Matt Preston’s Christmas 2023 leftover recipes

Celebrity chef Matt Preston has compiled his ultimate guide for making the most of your Christmas leftovers. From turkey and ham to Christmas pudding, here’s all his go-to options.

It’s not all about the sandwiches – Matt Preston is serving up some other winning ideas for Christmas leftovers.

Print this out and stick it on the fridge for emergency use post-December 25.

THE TURKEY

It is a common Christmas curse that those who have a turkey lunch invariably order too big a bird. This means double trouble – not just because of the leftovers, but also because the leftover meat has a tendency to dry out. To counteract that, either use your roast meat leftovers with something creamy like avocado or a white sauce, or shred the meat and crisp it up, making a virtue of that dryness.

If you take the creamy route and like things a little retro, make a turkey mornay with loads of toasted corn kernels on rice, or pop cubed turkey into a white sauce with mushrooms and thyme to fill vol-au-vent cases.

Given the summer temperatures, the turkey can also be disguised in a Waldorf salad with diced celery, halved grapes, walnuts and blue cheese and sour cream vinegar dressing. The succulence of mango and creaminess of avocado can also help, whether in a spicy salad with a nice sharp lime and chilli dressing or loaded with a little sour cream, thin avocado slices and coriander on a crispy tostada.

Roast turkey baguette.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to do is to serve leftover turkey with a green mole sauce. This Mexican sauce is made by toasting almonds and pepitas, then blitzing them with the stems of a bunch of coriander, and the fried contents of a pan of deveined jalapeños, green capsicum, celery and diced onion and garlic. Lengthen the sauce by blitzing in sliced lettuce, lime juice and a little stock, or a can of drained green tomatillos, if you can find them. Season with salt, cumin and extra lime juice. Microwave the pulled turkey meat tossed in a little oil, grate over smoked cheddar, and then pour over as much of the sauce as you need. Serve with rice or refried beans and soft tacos.

Otherwise, use the turkey in a toasted quesadilla with lots of melting cheese, corn and coriander. Or toss the darker meat with cumin, paprika, chilli powder, lime zest and garlic powder then fry with onions and capsicum strips to make turkey fajitas. Crisping up the turkey this way also makes it great for topping your ramen, or for cramming into your bahn mi roll.

Fry cubes of ham in butter to replace bacon in your carbonara.

THE HAM

Soft white bread, butter, hot English mustard and a thick slab of ham cut from the bone is one of my favourite holiday treats, but there is so much more that you can do with the Christmas ham. Fry cubes of ham in butter to replace bacon in your carbonara, or fry the ham and finish with a little maple syrup to mix into baked beans for an excellent filling for your toasties.

Try the ham with corn, spring onions and grated cheese as a filling for an empanada, or handy hand-pies that can be eaten straight from the oven or reheated for a speedy lunch.

Given that there’s often a mob of kids around, I also like to dice ham and use it in a pan-sized potato cake. Grate your potato, then place in a strainer to squeeze out the excess liquid. Transfer to a bowl and combine with chopped onion, garlic and the ham, plus chopped parsley and as much cayenne pepper as the kids can stand. Pan fry, covered, on low heat until cooked through. Crisp up the top by flipping or drizzling with oil and popping under the grill.

Duck-fat potatoes, rosemary salt & sherry vinegar.

THE ROAST POTATOES

There’s so much choice here, whether you use those leftover potatoes in a curry or turn them into a hash with those leftover Brussel sprouts. Serve with fried eggs and ham, or cubes of fried chorizo.

Otherwise, try making a Spanish-style omelette – a fancier version of the rather predictable Christmas frittata. Fry thinly sliced onion and red capsicum to soften in a non-stick pan. Toss with smoked paprika, loads of crushed garlic and slices of roast potato. Pour over lightly whisked eggs and cook on low, finishing under the grill to make a Spanish tortilla. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or cold with a crispy green salad.

LEFTOVER PEAS

Any peas that aren’t eaten with the last of the gravy – another guilty Christmas pleasure – can be turned into a small salad with some spring onions, ricotta and fresh mint. If you don’t have enough to make a meaningful salad, add them to your turkey vol-au-vent filling. If you have too many, blitz them with warmed chicken stock and fried leek to make a pea soup. This gets far fancier when you garnish with some mint leaves, a little feta or goat’s cheese, or that lonely solo rasher of bacon, crisped and crumbled.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING

I insist on Christmas pudding, even if no one else eats it, because I reckon it is actually better the next day. Try dicing the leftover Christmas pudding and frying it until the edges start to catch and get a bit chewy. Remove and deglaze the pan with brandy or sweet sherry and a spoon of brown sugar to make a scratch sauce. Throw the pudding cubes over a bowl of vanilla ice cream and drizzle on the sauce. Extreme Christmas pleasure!

One of my favourite Christmas recipes – if you can call it that – is to butter-fry slabs of Christmas pudding and serve it with slices of the ooziest at brie, blue cheese or crumbled parmesan. In fact, any cheese you have left-over from the Christmas cheese board will be fine.

Find the recipe for the roast turkey baguette with cranberry slaw and dill mayo pictured above, here.

Related story: Matt Preston’s failsafe rules for surviving silly season

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Originally published as Matt Preston’s Christmas 2023 leftover recipes