Never Ending Holidays: The Top Five Recipes Leftover Turkey
Photo: Unsplash
The average size of a Thanksgiving turkey is 16 to 22 pounds – and one thing is absolute; you will nearly always have leftovers. There’s nothing worse than coming up short on the main course, which means we often cook a little more than necessary. What’s better than a piping hot glazed turkey? Leftover turkey. There’s something special that happens on the weekend over the holiday break where no one wants to cook again, football is on, and it just seems easier to grab for the leftovers.
There’s something about the way that holiday leftovers just keep the spirit going through the week. They’re the flavors we only have once a year…and the calories don’t count that week, right?
In honor of reducing food waste in tasty new ways, we have compiled the top five best ideas for leftover turkey.
How To Reinvent Leftovers With Thanksgiving Turkey
Photo: The Original Dish
1. Cranberry Turkey BLT
We all have a different version of the leftover turkey sandwich, but this one might just be the best. The Original Dish has the right idea taking leftover turkey breast with all the best parts of a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. This recipe also brings fresh life to leftover cranberries, renewing them as a cranberry bacon jam!
PHOTO BY JULIA GARTLAND PROP STYLIST: MEGAN HEDGPETH FOOD STYLIST: LAUREN LAPENNA.
2. Turkey Noodle Soup
When in doubt, put it in soup! This goes for many Thanksgiving leftovers; roasted vegetables, roasted potatoes, and turkey all make great soup ingredients. This recipe from Food 52 starts with the turkey carcass – no food waste here! A mirepoix of leftover carrots, celery, and onion is a simpler alternative to store-bought broth. Add some red pepper flakes for heat, and you have yourself the perfect after Thanksgiving leftover soup!
Photo: Taste of Home
3. Thanksgiving Casserole
We think all good casseroles have a little leftover in them – a melding of flavors that have been left to sit in the fridge overnight can sometimes be just the magic you need! This Thanksgiving leftover casserole from Taste of Home includes the stuffing, turkey, and cranberries that were part of the main event. Tossing them with pecans, milk, and eggs makes this a meal to rival the one the leftovers came from!
Photo: Savory Nothings
4. Savory Turkey Pot Pie
Savory Nothings speaks every tired mom’s language with this easy, Turkey Pot Pie Recipe. Leftover turkey and vegetables intermingle seamlessly nestled in puff pastry. These are also great to make in a batch and save for weeks to come (who doesn’t love Thanksgiving in December!)
Photo: Simply Whisked
5. Leftover Turkey Salad
Who says the holidays don’t have to be healthy? This Leftover Turkey Salad from Simply Whisked is Keto and Gluten Free, but not short in bold flavor. It’s great on it’s own or nestled between two slices of sourdough bread. This will also buy you time with a three to four-day shelf life in the fridge, meaning you won’t have to cook for at least a full week after Thanksgiving!
SAPi’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide For South Carolina Foodies
Gather around the SAPi tree while we lay out the best gifts for your South Carolina foodie friends for 2022. You know the ones, the Aunt that’s always hosting parties with elaborate charcuterie trays or the best friend who always knows where to find the most authentic Jamaican food in town. The culinary experts we call friends and family deserve the best food-themed gift 2022 has to offer!
The Best Holiday Gifts For Foodies | 2022 Edition
Photo: Root Note Food Truck
1. Root Note Food Truck Gift Card
Give the gift of food truck love with a gift card from Root Note Food Truck. This isn’t your average casual dining destination. Root Note is located conveniently beside the Charleston Pour House in case you get thirsty and is the perfect place for date night. They specialize in gourmet tacos – think tandoori chicken, pho-inspired pork, and vegetarian aloo gobi tacos featuring curry cauliflower, sweet potato, chickpeas, lentil, and queso in a chili tamarind sauce. It’s an experienced-based gift that will also delight the appetite!
Photo: Sobremesa
2. Sobremesa Mole & Salsas
Sobremesa is a small-batch mole & salsa company in Charleston, South Carolina. Only a true foodie friend will appreciate the rich and velvety texture of a Mole Poblano that is blended from four different chiles, nuts, fruits, seeds, and a hint of chocolate to create a layered sauce that will step up your favorite foodie’s home-cooking game.
The Sobremesa Bundle costs $40.00 and includes sauces, salsa, and moles. It is available for shipping to your Latin food-loving friends and family.
Photo: Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit
3. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit | All-Night Kit
Repeat after SAPi: you can never go wrong with a locally sourced gift basket. And in South Carolina, you can never go wrong with biscuits. And in the case of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits, even if your giftee is Gluten Free. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit is widely recognized as an iconic Southern brand with national retail exposure, grab-and-go eateries and a food truck in Charleston, as well as a cult-like national following.
Their All Night Kit retails for $52.95 and is a sure win every time. It includes:
A half-dozen Cinnamon Biscuits
A half-dozen Buttermilk Biscuits
Cocoa & Cream Cookies
Cheese Crisps
Optional Addition: Traditional Pimento Cheese*
4. Charleston Culinary Tours Gift Certificate
Looking for a different gift idea for a foodie or a friend? Charleston Culinary Tours offers Gift Cards that make great gifts for all food and drink lovers and adventurous travelers in your life!
The tours explore Charleston’s historic cobblestone streets while participants can sample food from some of the hottest new restaurants. Whether you know a Lowcountry local or someone planning a trip to Charleston, a food tour is a great way to explore a new or familiar city.
This 2.5-hour tour offers insight into Charleston’s historic Upper King Street neighborhood, which has been named one of the top 10 food neighborhoods in America.
This 2.5-hour food tour explores Charleston’s Historic French Quarter and City Market, offering the tastiest of Charleston’s history and food while walking some of the oldest streets in America!
This 3-hour tour showcases the Lowcountry’s seasonal bounty and a local chef’s creative prowess.
Photo: Swamp Rabbit Cafe
5. Swamp Rabbit Cafe | Taste Of The South Gift Basket
South Carolina has so many talented artisan food makers the Swamp Rabbit Cafe created a mailable gift basket that represents the ingenuity of the artisan food makers from the region. The once abandoned building along the Swamp Rabbit Trail is now a thriving food community where you can find an artisan grocer, cafe and bakery.
The Taste Of The South Gift Basket retails for $100.00 and includes items curated from local artisan vendors. If you want your loved one to choose, they also have Gift Cards! Baskets are available for same-day pickup or delivery.
Photo: Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit
6. Lowcountry Oyster Company& Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit | Lowcountry Bundle Gift Basket
This collaboration between Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit and Lowcountry Oyster Company is a match made in heaven that will benefit both you and your giftee if you’re invited to their next party.
The most savory Lowcountry staples have been combined to create the Lowcountry Bundle. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit and Lowcountry Oyster Co. have come together to make the perfect gift for the foodie who like to entertain. From tide to table, enjoy a bushel of oysters straight from the ACE basin atop a crunchy sea salt biscuit cracker with a dollop of traditional pimento cheese!
The Lowcountry bundle is available for delivery, retails for $135.00, and includes:
• Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit Sea Salt Biscuit Crackers
• Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit Traditional Pimento Cheese (12oz)
• Lowcountry Oyster Company Bushel of Oysters
Photo: Mushroom Mountain
7. Mushroom Mountain Spring Cultivation Workshop
For a unique twist for the foodie who loves exotic ingredients and farm to table dining, how about a Mushroom Mountain Spring Cultivation Workshop? Let the Mushroom Mountain team give your giftee the adventure of 2023.
Participants will learn about fungal ecology and life cycles while immersed in hands-on methods to cultivate mushrooms on logs, stumps, wood chips, and straw design mushroom gardens as well as how to compost or recycle with fungi. The workshop includes a tour of the Mushroom Mountain Farm, where guests will be able to check out the myco lab. The gift of a workshop also includes breakfast snacks, lunch, an oyster mushroom fruiting kit, and a shiitake log to take home from a hands-on activity. Workshops start at $275.00.
Ace Leather and Knife Works Photo Credit: Soda City
For an heirloom gift look no further than this beautiful hand-forged iron Kitchenware byACE Leather & Knife Works. The company makes a wide selection of bespoke cookware, including hand forged iron knives, grill utensils, iron, and carbon steel pans, and more. You can find the former finalist of the TV show Forged In Fire, Jon Medelin, representing his wares at the Soda City Market in Columbia or he also takes custom orders on his website.
Photo: SimpliThai
9. SimpliThai Cooking Kits
SImpli Thai makes all in one craft cooking kits so that your foodie family member won’t have to run around to import stores looking for special ingredients! There’s something about learning how to cook something that may otherwise seem complicated in a compact kit with real good instructions. That way your giftee can be the kitchen hero they are.
Cooking Kits start at $22.00 and are available for local pick up at farmers markets in Charleston and Columbia. They also SHIP cooking sauces and cooking kits to nearby states.
Cubo Woodworks Photo Credit: Soda City Market
10. A Locally Crafted Charcuterie Board | Cubo Woodworks
Nothing but the best to impress with a Cubo Woodworks Charcuterie Board for the party-hosting fiend in your life. If you’re hosting a party, you’ll want the best cutting boards around. Their inventory ranges in cutes and grains, and they also take custom orders with up to 10 days notice. We love a gift that will remind our loved ones of us and great cheese simultaneously.
In any holiday season, you can never go wrong with supporting local. Also check out the SAPi APP for local plates from local makers in your neighborhood to keep you and your friends and family fed while also supporting local small businesses.
Several years ago, our SAPi founder Brandon Gantthad an epiphany over Mac and Cheese. Ok, it was arguably about more than one of the best Thanksgiving sides ever introduced to the family table; it was about where to find it.
This happened in COVID times when grocers were understocked and understaffed, and many restaurants were closed or reduced to takeaway (let’s never go back!). So on a hunt to put together a proper Thanksgiving dinner, the kind with all the choices and traditional fixings, he started calling around to friends and family.
Southern Fixings (Courtesy of Eat This, Not That)
Who could bring the Mac and Cheese? Who’s on top of mashed potatoes? Whose secret recipe for sweet potatoes pie was poised and ready?
Although this wasn’t the whole story, it played a big part in Save A Plate’s (SAPi) inspiration. How can we connect local plates with local people? Everyone knows that the special touch that real people give to their signature dishes is what makes them unique. So how can we support local foodpreneurs and local bellies at the same time? And thus, SAPi’s seed was planted.
Today the SAPi APPconnects a diverse group of local foodies with plates as diverse as they are delicious. And you might tjust be able to find your favorite holiday sides covered as well.
In honor of the upcoming holidays and all the side dishes that get our stomachs growling, we’re covering the Best Of Southern Thanksgiving sides – look for local plates in your area on the SAPi APP!
Top Five Best Southern Holiday Side Dishes
Southern Living Fried Pecan Okra (Photo: Beth Dreiling Hontzas)
Fried Pecan Okra
Fried okra is an institution in the south year-round – but for the holidays, you can level up this classic dish with pecan infused breading. Giving the pecans a quick toasting session in the oven makes all the difference.
Everyone should have a corn casserole in their holiday arsenal of go-to recipes. This dish gives it all; creamy, savory, and filling. Bacon, rainbow confetti of chopped peppers, and cream cheese round out this party pleaser.
Historically black-eyed peas have been associated with a “mystical and mythical power to bring good luck.” So you’re not only coming through with a delicious dish but good vibes for the whole family, nice one! Traditionally Southern Black-Eyed Peas dishes have a good dose of pork belly, ham hock, or both.
Controversial for the traditionalists, but not for Southern tables who say that coleslaw absolutely belongs next to the turkey. When done right, it’s a Southern delicacy, and the secret is always in the sauce – a maker’s mix of mayo, vinegar, sugar, and spices.
Cornbread in its fried form, no Southern holiday celebration is complete without a side of sharp cheddar and jalapeno-infused Hushpuppies. As the story goes, fishermen in the 1800s would toss their dogs some fried batter from fish fries to stop the puppies from begging, hence the “hushpuppy” moniker. This is a delicious ode to those who just can’t wait to eat!
Fusion Mac and Cheese Recipes That Will Level Up Your Holidays
SAPi’s Best Fusion Mac and Cheese Recipes For The Holidays
It’s that time of year, are you prepared to shine like the bright diamond you are at your family holiday potluck? You’ll need to go beyond the traditional sides to be able to humblebrag that you brought the best dish to the table. Your Mac and Cheese dish deserves to be more than just a co-star; done right, it deserves top billing.
Mac & Cheese is the holiday classic with an immeasurable contribution to the holiday feast. Feeds kids? Check. Feeds your picky Uncle who isn’t into fancy holiday dishes? 100%. Can fulfill your sister’s current gluten-free, vegan, keto diet? With some swaps, absolutely!
Why not go the extra mile this year and put a spin on the classic? It’s time you take the unspoken holiday win for the best dish, the one that people will request for years to come.
Below we’ve rounded up some fusion Mac & Cheese inspiration from across the web.
(One last note – if you’re not looking for the glory of full credit, there is always someone who is on the Save A Plate APP (SAPi APP) that can do the heavy lifting for you! Connect with a local chef and tag them in a social media post for extra credit! )
Delish’s recipe for Best Ever Keto Mac & Cheese is a game changer that will make you rethink cauliflower. It also pulls double duty in the cheese department with the controversial, but well played, cream cheese. No need to label this one; everyone will like it!
Let’s go with this spicy take on the classic; Taste Two Eggs doesn’t miss a step with their KimChi Mac And Cheese. Perfectly creamy and umami-packed with the at Korean favortie, kimchi. Red Chili paste, chicken broth, and onion crunchies will take you across the globe and back again before Thanksgiving is over.
Honey, What’s Cooking nails it with its Masala Mac and Cheese recipe. We know, this feels like we’re crossing a line when we’re tossing Indian Masala spices into the mix, but trust us, it works! Masala is a mixture of ginger, garlic, onions, and tomatoes sauteed with Indian spices, and the roux that is made as a base for this fusion creation is enough to convince any doubter.
You’ve heard of the loaded potato, and let us introduce, The Toasty Kitchen’sLoaded Mac And Cheese. This is creamy, stomach-warming comfort food at its finest. Scallions, bacon, and a five-cheese blend feature in this masterpiece.
Jalapeno Popper Inspired – Why Didn’t We Think Of This Sooner
Seriously. Why didn’t we think of The Chunky Chef’s Jalapeno Popper Mac and Cheese sooner? We fill like we’ve been robbed of so many holiday side opportunities until this came along. You know this one has all the jalapeno, cream cheese, and panko crumb goodness of your dreams plus a kick of cumin spice to round out the flavors.
We recognize greatness when we see it, and The Chunky Chef really has too many fusion Mac and Cheese recipes to mention, but the Butternut Squash, Gruyere, and White Cheddar Mac and Cheese was too good not to make our list. For one thing, if you’re working with Gruyere, we already know you aren’t messing around. Garlic roasted butternut squash means you aren’t coming to play at the next family get together; you’re coming to win.
Frank’s Red Hot : Classic Buffalo Mac and Cheese
Mac & Cheese That Clearly Wants To Be Chicken Wings
I mean, we all have that friend who carries hot sauce in their purse (thanks, Beyonce), so why not cut to the chase with Frank’s Red Hot Classic Buffalo Mac and Cheese? That’s a mouthful to say, and also to eat. Bleu cheese, hot sauce, and celery make a Mac & Cheese that clearly aspires to be chicken wings. And we like it.
It might be chilly out during the holidays, but Scrummy Lane’sGreek Mac And Cheese will transport your potluck to tropical places. There is no sauce to this one, which some might say disqualifies it, but the secret ingredient, feta, will make you forget all about cheese sauce. Spinach, panko crumbs, and nutmeg take this Mac & Cheese to fusion town.
Asian Fusion 
Indian Fusion
Jalapeno Popper Inspired – Why Didn’t We Think Of This Sooner
When Squash Meets Mac & Cheese 
Mac & Cheese That Clearly Wants To Be Chicken Wings 
Take Me To The Greek Isles