Easy Leftover Turkey Curry

My easy leftover turkey curry recipe is the perfect way to use up your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey leftovers. This is a mild turkey curry with lots of aromatic spices, but not containing too much chilli heat, which means its ideal for everyone.

Over the festive holidays, regardless of how well I plan, I am always left with some form of Christmas dinner leftovers. More often than not this will include turkey.

Now I love a roast dinner, but after boxing day all I want is a bit of freshness and some spices. That’s where this leftover roast turkey recipe comes in handy.

This easy turkey curry recipe is made with a basic curry paste of onion, garlic, ginger and chilli, and once that’s cooked out a bit I add some dry spices, a can of tomatoes and a few other ingredients, before adding the leftover roast turkey to warm through.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• The perfect way to use up Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner leftovers.
• A simple curry recipe that can be prepared, cooked and ready to enjoy in around 40 minutes.
• Easy to adapt recipe, for example use whatever leftovers you have to hand and/or adjust the spicing to suit your own tastes.

Recipe ingredients

Curry paste ingredients

• Onion – I use a regular onion for the base curry paste.
• Garlic – I always use fresh or frozen garlic in the curry paste, although you could use garlic puree in a pinch.
• Ginger – I always use fresh or frozen root ginger in a curry paste, although you could use ginger puree in a pinch.
• Red chilli – I like to add one red chilli to the curry paste, to give it a mild chilli heat. If you prefer very mild chilli deseed the chilli, or leave it out altogether.

Turkey curry ingredients

• Oil – I use olive oil or sunflower oil in this curry, but you can use your oil of choice.
• Salt – I like to add a teaspoon of sea salt to the curry sauce to balance out the spices.
• Dry spices – I use a combination of ground spices including turmeric, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika and garam masala, along with a piece of cinnamon stick (you could also use cassia bark). If there is a spice you don’t like, leave it out.
• Tomatoes – I use both a can of plum tomatoes and also tomato puree in this recipe.
• Red pepper – I’ve used a red pepper, but you can use any colour of pepper in this recipe.
• Turkey – use either breast or leg meat, or a mixture of both.
• Cream – I stir through some double cream (heavy cream) at the end of the cook, to give the curry a creamy velvety texture. However, you can leave the cream out if you prefer.
• Coriander leaf – I like to garnish the curry with some chopped coriander leaf (cilantro) for a burst of fresh herb flavour. You could also use fresh parsley or chives.

How to make easy leftover turkey curry

• Place the ingredients for the curry paste into a small food processor or blender. Add a splash of water and blend until well broken down but still with a rough consistency.
• Add the oil to a large frying pan and place over medium heat. Now add the curry paste and saute for 10 minutes, to soften, but not brown the paste.

• Next the salt, ground spices and cinnamon stick to the paste, stir well to combine and cook for 2 minutes until the spices release their aroma. Continue to stir to stop the spices from burning.
• Add the tomatoes and tomato puree to the pan, then add the water to the tomato can, swill it around to ensure you get all the tomato juice from the can. Pour into the curry.

• Now add the chopped pepper, and cook the curry for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time to stop the curry from sticking.
• Add the cooked turkey meat to the pan, stir through the curry sauce, and cook for 5 minutes.

• Next add the cream to the pan, stir and cook for 1 minute to warm through.
• Garnish the curry with freshly chopped coriander and serve with rice, chapatis, or naan breads.

Recipe variations

• Use any mix of leftover roast turkey, the leg and breast meat will work equally well in this curry recipe.
• If you prefer to use fresh turkey, just add it after the dry spices and sauté for 5 minutes before continuing with the recipe.
• I always have an abundance of double cream in the fridge over the festive holidays so I use that to finish the curry sauce. However, you could swap this for coconut milk if you prefer, or are serving dairy free diners.
• This recipe would work equally well with other leftover meats like beef, lamb, pork or chicken.
• If you have leftover vegetables like roast carrots, parsnips, or even some Brussels sprouts, add those too. Just stir through the curry at the end of the cook to warm through.
• This is a mild turkey curry with only one red chilli added, so suitable for the kids too. However, you can adjust the chilli heat up or down to suit your own tastes, by adding extra fresh chillies, or some chilli powder or chilli flakes.

Serving suggestions

There’s so much flavour in this curry I like to keep the sides simple with some basmati rice, and some chapatis or naan breads. You can also make your own flatbreads, try my Easy Yogurt Flatbreads.

Useful hints and tips

1. Make a dairy free curry by leaving the cream out of the curry altogether, or swapping it for a can of coconut milk instead.
2. Allergy advice: gluten free, egg free, soya free and nut free. For comprehensive and detailed allergy advice go to Allergy UK.

FAQs

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Additional recipe suggestions

If you like this recipe then try some of my favourite curry recipes:

• Easy Butter Chicken Curry
• Lamb & Spinach Curry
• Easy Chickpea Curry with Spinach
• Vegetable & Coconut Curry
• Easy Matar Paneer Curry
• Indian Cottage Pie

Looking for inspiration for feeding the family mid week, then take a look at my Ultimate Guide to Family Dinners. Full of useful hints, tips and lots of recipes.