cdkitchen > cooking experts > amy powell
By the time you read this, a few days will have passed since the joyous gathering of beloved and irritating relatives that is known as Thanksgiving. After 24 hours in a food coma, you probably woke up sometime mid-afternoon on Friday and immediately went into a panic realizing you had already missed half a day of the Black Friday Christmas shopping specials (sorry, but Tickle-Me-Elmo waits for no one).
So you do what any reasonable person would: You rush to find your best pair of expandable-waistband pants (the turkey bloat seems to have subsided no more than a quarter inch since the day before) and then it is out the door and down to the mall to join the throngs of like-minded shoppers who insist on buying all their Christmas presents on the same day as everyone else. By the time you retreat that evening, battered and bruised with a much lighter wallet, the thought of reheating leftovers sounds like just too much energy. Hence, Post-Thanksgiving (PT) Meal #1: The Golden Arches.
Awaking Saturday morning, you're rested and ready to re-acquaint yourself with the kitchen. Only between the coma and the shopping you forgot about the turkey roaster that you left soaking in a brown pool of Extra Strength Joy and turkey bits. And on the counter is the China, washed and dried but needing to be re-packed into the crates where they will remain until next Thanksgiving. PT Meal #2: You take a stale biscuit, split it down the middle and layer it with left-over turkey and a dap of Grandma’s cranberry relish. You sit down with your sandwich to contemplate how exactly you are still dealing with the aftermath of a meal that happened two days ago.
Sunday comes around and you awake feeling like a new woman. The dishes are done, the relatives have gone their separate ways, and you are almost looking forward to returning to work tomorrow, as that means things around the house will finally be back to normal. You open the refrigerator for a swig of milk and (gasp!) nearly fall down when eight Tupperwares in a rainbow of brown and orange and red come tumbling out. You thought you were making a dent in the left-overs after last night’s dinner (PT #3) of stuffing hash--kind of a breakfast-for-dinner combo of stuffing, turkey, and some pan-fried leftover potatoes that didn’t make it in the pot for mashing. But apparently what you thought was a dent was more of a ding.
So here you go again, sick of “Thanksgiving” food but in desperate need of working through what you have on hand before getting back into a regular meal routine. You start with what you have: turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes or yams, and some pumpkin pie filling that didn’t make it into the pie.
Those are the leftovers. Now you need some intense flavors from a continent far, far away to take your taste buds out of dormancy: coconut milk, Thai red curry, ginger and coriander. A curry straight out of the Golden Triangle might just do the trick. Pumpkins, root vegetables and green beans are all fairly common to that part of South East Asia. Turkeys aren’t local to anywhere but North America, but chickens turn up all over the world and turkey is a close enough substitute that I don’t think anyone will argue. It may sound a little out there, but an everything-but-the-gravy Turkey Pumpkin Curry might just be tasty enough to constitute PT Meal #4, even to find a place on your year-round non-holiday menu.
Next year, if you are lucky you will get the dishes done on Day 1. If you are smart you will start Christmas shopping even before the Thanksgiving weekend rush on Day 2. And regardless of whether you stick to the plan, you might actually look forward to Days 3 and 4 as you find ways to make quick meals from around the world with the remains of your All-American feast.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/414-turkey-curry/
Everything but the Turkey Gravy
By the time you read this, a few days will have passed since the joyous gathering of beloved and irritating relatives that is known as Thanksgiving. After 24 hours in a food coma, you probably woke up sometime mid-afternoon on Friday and immediately went into a panic realizing you had already missed half a day of the Black Friday Christmas shopping specials (sorry, but Tickle-Me-Elmo waits for no one).
So you do what any reasonable person would: You rush to find your best pair of expandable-waistband pants (the turkey bloat seems to have subsided no more than a quarter inch since the day before) and then it is out the door and down to the mall to join the throngs of like-minded shoppers who insist on buying all their Christmas presents on the same day as everyone else. By the time you retreat that evening, battered and bruised with a much lighter wallet, the thought of reheating leftovers sounds like just too much energy. Hence, Post-Thanksgiving (PT) Meal #1: The Golden Arches.
Awaking Saturday morning, you're rested and ready to re-acquaint yourself with the kitchen. Only between the coma and the shopping you forgot about the turkey roaster that you left soaking in a brown pool of Extra Strength Joy and turkey bits. And on the counter is the China, washed and dried but needing to be re-packed into the crates where they will remain until next Thanksgiving. PT Meal #2: You take a stale biscuit, split it down the middle and layer it with left-over turkey and a dap of Grandma’s cranberry relish. You sit down with your sandwich to contemplate how exactly you are still dealing with the aftermath of a meal that happened two days ago.
Sunday comes around and you awake feeling like a new woman. The dishes are done, the relatives have gone their separate ways, and you are almost looking forward to returning to work tomorrow, as that means things around the house will finally be back to normal. You open the refrigerator for a swig of milk and (gasp!) nearly fall down when eight Tupperwares in a rainbow of brown and orange and red come tumbling out. You thought you were making a dent in the left-overs after last night’s dinner (PT #3) of stuffing hash--kind of a breakfast-for-dinner combo of stuffing, turkey, and some pan-fried leftover potatoes that didn’t make it in the pot for mashing. But apparently what you thought was a dent was more of a ding.
So here you go again, sick of “Thanksgiving” food but in desperate need of working through what you have on hand before getting back into a regular meal routine. You start with what you have: turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes or yams, and some pumpkin pie filling that didn’t make it into the pie.
Those are the leftovers. Now you need some intense flavors from a continent far, far away to take your taste buds out of dormancy: coconut milk, Thai red curry, ginger and coriander. A curry straight out of the Golden Triangle might just do the trick. Pumpkins, root vegetables and green beans are all fairly common to that part of South East Asia. Turkeys aren’t local to anywhere but North America, but chickens turn up all over the world and turkey is a close enough substitute that I don’t think anyone will argue. It may sound a little out there, but an everything-but-the-gravy Turkey Pumpkin Curry might just be tasty enough to constitute PT Meal #4, even to find a place on your year-round non-holiday menu.
Next year, if you are lucky you will get the dishes done on Day 1. If you are smart you will start Christmas shopping even before the Thanksgiving weekend rush on Day 2. And regardless of whether you stick to the plan, you might actually look forward to Days 3 and 4 as you find ways to make quick meals from around the world with the remains of your All-American feast.
Turkey Pumpkin Curry
Made with onion, garlic, fresh ginger, pumpkin puree, coconut milk, red curry paste, kosher salt, cooked turkey pieces, chicken or turkey stock, sweet potatoes or yams
Made with onion, garlic, fresh ginger, pumpkin puree, coconut milk, red curry paste, kosher salt, cooked turkey pieces, chicken or turkey stock, sweet potatoes or yams
Serves/Makes: 6
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 piece (1-inch size) fresh ginger
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 can (14 ounce size) coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon thai red curry paste
- kosher salt
- 2 cups cooked turkey pieces
- 1 3/4 cup chicken or turkey stock
- 1 1/2 cup cooked sweet potatoes or yams
- 2 cups green beans (cooked or raw)
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- long grain rice
Heat oil in a large wok or deep non-stick saute pan over a medium high flame.
Meanwhile, peel onion and slice 1/4 inch half circles. Peel and mince garlic. Peel ginger and finely mince. Add onion to oil and saute for about 3 minutes until onion starts to soften. Add ginger and garlic. Saute for another 2 minutes until fragrant.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl mix pumpkin, coconut milk, curry paste, and salt to taste.
Add coconut pumpkin mixture to saute pan along with turkey and chicken or turkey stock. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer.
Peel sweet potatoes if necessary and cut in chunks. Trim green beans if raw. Wash and roughly chop cilantro including steams. Reserve half of the leaves for garnish. Add green beans, sweet potato, and chopped cilantro to saute pan. Cook until all ingredients are heated through or green beans are cooked to al dente. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve curry with cooked long grain rice and garnish with reserved cilantro.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/414-turkey-curry/