Growing up, we ate thanksgiving leftovers as reheated plates, or as sandwiches, both of which I loved. But keeping a celiac safe kitchen means that there’s no good bread in the house, so we’ve reimagined a lot of the ways that we eat the leftovers from our thanksgivings. While Jason is happy to make a sandwich with a TJ’s gluten free loaf, the only way that I’ll eat gluten free bread is in preparations that are drenched with butter (e.g. grilled cheese) or eggs (french toast)–both of which transform the crumbly texture and flat flavor enough to make it enticing again.
Our favorite thanksgiving leftover recipe combines both of these techniques: stuffing waffles are full of eggs and butter, and so delicious that Jason demands an extra pan of stuffing each year now just to ensure we have enough leftovers for this creation. I’m happy to oblige, because making stuffing is one of my favorite thanksgiving preparation tasks.
I start on the stuffing first thing on Thanksgiving morning–cubing the bread and toasting it with olive oil, salt and pepper. While it’s in the oven, I chop onions, celery, and mushrooms, which get sauteed in a fairly indecent amount of butter. Herbs and walnuts get added too, until it’s all rich and fragrant, and ready to be tossed into the crouton-like bread. I leave it in the pans ready to bake when the turkey comes out, at which point I also add a healthy glug of stock–turkey or vegetable, depending on the dietary needs of our guests.
One of the things that I love about our leftover creations is that they’ve become the secret sequel to our grand thanksgivings. After all the guests have feasted, there’s a second menu that’s just for us, one that we’ve been planning all along. As we pack up the leftovers into tupperware, we’re taking stock of each of them like ingredients, a new mise en place for the recipes that are to come.
Stuffing Waffles
Ingredients:
- Leftover stuffing
- Eggs
- Leftover cranberry sauce, gravy, or other toppings
Method:
- Mix leftover stuffing and eggs together in a bowl. The number of eggs will depend on your stuffing quantity–for half a pan of stuffing today, I used three. You want enough to bind the stuffing together, but not so much that it turns into an omelette. Take some time to stir it up, breaking down the bread cubes, and allowing them to hydrate with the egg.
- Make waffles! We use a cast iron waffle maker, but this should work okay with whatever you have. Because this isn’t a smooth batter, you’ll need to spread the stuffing mixture out a bit before pressing your waffle maker shut. If your stuffing recipe uses as much butter as ours does, you’ll want to carefully pour off some of the grease as it accumulates in your waffle iron. I keep a dish beside the burner so that I can drip the hot butter into it each time I flip the waffle iron. Otherwise, you risk a little stovetop fire!
- Waffles are done when they’re golden brown. Serve with leftover cranberry sauce, gravy, maple syrup, hot honey, or top with a fried egg.
Other Favorite Thanksgiving Leftover Reimaginings:
- Soup. Mashed potatoes thicken up the leftover stock, and we add turkey, leftover vegetables and herbs, and toast up some stuffing croutons to top.
- Taiwanese Turkey Rice. When we’re satiated with thanksgiving flavors and craving a change, we use the last of the turkey to make this recipe, which is seasoned with ginger, scallions, star anise, shallots, and soy.