Thanksgiving has come and gone like THAT!! Hours and hours of menu planning, grocery list writing, shopping, prepping and cooking (hmmmm, sounds like a job for a personal chef! LOL), all for one 30-minute meal that is always certain to leave you with a fridge full of leftovers! The first day of leftovers is exciting, the second day, still great, but by the time day four or five of leftovers rolls around, meh, not so much! I honestly could not stand to eat leftovers after one day (I sound like a Grinch, I know, but Thanksgiving food is not really my favorite), so I immediately revamped the leftover turkey, and made two variations of leftover turkey salad – one with sweet potatoes and one with cranberries! The recipe is not very precise, so my apologies in advance to all you cooks out there who thrive on following recipes to the “T”, take this as my way of gently pushing you to being creative, and having fun with cooking! I mean this is not really even cooking, more like food combining at its finest! 🙂
Base Turkey Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups (approx.) shredded turkey (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer, for hands-free shredding)
1/2 of a Gala apple finely chopped*
3 stalks finely chopped celery
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream (feel free to sub Greek yogurt for a healthier option)
Splash of milk
2 tsp. sugar
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
*Feel free to use any type of apple, or omit the apple, I just had half an apple leftover!
Directions:
- Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl. Add mix-ins as desired.
For Sweet Potato –Turkey Salad:
You guessed it, I added about 1/2 cup of sweet potatoes to about 1 1/2 cups of turkey salad; add more or less sweet potatoes depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have! This would also be so yummy with some chopped pecans added, oorrrr chopped candied pecans!!
For Cranberry –Turkey Salad: 
I added about 1/2 cup cranberry sauce to 1 1/2 cups turkey salad. This combo is really good! On my appetizer menu, one of the deli wraps bites I offer is turkey/cranberry, so no surprise here in how tasty it is! This would also be SO yummy with some added feta crumbles!
What’s your go-to Thanksgiving leftover recipe?
Click here for a printable copy of the Turkey Salad Recipe Trio
