Thanksgiving Leftovers – 5 Recipes for Leftover Mashed Potatoes

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Every year, the question is: What can I make with my Thanksgiving leftovers? Today, I’ve got the answers for what to do with leftover mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes! I’ve got some quick, easy, and delicious recipes for you!  

Incredibly, research shows that the average American consumes 140 pounds of potatoes per year, 4 pounds of which are in chip form.  That’s a lot of spuds! And I bet that if we started dipping more of those chips into my warm and creamy bacon cheddar dip, or *gulp* into melted chocolate, the numbers would climb even higher.

Incidentally, if you’ve never eaten chocolate dipped potato chips, don’t knock ’em until you’ve tried ’em.  They’re a salty-sweet snack that you’ll need an extra pair of stretchy pants for, but well worth every single calorie.  At any rate, that’s a blog post for another day. Let’s attack the Thanksgiving leftovers!

So what can be done with the mountain of mashed potatoes that will likely be staring at you when you open the door of your fridge on the day after Thanksgiving?  I don’t know how it is that everyone raves over my creamy mashed potatoes during holiday meals and then I still end up with a fridge full of leftover spuds.

I suppose it could be that I make enough of them to feed a naval squadron…

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to use leftover mashed potatoes  Here are a few suggestions:

Tackling the Thanksgiving Leftovers

One of the easiest ways to use up the leftover sweet potatoes is by making a pan of sweet potato casserole, but I’m betting that you just ate a plate full of them on Thanksgiving. Keep this southern sweet potato casserole handy, though. It’s a great side dish any time of the year. With or without the marshmallows.

Cottage Pie, or its common name, Shepherd’s pie is a great meal to make with leftovers any time of the year.  If you have a few extra green beans or some rotisserie chicken left over from a weeknight dinner? Maybe some plain hamburgers that need to be eaten?

Nobody says that you can’t switch out the meats and veggies and make a fun casserole from a traditional recipe. Heck, that’s how I came up with my recipe for Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie!

Loaded Mashed Potato Soup

Homemade soup is one of the most economical meals you can make, and with a little bit of creativity, they can also be one of your most delicious recipes using Thanksgiving leftovers.

If you have a mixture of sweet potatoes and Idaho spuds left over, go ahead and use them both in this mashed potato soup recipe. The color will be a little bit different than you might expect, but the taste will be amazing!

Duchesse Potato Cakes (with carb free Alfredo sauce!)

I made this recipe on a complete whim one afternoon, and I can honestly say that it was one of my best recipe decisions ever. If you’ve ever had potato pancakes or even Duchesse potatoes, these are similar, but so much creamier!

Creamy mashed potatoes with a bit of egg yolk and roasted red pepper stirred in. Oh, and butter. Lots and lots of delicious butter. Then they’re baked and drizzled with a silky, guilt-free Alfredo sauce. Seriously amazing.

Zucchini Bacon Potato Pancakes

This recipe starts with shredded raw potato and shredded zucchini, which are mixed with a few other ingredients and formed into patties. Don’t let that stop you. Substitute some cooked mashed potatoes for the raw and give this recipe a try. Maybe coat the patties with a bit of flour so they’ll crisp up in the pan.

Speaking of potato pancakes, Pin this next recipe to your favorite Thanksgiving recipes Pinterest board and make a batch of these for Christmas because you won’t want to wait until next Thanksgiving to do it. Trust me on this.

Cranberry Brussels Sprouts Potato Pancakes

If you have any great ideas on how to use up the Thanksgiving leftovers, please share them with me in the comments. I love hearing from you!