Thanksgiving Leftovers for a Lighter Day

Fresh Fall Rolls With Cranberry Dipping Sauce.
(Photo by Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post)

Don’t worry: I’m not here to suggest that you concoct a Thanksgiving feast sized to serve one — and that you then eat it alone, in the dark, in shame. This Thursday is nothing if not community-oriented, and single folks who are able to should be enjoying it in the company of family, friends or both.

But when you leave the party, no doubt stuffed more than sated, you may very well find yourself loaded down with something beyond an expanded waistline: as many containers of leftovers as your host can persuade you to carry. Well-meaning families tend to take pity on us solo cooks, assuming that we can’t possibly have the wherewithal to provide for ourselves and foisting off even more on us than on other guests; wouldn’t we like this turkey, and that cranberry sauce, and wouldn’t we get a lot of good mileage out of some mashed potatoes and gravy and dressing and pie?

I don’t know about you, but after carb-loading for 24 to 48 hours, the last thing I feel like eating a couple of days after Thanksgiving is a big plate of the same meal I had around the groaning table. Or, heaven forbid, some of the more indulgent, over-the-top suggestions for leftovers that start flying around this time of year (pumpkin pie smoothie, anyone?). So I’ve laid out a plan for turning that take-home bounty into lighter, tangier, crunchier meals that can awaken my palate after all the beige, cream-laden stuff I had on turkey day.

Continue reading here.