How to make use of festive leftovers

You may have noticed by now that December paraphernalia is progressively accumulating around your house. Presents as yet not wrapped, the limited-edition Christmas pudding you snatched from the clutches of a rival shopper on Black Friday, unwashed laundry. But most of all, copious amounts of food. It could be because you haven’t had time to cook it or because there is something comforting about filling the house with seasonal goodies: from dates to stilton, clementines to smoked salmon and a bereft pack of 12 chicken legs with mere hours until their use-by date (and probably the occasional savoy cabbage you bought because it looked wintery and wholesome). And while there’s inspiration aplenty for using up leftovers from the day itself (usually: make whopping great turkey or stuffing sandwich), there is a dearth of advice for fridge and countertop Christmas lurkers. Here are our suggestions:

Crack as many walnuts as you can in front of Corrie/yet another Only Fools and Horses rerun for a pesto. Place in a blender with blanched, shredded savoy cabbage, squeezed of all its liquid, half a crushed garlic clove, olive oil and plenty of grated parmesan. Have with cooked pasta, simply spread on toast, or dolloped as a dressing in a green salad with sundried tomatoes and olives.

Try a delicious green soup with stilton: slice leeks and sweat in butter until silky. Add chopped broccoli, salt, pepper and cover with boiling water. Simmer until the broccoli is tender, then blend. Add a generous chunk of grated (or crumbled, if grating is impossible) stilton.

If you’re feeling the effect of one too many Terry’s Chocolate Orange segments then this simple wintery salad makes a light lunch and uses up some of those clementines before they start to wither: for one person, peel and thinly slice 2-3 (depending on size) clementines and mix with very thinly sliced fennel and some pomegranate seeds. Dress simply with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and black pepper. If you have any excess Christmas cheeseboard goat’s cheese that needs using up, crumble some over (why not?).

Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing are authors of The Little Book of Lunch (Square Peg)