20+ Creative and Tasty Ways to Use Up Your Thanksgiving Leftovers: From Soups to Sandwiches

Everyone loves all the tasty dishes served up at Thanksgiving dinner, but no matter how much you and your family eat, there are always leftovers. So what's the best way to make the most out of your Thanksgiving leftovers? With a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich! It's a mouthwatering, easy-to-make sandwich that you can customize to your tastes and what kind of leftovers you have in your fridge. The best part is there's no cooking involved!

Roast turkey makes a wonderful meal, but often we are saddled with leftovers after the feast. Make the most out of your turkey leftovers by making a delicious healthy batch of turkey carcass soup. This simple soup recipe is a clever way to make sure none of your roasted turkey goes to waste and it's packed with healthy veggies, hearty rice, and succulent turkey meat. The secret to this amazing tasting soup is the homemade turkey stock which is made by simmering the turkey carcass with onions, carrots, and celery, plus a handful of herbs and spices. It's the perfect soup to enjoy when the temperature dips and you're in the mood for a mouthwatering soup to keep the cold at bay.

These tasty turkey enchiladas are made with cooked turkey, sour cream, cheese, chili peppers and tortillas. They are baked in the oven with a spicy tomato-based sauce, and make a great midweek dinner.

Cranberries are quite popular around this time of year. In the US, cranberry season stretches from September, through to January which means that fresh cranberries are abundant at Thanksgiving. Fortunately, thanks to food preservation processes, we can have cranberries right through the year in the form of cranberry sauce. In this recipe, we use it to make delicious Cranberry Pecan Brie Bites. It’s the perfect bite-sized appetizer for the holidays when you make a lot of cranberry sauce at home.

Make decadent Pumpkin French Toast by drenching fluffy, airy bread in a custard-like mixture of eggs, milk, pumpkin, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice. Then sear each piece so it’s crispy on the outside and moist and cake-like on the inside. The result is a stack of sweet, fall-spiced French Toast that makes every morning a good one. And the best part? This is an easy and quick recipe you can make on busy mornings too.

Cranberry hand pies are a delicious sweet treat synonymous with fall. With its sweet-tart flavor, it's a perfect dessert to serve at holiday dinner such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. This cranberry hand pies have a crisp, flaky crust and a ruby red, creamy filling that everyone's sure to enjoy. The luxurious crème brulée filling goes beautifully with the tangy taste of the cranberries.

Mashed potato patties are a fast, easy-to-make clever way to use leftover mashed potatoes. That said, you don't need to use leftovers – you can make mashed potatoes from scratch whenever you feel like whipping up a batch of potato patties. With a crispy outside and fluffy, soft inside, potato cakes are savory and delicious, thanks to the addition of ingredients like cheese and spring onions.

Pumpkin risotto is a delicious, creamy Italian main dish. Perfect to serve it during fall season as a tasty weeknight meal, it's great also as a rich Thanksgiving recipe. With a delicate yet comforting taste, it's made of Arborio or Carnaroli rice, pumpkin, vegetable broth. Flavors are brought out by the addition of white wine, butter and grated Parmesan cheese.

Hearty, flavorful shepherd's pie is an incredibly easy dinner you can make this St. Patrick's Day. This amazing savory pie recipe comes from England, and is made from minced lamb mixed with tender mixed veggies, and topped with a thick layer of rich, creamy mashed potatoes.

This recipe for Fried Mashed Potato Balls is an easy, bite-sized appetizer you can make with mashed potato leftovers. It's a great recipe to serve during the holidays, especially on Thanksgiving when you usually have a lot of leftovers. These Fried Mashed Potato Balls are crispy on the outside while being soft and melt-in-your-mouth on the inside.

With its gorgeously creamy texture and crunchy, buttery pecan topping, sweet potato casserole is one of our favorite casseroles to whip up in the fall. It's a sweet, rich casserole that you can serve as soon as the leaves start falling off the trees.

Looking for a clever way to use up your leftover mac and cheese? Why not try making fried mac and cheese balls? This delicious comfort food is perfect as an appetizer or snack and is always a popular bite-sized dish you can serve up over the holidays or any time you're entertaining friends and family at home.

Pumpkin lasagna is a delicious main dish ideally prepared in autumn, when pumpkins are in season. It is a vegetarian recipe prepared with lasagna noodles, béchamel sauce, cheese, pumpkin and grated parmesan cheese. Baking the lasagna in the oven will make it creamy and create that irresistible golden brown, crunchy crust on its surface.

Who doesn’t love a crispy potato fry? These fried mashed potato fries are a delicious twist on the traditional French fries you’re used to. Mashed potatoes are fried to golden perfection, making them crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It’s similar to potato croquettes, and is a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes.

A creamy gravy base filled with peas and carrots, leftover turkey, and seasonings meets a flaky, buttery, golden crust in this comforting and simple turkey pot pie. This turkey pot pie is a great way to relive the holidays. Use that succulent leftover turkey alongside frozen vegetables, store bought pie crusts, and basic pantry staples to build an easy and filling main dish. This is easily customizable to the vegetables and seasoning preferred and on hand. It’s quick to whip up with ingredients you probably already have and leave to bake while you spend time with your family!

Perfectly delectable, fluffy, and deliciously soft sweet potato cupcakes are a wonderful treat to make this autumn. Decorated with a thick marshmallow frosting, sweet potato cupcakes are great for any occasion whether you're hosting a birthday party, Thanksgiving dinner, a family get-together, or just because!

If you think that macaroni and cheese is too plain to serve to your guests, think again. This Macaroni Cake will impress everyone. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to make too, with minimal washing up. To make it, you need typical mac and cheese ingredients: macaroni, cheese, and sauce ingredients. Add a few eggs for binding and crumbs for crunch, and you’ve got a pretty delicious dish on your hands. It’s easy to modify and can easily be upgraded to a meat dish. It’s rich, creamy, and oh so delicious!

Think you’ve tasted potato in all its forms yet? Think again! These Potato bombs are a delicious way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. The dough is made with mashed potatoes, semolina, cheese, and egg. Once shaped into disks, it’s topped with ham and cheese, and fried until golden and crispy. It’s easy to customize the recipe according to the ingredients you have on hand, so make sure you check out our tasty tips below! They make a great appetizer or snack and can be served with a dipping sauce of your choice.  Easy to make and so tasty, they are perfect for a quick snack!

Potato rolls are a tasty, pull-apart side dish recipe you can serve with any meal during holidays such as Thanksgiving. They're fluffy, super soft yet moist thanks to mashed potatoes. The golden brown top is shiny and crisp because of butter and honey.

If you’re looking for a change from sweet, crunchy cereals, why not make a change to savory? This Spinach Mushroom Breakfast Casserole is an easy, vegetarian recipe that will satisfy even hungry meat eaters.

Greek Sweet Potato and Feta Tart is a tasty and absolutely perfect vegetarian preparation for the autumnal season. The preparation is really simple; you have to boil the sweet potatoes, rich in starch and with a sugary taste, reduce them to a puree and then mix them with eggs, breadcrumbs and feta cheese. The sweetness of these tubers, originally from South America, is pleasantly softened by the flavor of the Greek feta cheese, creating an irresistible combination of flavors. Finally, baking in the oven will return a soft dish, stringy and golden on the surface, perfect for any situation; you can enjoy it as a second course or single dish, to which you can simply accompany a side dish of vegetables, on the occasion of a quick meal, a special dinner or a standing buffet with more guests. And the next day it will be even better. Just try it and you will not regret it.

Many a times we all are stick in the same tandem of eating either a sandwich or a salad for the lunch meal… very boring, isn’t it? Well, we have the perfect solution to break the monotony of your packed lunch problems.
Try out this super duper healthy and equally delicious vegetarian burrito preparation that has some really healthy ingredients. This tortilla preparation also has some really amazing Mediterranean flavors to delight your taste buds. And guess what, we have not shared the best thing about this recipe yet… this recipe does not involve adding even a single drop of visible fat!!
Also, you do not need to carry a separate dip, sauce or salsa to enjoy this burrito preparation. This sweet potato burrito enwraps the dip and salsa within it, leaving a less hassled lunch carrying experience for you.
You may alter the spice quotient of the burrito as per your preference as well. So, in the recipe as such we have not added any spice other than the basic black pepper powder. But, you may add half a tablespoon of chili sauce or ½ teaspoon of chopped green chilies to the preparation in case you prefer to eat spicier burritos. Just make sure you do not spice it up too much and rather end up with teary eyes and runny nose just before an important meeting with the client or your manager…
So, wait no more and get home all the basic ingredients of the sweet potato burrito today itself and show off your culinary skills to your office colleagues!