We spend tons of time serving up strategies for reducing food waste—whether by sharing techniques to preserve produce, developing recipes that minimize excess, or offering up advice for buying less grub to begin with. But the holidays are naturally a time of excess: Household garbage jumps by nearly one-quarter this time of year, and languishing leftovers can easily end up as landfill.
Don’t get us wrong: We love a good Thanksgiving doggy bag, but there are only so many times a person can eat stuffing and taters before they start craving something—anything—different. Time and again, getting sick of leftovers or not knowing what to do with them ranks among the top reasons people throw away food. According to ReFED, a nonprofit focused on curbing food waste, American homes chuck 23% of their vittles due to spoilage, and they toss about 10% simply because they don’t want to eat it again.
You don’t need us to tell you that leftover ham or turkey make better sandwiches than they do trash, but, when it comes to all the other seasonal mainstays, the road to food-waste salvation can be a little less clear. So we decided to curate a menu of the most creative, easy, and downright delicious recipes to use up those other holiday extras.
Make brunch with… everything
A breakfast casserole (a strata, if you’re feeling fancy) can give a second life to almost anything, including veggies, proteins, herbs, sauces, and even stale baguette butts or dinner rolls. Even better: It’s less a recipe than a formula—and once you commit it to memory, you’ll always a home for just about every bit and bob.
Chop turkey breast into a Waldorf salad
Could you adapt a classic chicken salad with leftover turkey meat? Absolutely. But upcycling that day-old bird into a Walford salad riff also lets it hoover up other bits and bobs that might be languishing in the fridge or cupboards, like some nuts, cranberries, or even a lonely apple that didn’t fulfill its pie destiny. This approach is particularly good for white meal, which tends to be dry—especially as the days go by.
Have a taco night with the dark meat
With only five more ingredients, dark meat from legs, wings, and thighs can become a carnitas-style nacho topping or a filling for tacos, burritos, or quesadillas. This recipe starts with boiling the meat to make it extra-tender and follows that up with a pan-fry to get those browned crispy bits that up texture.
Reimagine green bean casserole as pot pie
The traditional holiday casserole itself is the main ingredient in this brilliantly simple, four-ingredient turkey pot pie, which comes together in a snap with the help of store-bought puff pastry sheets. If turkey’s not your jam, go ahead and swap it for a cup of plant-based protein or anything else you’d like to use up.
Turn stale bread into soup
Among the most satisfying ways to repurpose stale bread is to turn it into ribollita, a paragon of Italian povera cucina—the culinary art of using what you’ve got. Ribollita, literally reboiled, is a hearty vegetable-and-bean soup thickened with generous quantities of stale bread. It’s even better when flavored with that Parmigiano rind hiding in the back of your freezer.
Shake cranberry sauce into a cocktail
Our favorite seasonal sipper is the Pine Barrens, a cocktail adapted from bartender Danny Child’s James Beard Award–winning book Slow Drinks. A potent blend of gin, amaro, and cranberry sauce garnished with a sprig of evergreen, it’s the season in a tumbler.
Toss sweet potato casserole into a quick bread
Any quick bread that calls for sweet potato puree can become a vessel for your extra sweet potato casserole. A lot of recipes, like this one from Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, call for a range of warm seasonal species like cinnamon and ginger, but if you’ve already zhuzhed up your taters, you can skip all that.
Fry up potato fritters
If a samosa and a latke had a baby it would look something like this crispy potato and pea fritter. Crunchy on the outside and creamy within, these are a great way to use up leftover mashed white or sweet taters. They can also incorporate whatever herbs, spices, or other extras you’ve got. The recipe includes a peanut-cilantro chutney, but feel free to douse them with leftover cranberry sauce or gravy instead.
Dress pasta with butternut squash
Already-cooked winter squash makes an easy recipe even easier. This pasta with butternut squash and sage brown butter starts by sautéing cubes of butternut in olive oil ‘til they’re tender. Since your squash will already be soft, you can just heat it in the oil before adding your other ingredients.
Waffle that stuffing
If you prefer crispy holiday dressing baked in a casserole dish to the stuff that cooks inside the bird, then stuffing waffles are a day-after must. Bound together with egg and moistened with broth, these crunchy, savory waffles are a dreamy dish any time of day.
Crisp up roasted taters and veggies
We love the English tradition of pan frying excess veggies into bubble and squeak. (Yes, partly because we love saying “bubble and squeak.”) The name comes from the noise that emanates from the skillet as a big patty of leftovers sputters and pops in the pan. Whereas this particular recipe calls for a pound of cabbage, you can use whatever veg you like.
Bake with champagne
There are tons of simple ways to use up a couple glasses of uncorked wine—like, for example, making a quick sauce or marinade—but we’re particular fans of these Barbiecore pink champagne cupcakes. They’re easy to make (it all starts with boxed cake mix), and the bubbles in the wine act as a leavener to make the sponge light and fluffy. (If your champers is already flat, you can make this champagne vinegar instead.)