Gathered around the holiday table, the extended family surveyed the bountiful feast with thankfulness and anticipation. All appreciatively admired the huge roasted turkey that sat as the centerpiece of the table, its skin crisp and browned, its flesh succulent and steaming. As dinner progressed, there were many complimentary comments on the delicious flavor and tender texture of this particular bird. For the next day or so after the feast, everyone continued to enjoy the remains of the meat, eaten with other leftovers of the feast and with fresh memories of the joyful gathering of loved ones. However, by the third or fourth day, my children rebelled. My mother and I could have eaten turkey for a week straight, especially if it meant that we did not have to cook, but the men of the family were beginning to grimace at the sight of the bird being trotted out of the refrigerator again, and the children openly announced that they would have no more of it. There was still a substantial amount of meat left, and in my family, there was a policy that nothing went to waste. The time had arrived to progress beyond turkey sandwiches and invoke some creativity.

At mealtime the next day, I served bread, fruit, and a salad that I called “Tuna Surprise.” The children were thrilled to be eating tuna rather than turkey but looked at the dish with a measure of suspicion.

“What’s in it?” one of them asked.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise,” I answered with a smile. “There is a secret ingredient. Taste it and see if you can tell what the surprise is.”

The children and my husband spent the entire meal trying to guess the secret ingredient. One noted that the salad had celery in it; another noted the chopped nuts. Those ingredients were obvious, however; there was nothing hidden about them. Looking for more subtle modifications, someone asked if I had used yogurt instead of mayonnaise, and someone else asked if I had used Grey Poupon instead of plain mustard. I fielded the questions with great amusement, inwardly amazed that no one could divine the mystery. Finally, when the salad bowl was empty and everyone had cleaned their plates, the children demanded to know the secret.

“The surprise is,” I responded, pausing for effect, “Tuna Surprise had no tuna in it; it was turkey!”

Incredibly, everyone was surprised. No one had suspected that turkey was the main ingredient. Though the children are now grown and married, we all still laugh about the ruse.

In my many years of cooking, I have discovered a number of ways to use leftover turkey. Obviously, one way is to substitute chopped turkey in any tuna or chicken salad recipe. Another easy option is to substitute turkey for chicken or tuna in casseroles. When everyone tires of eating turkey, I merely neglect to tell them that the Chicken Tetrazzini or Chicken and Rice Casserole is made with the native American fowl instead. They may not notice the difference if there are herbs or flavorful vegetables such as onion and bell peppers that help disguise the turkey. If a full-scale rebellion is not already underway but the family is ready for some variety, there are other alternatives, including a casserole that is unashamedly turkey, soup, or pot pie. Postponement by freezing the excess turkey is another option.

One of our favorite turkey casseroles uses several leftover dishes at once: turkey, green beans, dressing, and gravy. To make it, we layer chopped cooked turkey and cooked green beans in a greased casserole dish. When the spirit moves us to do so, we sprinkle the casserole with slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, or broken pecans before crumbling dressing on top and pouring gravy over it all. Though exact measurements are not necessary, a proportion that works well is approximately 1½ cups of gravy for two cups of turkey and a half pound of green beans. Baked in the oven at 400º, the casserole is ready to serve in 30 minutes. When there is not enough leftover gravy, we substitute or supplement the gravy with gluten-free mushroom soup or a cream sauce. If there are insufficient green beans, we may add canned green beans or cook frozen green beans in the microwave oven before layering them in the casserole.

Although the family likes the turkey and green bean casserole, they enjoy turkey soup even more. The heartwarming brew is a one-pot meal for which we have no set recipe, as the ingredients often depend on what other tidbits and scraps are left in the refrigerator. Though larger chunks of turkey can be chopped or cubed to go into the soup, this is a superb means for using the small bits of turkey that remain when the larger slices are gone. Our soup begins with a base of turkey broth, but chicken or vegetable broth would do as well. (Complete instructions for making homemade broths are at Homemade Broth.) Into the soup pot can go nearly any of the non-sweet leftover vegetables: corn, celery, bell pepper, carrots, peas, green beans, summer squash, rice, and potatoes. Even mashed potatoes can go into the soup if they are added toward the end of cooking time. In the rare absence of leftover vegetables, we toss frozen mixed vegetables into the simmering broth and cook them along with onions and garlic, adding herbs such as sage and thyme to taste. Although the soup can be eaten as soon as all the ingredients have been warmed – or cooked, in the case of frozen vegetables – the flavor takes on a richer quality if the pot gently simmers for twenty minutes or so, giving the various components time to commingle into one harmonious blend. It is just enough time to bake a pan of cornbread to accompany the soup.

Reserved as a trump card is turkey pot pie. My family may vehemently declare that they will eat no more turkey, but they will eagerly devour a pot pie completely, no matter how large the pie. As with the soup, there is no established recipe. The pie filling is simply a blend of chopped or cubed turkey and cooked vegetables – whether leftover or frozen and cooked in the microwave oven – stirred together with gravy or gluten-free cream of mushroom soup and enhanced with savory herbs such as garlic, sage, rosemary, and thyme. What makes this a pot pie rather than a casserole is, of course, the pastry on top. One could easily top the casserole with mashed potatoes, making it a shepherd’s pie, which is also quite tasty, but there is something special, something out of the ordinary, about an otherwise homely turkey casserole that has been topped with piecrust and baked until the filling is bubbly and the crust is a warm, rich brown. Any gluten-free piecrust recipe will do for the pastry, and it is not necessary to seal and flute the edges. Baked at 425º in the oven, the pie should be ready to eat in about 20 minutes if it has crust on the top only. It needs to bake an additional 15 minutes if there is crust on the bottom also.

Although there are many ways to use leftover turkey, it is not as if all of a turkey must be used within the first few days after it was baked. In fact, by freezing the meat, wonderful entrées can be enjoyed well after the holiday feast and can provide quick meals on rushed days. Slices of turkey can be sealed in plastic zipper bags to be thawed later for use as a main course or for sandwiches. By adding a tablespoon or so of turkey broth to the freezer bag before sealing, the meat tastes freshly baked when it is thawed and reheated. Smaller pieces of meat can be frozen in the quantities needed for casseroles or soup. Freezing broth or gravy separately from the meat allows flexibility in deciding how to use the meat later.

The holidays are coming quickly, and our family is looking forward to feasting together. As there is every year, there will be a large, roasted turkey dominating the center of the table, all the other side dishes clustered around it like subjects around a throne. For the main meal, the turkey will have its place of honor. For a few meals after that, it will still hold great importance, but before long, it will begin to lose its preeminence. It is then that we will have to rescue it from a complete fall from grace and use creative measures to restore its popularity. Who knows what “Turkey Surprise” we might create?