It’s easy to stop yourself from, say, cooking too much pasta or rice, but it’s harder to cook just the right amount of turkey since they’re a fixed (or at least minimum) size. Leftovers are no bad thing though – they just get a bit dull if it’s turkey sandwiches every day…

Individual turkey and stilton pies

I love this idea since a lot of people have leftover stilton around at Christmas too. The already cooked turkey won’t need as long in the frying pan though – add it with the mushrooms rather than before the sweet potato.

Making individual pies are also a great idea for this time of year when people are extra busy – these guys can be frozen then defrosted and cooked as needed rather than a big pie which has to be eaten all at once.

• Phil Vickery’s Individual Turkey and stilton pies

Hearty leftover turkey broth with bacon croutons

Come on, you just drooled reading that title didn’t you? I certainly did! *wipes keyboard*

Another fab recipe because you’ll have most, if not all, of the ingredients on hand from Christmas dinner preparations – such as root veg and streaky bacon – and the croutons also use up day-old/going-stale bread. If you’re really organised you can make the stock from the turkey carcass first too (see side panel below).

• Hearty leftover turkey broth with bacon croutons @ BritishTurkey

Leftover turkey enchiladas

After stodgy roasts and puddings (mmm stodgy food), this recipe is refreshingly light. Not at all seasonal with the courgette and peppers but still, mmm! If you haven’t quite got enough turkey, pad it out with pinto or kidney beans.

(I also like the idea of stacking them like a pie rather than in rolls.)

• Turkey enchiladas @ BBCFood

Turkey Jambalaya

And keep with New World flavours, this is awesome and I’m drooling again at the thought of it. Leftover turkey, rings of some sort of smoked/spicy sausage, colourful veg and spices – a surprisingly quick but delicious option.

• Turkey jambalaya @ Savoury Notebook

Turkey & Chickpea (Coconut) Curry

Finally, I couldn’t do a leftover turkey round-up without including a curry – firstly, because turkey curry is a delicious cliche and secondly because I’m all about spiceness!

This recipe from the wonderful people at LoveFoodHateWaste is effectively two curries in one – yummy enough on its own but transformed into something a bit more Thai flavoured with the addition of coconut milk.

• Turkey & Chickpea (Coconut) Curry @ LoveFoodHateWaste

What will you do with your leftover turkey? What are your favourite recipes?

It’s all to easy to cook too much rice but thankfully there are lots of ways to use it up.

Food safety warning: bacteria, specifically Bacillus cereus, loves cooked rice – and it can quickly grow to dangerous levels. Minimise it’s growth by cooling it quickly, put it in the fridge as soon as possible then use it with a day or so.

1. Rice pudding

Rice pudding is eaten all over the world in one form or another. The general principle is the same – cook the rice in milk then when it’s tender, add a sweetener (sugar, honey or fruit syrup) and something to give it a bit more flavour such as cream, egg yolk, fruit or nuts and spices such nutmeg & cinnamon. There are thousands of different ways to make it – experiment to find your favourite!

Leftover cooked rice can be used in place of dry rice – particularly if you’re happy to have a mushier pudding in the end. When making it fresh, most people use short grain rice but anything will do – white or brown, long or short, basmati, jasmine – whatever you’ve got on the go.

One of my favourite rice pudding recipes is with coconut and mango – yum!

2. Add it to soup

Leftover rice – again, any time – is great as a bulking agent in soup. Added early on, it breaks down and makes the whole soup thicker; added towards the end, it provides scoopable particles to chase around the bowl.

Add it to a hearty minestrone, or a tasty Moroccan veg soup – or add it to a simple chicken soup for those days when your belly needs something nice and bland.

3. Stuffed peppers (or marrow)

You can quickly make a tasty dinner by stuffing bell pepper or marrow rings with leftover rice.

Cut the top off the bell pepper and remove any seeds/white bits, then mix the rice with any meat, veggies or herbs you fancy, top with a bit of cheese and bake in a medium oven for about half an hour.

As with rice pudding, everyone has their own way of making them with their own favourite ingredients. Some great examples to get you started: beans and rice stuffed peppers; courgette, basil and rice ones; and super saucy tomato and beef mince ones.

To be extra frugal, use whatever meat or veggies you’ve got leftover alongside the rice – a little chilli con carne or casserole is perfect to stir in and lightly flavour the rice.

4. Bake it into bread – or muffins

Have you ever tried rice bread? Not rice cakes, those boring puffy white things but actual proper bread? If not, you should – it’s great and since you need to cook the rice down into a mush, starting with leftover cooked rice will save you time as well as preventing waste.

Check out this video how-to to see how it’s done.

Alternately, fancy something sweeter? Then I give you vanilla rice muffins.

5. Fried rice

Finally, no “uses for leftover rice” list would be complete without fried rice. Fried rice is best made with cooked rice left to go cold so it’s perfect for using up leftovers.

Again, there are a billion varieties and flavours. A simple recipe makes a good side dish but a couple more ingredients – some meat, fish, tofu or exciting veg – and you’ve got yourself a tasty main meal. Try this flavourful chicken and prawns recipe.

What’s your favourite thing to do with leftover rice?

Since it’s Halloween tomorrow, how about flipping this crazy blog-concept on its head for a change?

Anyone got any good ways to reuse or recycle bits and pieces from around the house to make Halloween costumes?

Recipes for fake blood? Gore? Green ooze?

What about ways to make realistic witches’ warts, zombie-ish decaying flesh or fake spider webs?

Go crazy : )

(Photo by cybersnot)