Christmas day. A day of excess – food, booze, all-round indulgence. And even though on Christmas night you will go to bed in a food coma, you wake not wanting to eat but faced with mountainous amounts of food. What to do with so much lamb, so many salads and about a tonne of olives. Greeks are renowned for overcompensating, better to have more than not enough when people are coming over for dinner. But is buying enough feta to feed a small country even when you have a family of 12 a responsible decision? It’s not only the fact that you are left with a magnitude of leftovers, it’s also a financial worry too as some of this food doesn’t keep.
But there are ways to make sure the cheese, the lamb and the salads last longer. A way to prepare them to give the leftovers a new lease on life. And a tastier one at that.
Pites:
Pites are a great way to cook up leftovers that will last for days and days. Whether you make a meat pita or stick to it being vegetarian, you can do so much with a Greek pie, and you can fill it with as little or as much filling as you want. Meat pites are a great way to use up leftovers, so if you find yourself with too much lamb on the spit leftover, some chicken from the roast or too much Christmas turkey, you can chop it up and whack inside a pie.
This is a great way to use up some of the leftover cheese too to add flavour and if you have leftover greens from Christmas – such as spring onions, spinach or herbs – chop them up and add them in. All you need to get is some filo pastry or puff pastry depending on what type of pie you want to make. Similarly, you can ditch the pastry and opt for more of a bake. This is great for leftover broccoli or cauliflower and also cheese. A Greek three cheese bake for lunch with a side of salad? Yes please!
* Check out Dora’s recipe below for an indulgent kotopita made from leftovers.
Salads:
Salads add a nice refreshing touch to a Boxing Day meal. After you’ve indulged in meat and wine, not to mention the desserts, a lunchtime salad the day after is as cleansing as it is detoxing. And now with so many ways to jazz up a salad, rest assured this meal won’t be a boring one. The pomegranate that you used to decorate the Christmas table in the salad adds sparkle and shine. Play around with dressings – try a dollop of mustard, grind some spices up to mix in with the oil, experiment with Greek balsamic vinegar instead of Italian.
Salads are a great way to consume proteins – try making a chicken salad or a lamb salad. Try using some pulses and grains that you have in your cupboard to add another texture to the salad. Supergrains like quinoa, hearty beans like chickpeas – couscous or lentils, whatever you can find to lift your salad to a new level.
Soups and sauces:
The beauty of soups and sauces is they can be frozen for up to three to four months. And they are a great way to burn off some Christmas lunch whilst not feeling the need to consume everything in the house the next day. All you need is a some stock and you can whip up anything from a cauliflower soup to a summery vegetable option. When adding meat to your soup options, be sure to eat it up that day as when reheating already cooked chicken, it needs to be eaten on the day. Sauces can also be made from dicing up some lamb and making a Greek style ragu or using leftover herbs to make Greek style pestos.
Desserts:
There is something about a Christmas meat-heavy lunch that makes you crave something sweet to wash it down. And because dessert doesn’t feature highly on the Greek menu, this is an area that is catered for correctly. Having said that, there are some options with the leftovers to look at creating some mid-week desserts. Stale bread is great for making French toast or even a bread and butter pudding. Add some pistachios and drizzle with honey and serve with Greek yoghurt to Greekify this very English staple.