Thanksgiving Day Leftovers by Dana Carpender Includes Her Turkey Tetrazinni Recipe

Hey, you! Yes, you! Put down that pie!

Thanksgiving was Thursday. Maybe you took an Indulgence Day, maybe – like a growing (or, more accurately, shrinking) group of low carbers, you kept on low carbing right through the feast. I heard from a lot of people who had fauxtatoes and sugar-free pumpkin pie.

Regardless, you probably have some leftovers kicking around. You’re not going to be eating turkey sandwiches, or at least I hope you’re not. So what to do with your leftover bird?

  • Turkey club unsandwiches: Cook up a bunch of bacon, slice a tomato and some turkey, and lay out some lettuce leaves. Spread some mayo on a lettuce leaf, and wrap it around a strip of turkey, a bacon slice, and some tomato. I love these!
  • Turkey salad: At least as good as chicken salad. Try it with chopped toasted almonds, and some curry powder in the mayonnaise.
  • Turkey Divan: Thaw enough frozen broccoli “cuts” – smaller than spears, but bigger than chopped broccoli – to cover the bottom of whatever baking pan will serve your group. Cover the broccoli with slices of leftover turkey; I like to put the white meat at one end and the dark meat at the other. Now make a sauce of equal parts heavy cream, mayonnaise, and grated Parmesan. Spike it with a little dry vermouth, should you have some on hand; sherry would work, too. Spread this over the turkey, sprinkle more Parmesan over the top, and bake at 350 till the broccoli is done, at least a half an hour.
  • Make Turkey Tetrazinni:

Low-Carb Turkey Tetrazinni Recipe

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Low-Carb Turkey Tetrazinni Recipe

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This tetrazinni is wonderful; everyone who tries it loves it. However, if you have some folks in your family who are going to be unhappy about spaghetti squash, here’s what you do: use half spaghetti squash, half spaghetti. Mix half of the sauce with the turkey. Divide the other half of the sauce, and the un_pureed mushrooms and onions, between 1 1/2 cups spaghetti squash, and 1 1/2 cups cooked spaghetti. Put the spaghetti squash at one end of your casserole dish, and the spaghetti at the other end (it helps to use a rectangular casserole dish!) Then make a groove down the middle of the whole thing, lengthwise, and pour the turkey mixture into the groove. Bake according to the instructions above.

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 4ounce cans mushrooms, drained
  • 1 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cups half and half
  • 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon concentrate
  • 2 tablespoons dry sherry
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon guar or xanthan (optional, but it makes the sauce thicker)
  • 3 cups cooked spaghetti squash, scraped into strings
  • 3 cups diced leftover turkey

Instructions

  1. Over medium heat, melt butter in a heavy skillet, and start the onions and the mushrooms sauteing in it.
  2. While that’s cooking, combine the cream, the half and half, bouillon concentrate, sherry, and guar, if you’re using it, in a blender, and blend it for just ten seconds or so, to combine.
  3. Go back and stir your veggies! When the onion is limp and translucent, transfer half of the vegetables into the blender, add the Parmesan, and blend for another 20 seconds or so, to puree the vegetables.
  4. Combine this cream sauce with the spaghetti squash, the rest of the vegetables, and the turkey, and mix everything well.
  5. Put in a 10 cup casserole that you’ve sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
  6. Bake uncovered at 400° F for 20 minutes, until bubbly.

Notes

(Reprinted by permission from 500 More Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender, 2004 Fair Winds Press)

Nutrition

  • Calories: 492
  • Trans Fat: 0g
  • Carbohydrates: 7g
  • Fiber: trace
  • Protein: 24g
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* And when you make soup from the carcass, use shirataki noodles!

Now send the rest of the pie home with Uncle Frank, will you?

© 2010 by Dana Carpender. Used by permission of the author. What do you think? Please send Dana your comments to Dana Carpender.

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