Festive leftovers spark a very specific joy. At any other time of year, repurposing (or simply reheating) the remains of a meal demonstrates efficiency and restraint, whereas at Thanksgiving and Christmas, this edible bounty is tantamount to a glorious banquet. Not only that, but it’s about the only occasion we allow our appetites to run amok without a side order of self-admonishment.

Indeed, given these platters of meats, bowls of vegetables, trays of puddings and hunks of cheese can sustain us for several days after the main feast, it’s clear we factor ridiculous excess into the festive shop, whether we choose to admit it or not. Still, once the thrill of furtive kitchen raids on the roast potato stash dissipates and the notion of re-plating any dish in its original state turns anathema, fresh inspiration is required. To this end, we turned to a cohort of renowned chefs to present you with this gourmand’s guide to leftover cookery.

Mr Jeremy Lee, the inimitable head chef of London restaurant Quo Vadis, is hugely looking forward to cooking a great goose pie for his establishment’s Christmas Carol Lunch. “It’s quite the production, with preserved goose in a pork ragout, topped with a thin layer of potato and breadcrumbs with the goose skin and fat,” he says. “A very happy stomach liner for the carousing to follow.”

At home come Christmas time, Mr Lee, for whom it is a crime to throw anything away, will make a stock with his turkey carcasses, then add barley and carrots to transform the broth into Scottish chicken soup – “a truly good thing”. The meat itself, whether turkey or pheasant, will take a leading role in the salad recipe, below. “I’ve made versions of this dish for many years, and Christmas really is about traditions and memories, isn’t it?” he says. “I’d serve it with rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes and at the table to get people off the sofa and away from the box. It’s fresh enough to kick you out of a stupor.”

• 6 bunches of watercress and/or land cress
• The meat from leftover roast pheasant or turkey, brought to room temperature and cut into pieces
• 4 oranges
• 200g whole blanched peeled almonds, roasted and chopped
• 1 bunch of mint
• 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper

1. Tumble the watercress and/or land cress onto a large dish. Lay the sliced pheasant or turkey meat over the leaves.
2. Peel and thinly slice the oranges, saving as much juice as possible in a separate bowl, and slip the slices between the meat.
3. Scatter the chopped almonds over the dish. Pick and chop the mint and parsley and strew over the dish.
4. Add olive oil and red wine vinegar to the orange juice (if your birds were cooked recently and you have roasting juices from the pan, these are good to whisk in, too). Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Mix well, spoon over the dish and serve.

After stints at world-class dining spaces, including Momofuku Ko, Jean-Georges and The Clove Club, Maine-born, London-based Mr Chase Lovecky took charge of his own kitchen at Two Lights in Shoreditch at the end of 2018. An unabashed fan of leftovers, Mr Lovecky’s most eagerly anticipated Thanksgiving dish is stuffing. “When the bird roasts, the stuffing takes on all the juices,” he says. “I always make sure I take a good amount of the crusty edge from the end of the bird and drown it in gravy. There is normally far too much of it – no one eats enough.”

For the lazy days that follow, Mr Lovecky is adamant that “nothing is better than just having the meal a second time”, but he is also serious about maximising the flavour of his bread-based leftover snacks, which is how he came up with the recipe below. As well as being quick and easy, he points out that his open-faced creation is also a satisfying hangover remedy.

• 50g smoked bacon fat
• 2 thick-cut slices of Pullman loaf or sliced white bread
• 60g turkey leg meat, lightly picked
• 100g leftover stuffing
• 100g leftover turkey gravy
• 10 thick slices of turkey breast meat
• 20g shallots marinated in red wine vinegar
• Handful of chopped chives and tarragon
• 60g cranberry sauce or compôte

1. In a skillet or wide pan, melt the bacon fat until it begins to sizzle. Add the slices of bread and toast each side until golden brown and crispy. They should soak up a good amount of the fat.
2. Drain the fat from the pan, then lightly crisp up the leg meat and stuffing. Remove the crisped stuffing and leg meat and keep warm. Wipe out the pan.
3. Pour the gravy into the pan and bring to a light simmer. Add the slices of turkey breast meat and warm them up gently. Add the shallots, chives and tarragon to the gravy and stir.
4. Place the slices of toast on two separate plates then spread cranberry sauce over each piece. Divide the crispy stuffing and leg meat between the two slices of toast. Set the warm breast meat on top of the stuffing and pour the remaining gravy over the top.

Renowned for crafting exquisite and sustainable dishes at her convivial Somerset House-based restaurant Spring, Ms Skye Gyngell is as well-versed in creating sumptuous feasts from scraps as aesthetically perfect ingredients. Indeed, Spring offers an entire Scratch menu, which is forged solely from items that are commonly overlooked, or otherwise wasted, such as beetroot tops, pasta trimmings and leftover cheese. Ms Gyngell reveals she is besotted with a “truly delicious” Scratch dish of slow-cooked leek tops and Gorgonzola rind on polenta.

She’s equally sensible with food waste at home, advising that even potato skins deserve a new lease of life. “I love the flavour in potato skins and often turn them into mash,” she says. “Use a paring knife to peel potatoes, rather than a peeler, which takes off more flesh. Leftover buttermilk is perfect if you have it to hand, but you can use also regular milk.” So how would Ms Gyngell serve her “crowd-pleasing” croquette recipe? “It’s a great way of using up any kind of leftover greens,” she says. “I would make them the night before a drinks party. They keep so well in the fridge and are a delicious heart-warming snack to have with a drink.”

• 200g vegetable scraps, such as broccoli stems, chard or kale stems, or cime di rapa stalks
• Salt
• 100g butter
• 200g flour
• 1 litre whole milk
• 50g grated parmesan
• 50g any leftover cheese
• 3 whole eggs, beaten
• 300g breadcrumbs

1. Roughly chop the stems and/or stalks. Cook for about a minute in salted boiling water, strain and set aside to cool.
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over a low-medium heat and incorporate the flour. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring constantly, until light golden but no darker than that. Add a splash of the milk and whisk until it fully incorporates, becoming smooth and with no lumps. Carry on with this process, slowly, until all the milk is added.
3. Cook the mixture for about 20 minutes, whisking constantly on a low heat, until you get a very thick and smooth consistency. You might need to add a little more milk if you reach the right consistency too quickly to make sure the flour gets cooked.
4. Remove from the heat, add the cooked vegetables and season to taste with salt and the parmesan. Transfer the mixture to a long tray and allow to cool completely in the fridge, until it’s no longer sticky when touched.
5. Crumble the leftover cheese scraps into small pieces and dot over the chilled batter, before shaping it into 12 or 15 small croquettes, making sure every piece gets a little bit of cheese. Dust each croquette in flour, then wash with eggs, coat in breadcrumbs and leave to rest. Deep-fry the croquettes in hot vegetable oil (at least 180°C-190°C). Remove and set onto kitchen paper to drain excess oil.

Having lived in the US for five years, Mr Gabriel Pryce, chef and owner of sandwich emporium Bodega Rita’s, fondly recalls tucking into Thanksgiving suppers at Veselka in New York. “They served pumpkin and sweet potato pie with marshmallows on top as an accompaniment to cranberry-stuffed, gravy-drenched turkey,” he says. “It was my favourite thing ever.” As for holiday dining on home soil, Mr Pryce’s extended family feasts entail an opulent Christmas pudding – all the more of a marvel for being made from a spartan wartime recipe.

Conscious of food waste, Mr Pryce works leftover dishes and ingredients into every meal – shredded brussels sprouts in his breakfast eggs, for example. This attitude also informs his banh mi recipe, below, which is a respectful homage to the food of Vietnam, where he and his Bodega Rita’s business partner, Ms Missy Flynn, recently made a pilgrimage to Mr Anthony Bourdain’s favourite banh mi spot in Hoi An. “After a confusing order mix-up, we ended up with four sandwiches, one of them being a combination of all elements of the other three. It was absolutely delicious. This is a nod to that and the inevitable smorgasbord of post fat-boy-day leftovers.”

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• Leftover Christmas lunch: turkey, nut roast, sausages, stuffing, brussels sprouts, parsnips, ham, beef, lasagne, whatever else you have, cut into 1in chunks
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• Salt
• 1 long sub-style roll or half a baguette, or any leftover bread, cut open along one side
• 2 tbsp zero-waste pâté – meaty or veggie (put a couple of handfuls of any leftovers in a blender and purée with leftover gravy until smooth)
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp sriracha
• Quick-pickled carrot and daikon radish (pickle julienned carrot and daikon in a 3:2:1 ratio of hot pickling liquor of rice vinegar, sugar and water, and allow to cool thoroughly)
• Handful of coriander leaves, including stems
• 3-4 fresh-picked mint leaves
• 1 sliced red chilli

1. Heat the rapeseed oil to medium-high in a wok. Sauté the chopped leftovers for five minutes, until they’re thoroughly warmed through and start to brown. Add the sliced spring onions and continue to sauté for 2 minutes.
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the sesame oil and a tiny splash of water. Season with a pinch of salt. Add this egg mix to the wok and allow the eggs to firm up. They should puff up slightly. Don’t move them too much. You’re not making a scramble – you want a flat omelette that will sit nicely along your baguette. Fold the omelette into the right shape so it doesn’t stick out the side of the bread too much.
3. Meanwhile, spread the pâté on one side of the bread. Mix the mayonnaise and sriracha and spread on the other side. Add the Christmas leftover omelette and top with pickled carrot and daikon, coriander, roughly chopped mint leaves and the sliced red chilli.

Born in Malaysia to parents of Chinese-Indian and Irish-Balinese heritage and then raised in Sydney, chef Mr Ramael Scully is no stranger to powerful flavours. After helming the kitchen at Nopi, Mr Yotam Ottolenghi’s fine dining establishment, Mr Scully recently opened his own restaurant, and garnered high praise for his tantalising and eclectic menu, which is inspired by the cuisines of Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

After testing multiple methods of using up panettone leftovers at Nopi, Mr Scully is convinced this “heart-attack pudding” is the most delicious option. After early childhood Christmases when the family table laden with Chinese, Indian and Western dishes, including curries and a shepherd’s pie or roast chicken “to confuse our taste buds more”, fish took over once the clan settled in Australia. Today, Mr Scully’s festive highlight is a trifle. “I am blessed to have two aunts living here, so when we catch up on Christmas Day, there’s always a Marks & Spencer trifle and another made by one aunt.”

• 50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 600g panettone (sliced)
• 6 large eggs, at room temperature
• 600g milk
• 100g double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• A pinch of grated nutmeg 
• ¼ tsp salt
• 140g packed light brown sugar or demerara sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a medium-size, deep ovenproof dish. Layer the slices of panettone in the dish.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs together, add the milk, double cream, vanilla extract, nutmeg, salt and 70g of sugar. Pour the well-combined mixture over the panettone, press down gently to make sure all the panettone is thoroughly coated and set aside for 15 minutes to allow the custard to soak in. Sprinkle the remaining sugar on top.
3. Place a large, deep roasting tray in the middle of the oven and half fill with boiling water. Carefully place the pudding dish in the roasting tray and bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the custard has set and the top is golden brown. Serve with crème anglaise with lime and cardamom (recipe below, optional).

• 150g milk
• 270g double cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 tbsp cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 135g egg yolk (approximately 8 large egg yolks)
• 60g sugar
• 1 large lime, zested and juiced

1. Combine the milk and cream in a heavy-based, medium saucepan. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla pod and add them and the pod, along with the cardamom pods. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Remove from the heat. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk the hot milk and cream mixture into the yolks.
2. Return the custard to the saucepan. Stir over a low heat for 5 to 10 minutes (do not allow it to boil) until the custard thickens. It’s ready when you coat the back of a wooden spoon with the mixture and it holds its structure when you drag your fingertip across it.
3. Strain the custard into a bowl. Let the custard cool down a little, then add the lime zest and juice and mix well. Cover and chill before serving.