Recipe: Turkey Waldorf salad

Waldorf salad comes from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where this salad was created in the late 19th century. It has aromatics, crunch, and creaminess, which are a nice combination with white-meat turkey.

Recipe: Turkey soup with butternut squash and white beans

In half an hour, you can serve a big pot of soup to help everyone recover from holiday overload. You’ll need leftover turkey, butternut squash, canned white beans, and baby spinach. Pair it with a salad or toasted cheese sandwiches for a quick family meal.

Recipe: Turkey shepherd’s pie with sweet potatoes

Shepherd’s pie with turkey instead of lamb is a popular family dinner, and you can take many of the components right off the Thanksgiving table.

Recipe: Turkey pot pie

Even when holiday dinner guests have taken home their fair share of turkey, there’s usually enough left to turn into one of the season’s best comfort foods — old-fashioned pot pie. This traditional recipe calls for buttery pastry made from scratch. The flaky crust envelopes the meat, vegetables, and a rich, creamy sauce.

Recipe: Turkey chilaquiles

Chilaquiles is a popular breakfast dish south of the border. It originated as a way to use up leftover tortillas. You may not have any, but you do have turkey and salsa. Toss together tortilla chips, salsa, cheese, and shredded turkey and bake it until the chips are moistened but crispy on top.

Recipe: Turkey salad with Mayfair dressing

Make a light curried mayonnaise-style dressing—a similar one was originally served at the Roberts Mayfair Hotel, a historic property in St. Louis. Add the dressing to your cooked bird with red grapes and shelled pistachios, or stir in leftover green beans, chunks of roasted squash, or Brussels sprouts. Hold the pie. That’s for later.

Recipe: Day-after-turkey-vegetable soup

While everyone is lollygagging in the living room, and you have another ounce of energy, use kitchen shears to cut up the turkey carcass. In a soup pot, combine the carcass, any vegetables from the turkey roasting pan or the dinner, juices that accumulated on the turkey platter, even a few generous spoonfuls of pureed sweet potato or squash or stuffing.

Recipe: Sweet potato and turkey quesadillas with cheddar

Quesadillas made with tortillas or small pitas and filled with leftover sweet potatoes, turkey slices, and a little cheeses, can be quickly assembled and ready to eat.

Recipe: Turkey croque-madames

Save some sliced meat for the famous French croque-madame; it’s a croque-monsieur, made with Gruyere cheese and highly seasoned ham, with an egg on top. In this version, turkey replaces ham; butter-smeared toast and a rich mornay sauce still make the dish plenty rich.

Recipe: Turkey tetrazzini

A classic comfort food recipe that takes full advantage of leftover turkey meat.

Recipe: Turkey panini with smoked-Gouda spread

This sandwich contains thinly sliced white meat, a couple of slices of Muenster cheese, and a handful of fresh watercress, with a smoked gouda and roasted red pepper spread, between two slices of top-quality sandwich bread.

Recipe: Rachel braid

The next day, shred the meat and lay it on pizza dough with Russian dressing, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut. Fold strips of dough in a diagonal pattern to encase the filling, brush with egg, sprinkle with caraway, and bake. The golden Rachel braid will steal the limelight from the Reuben.