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Tips for Using Up Leftovers From Christmas Dinner

Leftovers from Christmas dinner are definitely too good to throw in the bin. We’ll tell you how you can use them instead to make them delicious.

For most who celebrate Christmas, extensive feasting is part of it. Especially with guests, it is not always easy to estimate how extensive the Christmas menu must be. There is often leftover food that you don’t have to throw away. Use these tips to use up leftovers from Christmas dinner.

Processing dumplings: this is how it works

Dumplings are a real winter classic and the leftovers are easy to use up after Christmas dinner. The easiest way to do this is to fry them. Cut them into slices and fry them on both sides in a little hot oil. Fried potato dumplings taste both savory with salt and pepper and sweet with sugar and cinnamon. The savory variant goes well with various types of salad, for example. But the fried dumplings also taste great with cranberries.

Alternatively, you can also cut the dumplings into slices and fry them together with onions and vegetables. With spices such as paprika powder and herbs such as parsley or chives, you get a delicious dumpling pan.

By the way: When you prepare the dumplings, you can use some older bread to fill them.

Use leftovers from Christmas dinner: kale

Kale is also often on the Christmas menu. You can process the leftovers of the winter vegetables into stuffed puff pastry or kale baguette, among other things.

You can also freeze processed kale without any problems. It is best to freeze the vegetables in portions. You can defrost it as needed and eat it with pasta or potatoes, for example.

For filled puff pastry you need:

1 clove of garlic
Kale
seasoning yeast flakes
Salt
pepper
Puff pastry (tip: make your own puff pastry)
And this is how easy it works:

Peel the garlic clove and cut it into cubes.
Toss the kale with the garlic, seasoning yeast flakes, salt and pepper.
Roll out the puff pastry and spread the kale evenly over it.
Now roll it all up. Prepare the baking tray by lining it with baking paper or a substitute for baking paper.
Place the puff pastry on the baking sheet. If you bake the whole roll, you will have a kale strudel later. If you cut the roll into one to two centimeter thick slices before baking, you will get individual kale snails. Before baking, make sure that the snails are lying individually on the baking sheet.
Set the oven to 180 degrees Celsius top/bottom heat. The puff pastry is ready as soon as it smells fragrant and turns brown.
Tip: You can vary the kale filling with different spices and other ingredients, for example with paprika powder, nuts, olive oil or fried onions.

Kale baguettes made from leftover Christmas dinner

You can also use up the leftovers from your Christmas dinner with baguette. For these kale baguettes you will need:

1 onion
smoked tofu
vegetable oil
Kale
Mustard
Baguette (tip: bake a baguette)
optional: salt and pepper
How to prepare the baguette:

Peel the onion. Dice the onion and the smoked tofu.
Heat some oil in a pan and sauté the onions and smoked tofu for a few minutes.
Add the kale and mustard to the pan and mix together. If necessary, you can season the kale with salt and pepper.
Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, slice the baguette.
Spread the kale evenly over the baguette slices.
Finally, put the whole thing in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about ten minutes.
The baguettes are good as a starter or snack.

Leftovers from Christmas dinner: red cabbage

You can also easily freeze ready-made red cabbage. Put the red cabbage in portions in screw-top jars and store them in the freezer. You can defrost and heat the red cabbage at any time as an accompaniment to mashed potatoes or gnocchi, for example.

You can also use red cabbage to make strudel or puff pastry pockets:

Mix the herb with any other ingredients you have around the house.
For example, fried onions, chili, walnuts, garlic and curry powder or raisins are suitable.
Then fill the puff pastry with the red cabbage mixture and bake until it has a nice golden brown colour.

Another way to use up red cabbage leftovers from Christmas dinner is in a red cabbage pan. For this you need:

1 onion
Potatoes (pre-cooked, alternatively: leftover dumplings)
mushrooms
vegetable oil
Red cabbage
Caraway seeds
paprika powder
Salt
pepper
How to prepare:

Peel the onion and cut it into cubes.
Cut the potatoes or dumplings into cubes.
Clean the mushrooms and cut them into slices.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan.
Sauté the onions in the hot oil for 2-3 minutes.
Add the diced potatoes and mushrooms and sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
Now add the red cabbage. Mix the ingredients together and season with the spices, salt and pepper. After another three to five minutes you can serve the red cabbage pan.

Use leftovers from Christmas dinner: More tips

If you had meat for Christmas, you can cut the leftovers into strips and fry them together with vegetables or fried potatoes. The same goes for vegan alternatives, of course.
If you have an excessive amount of leftover fruit, toss it in the blender and make a breakfast smoothie out of it.
Melt down leftover chocolate from Christmas dinner and use it as a frosting for cakes or cookies. With hot milk or a plant drink of your choice, it becomes hot chocolate.
Slightly older speculoos are good for making speculoos tiramisu.
Refill the leftover food as soon as possible and put it in the fridge. So you have a higher chance that nothing spoils.
If you still have sealed groceries that you no longer need, give them away. Apps like UXA can help you with this.

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Food

Cialledda: This is a Great Way to Use Leftover Bread in a Salad

Cialledda comes from southern Italy. The salad consists of leftover bread, olive oil and fresh tomatoes. We show you how to prepare the salad.

Bread dries out quickly and becomes hard. You can prevent this, for example, by storing the bread properly. However, any braid or bun will dry out after some time, that’s all. Under no circumstances should you throw it in the trash. You can avoid such food waste and use food more sustainably.

Cialledda comes from southern Italy. The bread salad has its origins in the city of Matera in the region of Basilicata and in the adjacent region of Puglia. The dish comes from rural cuisine and is quickly prepared with inexpensive ingredients. The main component is stale bread, plus vegetables, spices and oil.

Cialledda: This is a great way to use leftover bread in a salad

Ingredients:

150 g bread
150 ml water
70 g olives
150 g cocktail tomatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tspOrengano
1 bunch basil
0.5 tsp pepper
0.5 clove(s) garlic
0.5 red onion

Directions:

Cut the bread into cubes about 1 inch by 1 inch and place in a bowl.
Now pour the water over the bread and roll it in it until it becomes soft. Then you can pour off the excess water and gently wring out the bread with your hand.
Now cut the tomatoes, the onion and the garlic into small pieces.

Add all the ingredients to the bread and pour over the oil and spices as well.

Mix everything together thoroughly so that the spices are distributed. The Cialledda salad is ready.

Cialledda in different variants

Cialledda comes from the rural kitchen and is used for leftovers. You can therefore prepare the bread salad with a wide variety of vegetables and use different types of bread. More ideas for the bread salad:

Other vegetables: You can also use zucchini or mushrooms. You can add them raw or toss them in a pan with a little oil and fry them lightly.
Mozzarella: In order to have another component in the salad in addition to the broth and the vegetables, you can also add a sliced mozzarella ball.
Toasted bread: You can also toast the pieces of bread after soaking for a slightly crispy texture and toasted aromas. To do this, fry the pieces of bread in a pan for about five minutes until golden brown.

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Food

Leftover Mulled Wine? That’s How You Use Them

There are a number of ways you can use mulled wine. We’ll give you an overview of how to incorporate the leftovers when cooking and baking and present a quick and easy recipe for mulled wine jelly.

As a seasonal specialty, mulled wine is mainly popular during the cold season. When it gets warmer again, the desire for the hot drink gradually decreases and whole or opened bottles are often left behind. But even after a convivial winter evening, the question can sometimes arise the next day as to how leftover mulled wine can still be used.

Whether the leftovers are whole bottles or just small leftovers, you don’t have to throw them away. Even a few tablespoons can still be useful when baking. Here you can find out what options you have for using mulled wine in the kitchen.

Use mulled wine: Various possibilities

Christmas pastries are particularly good for using up leftover mulled wine. After all, mulled wine contains spices such as cinnamon, cloves or orange peel and therefore goes well with recipes that use similar combinations of spices.

You can add a special touch to a simple frosting by mixing it with mulled wine instead of water. Traditionally, such a mulled wine icing goes well with spice cakes, for example. You can also use it to glaze gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread or other Christmas cookies.
You can also refine the taste of the dough of a spice cake by replacing all or part of the water in the recipe with leftover mulled wine. This also works with other Christmas cake specialties or with classics such as Bundt cake and chocolate cake.
If you prefer to use the mulled wine in liquid form, it is a good basis for homemade sangria or a Christmas punch, for example. By the way: You can also use leftover punch in a similar way to leftover mulled wine by using it to refine pastries or desserts.
Mulled wine is also popular as a base for mousse. For example, in this recipe for gingerbread mousse, you can swap out the kirsch for the same amount of mulled wine. Or you prepare a classic red wine mousse with mulled wine.
Or you can try our simple recipe for mulled wine jelly.

Recipe for using mulled wine: mulled wine jelly

The basis for this recipe is 350 milliliters of mulled wine, i.e. about half a bottle. You can fill four small glasses (200 milliliters) with the finished jelly, for example. If you are working with leftovers, you can of course adjust the quantities and make more or less jelly accordingly.

Ingredients:

350 ml mulled wine
400 ml orange juice
500 g preserving sugar 2:1
1.5 tsp

Directions:

Pour the mulled wine and orange juice into a sufficiently large saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil.
Stir the jam sugar into the boiling liquid and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Keep stirring constantly.
After ten minutes, reduce the heat to zero. The foam that forms during the boil should then collapse, leaving a clear jelly mass. You can skim off the remaining foam if necessary.
Pour the mulled wine jelly into sterilized glasses. Turn the jars upside down and let them cool in this position for at least 4 hours.

Unopened, stored in a cool and dark place, the mulled wine jelly will keep for at least six months. You can eat it pure on bread, but it also goes well with soft cheeses such as Brie and Camembert or with strong hard cheeses.

If you want, you can refine the taste with additional Christmas spices. In the second step, for example, let a clove cook in a hanging sieve or add some grated orange zest. Instead of orange juice, you can use apple juice in the jelly.

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