and turkey!

Home-Made Pizza can be made with any Christmas leftovers (Ham, Veges, Chicken, Turkey). Pizzas are a great way to get the kids involved in helping with dinner!

Every year I wonder why I only eat turkey once a year! We often have leftover turkey at our place after Christmas and LOVE using it in the days after. Cooked, leftover turkey will keep for 3 days in the fridge after cooking.

Lunch:

The sky is the limit here. One of my favourites is to use the leftover turkey in Rice Paper Rolls or in a Vietnamese inspired fresh salad. I also love the idea of tossing the leftover turkey through a crunchy noodle salad too. Of course, just like the ham, turkey also makes the perfect addition to a salad sandwich or roll for something super quick and easy!

Adding some turkey into our Mexican bean wrap also makes for a delicious and filling lunch!

Dinner:

A pie is our personal favourite here, but there are so many other options – such as combining it with some beans, spices and salad to make a burrito, or coating the meat in some spices for a pulled ‘pork’ style burger. You could also chop it up finely and create a different option to the usual mince based San Choy Bao.

Another option is to make a leftover turkey casserole!

How lovely is seafood for Christmas on a hot summers day! However, any leftovers can be expensive and hard to use. So, whether you have found yourself with leftover fish or prawns, here are some ways to ensure you continue to enjoy it in the days after Christmas!

Lunch:

Just like the turkey, leftover fish and prawns both go beautifully in Rice Paper Rolls or Vietnamese inspired noodle salads. We also love leftover prawns tossed through a simple garden salad.

Dinner:

Leftover seafood works well in both hot and cold pasta or noodle salads. We also love fish tacos, so any leftover fish inevitably ends up as a taco in our house! The easiest option here is to serve the leftover seafood along with the leftover salads from Christmas Day!

For something a little more warming, you can add prawns to a pasta dish such as Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta or create a prawn linguine by Jamie Oliver.

If your family is anything like ours, we over cater. Every. Single. Time!

Leftover roast veggies can be hard to use after the day as they are just never the same once reheated! However, with a bit of love they can easily be resurrected into something delicious!

Breakfast:

Just like we suggested with the ham, breakfast hash is delicious and a go-to for any leftover roast veggies. They are also perfect thrown into an omelette with any other veggies (or leftover ham) you have laying around.

Left over roast vegetables are delicious for a Bubble and Squeak on sourdough toast with or without eggs.

Lunch & Snacks:

Chop the roast veggies into chunks and add to either a Roasted Veg Frittata or Veggie Slice. For lunch, just serve this with a side salad if you please and you are sorted!

A roast vegetable toastie is also a delicious, filling and quick lunch!

Dinner:

I highly recommend not just reheating your roast veggies with dinner, the texture and taste just is never the same! Instead, add it to a quiche or into your leftover turkey pie!

Bubble and Squeak hamburgers are a brilliant way to use up left over vegetables and ham if you wish!

I won’t judge you if you have leftover pudding! It is a rarity at our place with such a big gathering, but there is no doubt it needs using if there is some still sitting in the fridge come Boxing Day.

Obviously the easiest option here is to have it for a snack or dessert over the days after Christmas. However if you want to mix things up a little, here are some ideas we have found for you:

• Pudding Scones by Jamie Oliver
• Christmas Pudding Ice-Cream: Soften some Vanilla Ice-Cream and break-up in a large mixing bowl. Crumble your leftover pudding and add a good handful of the pudding crumble for every 400-500mL of Ice-Cream. Stir it all through and pop it back into the freezer to enjoy!
• Make your usual fruit crumble but add a twist by adding some crumbled Christmas Pudding to the crumble mix!