We’ve never celebrated thanksgiving with a turkey. I mean, we did have nice lunch/dinner with friends, celebrating thanksgiving and being grateful for what we all have, but I must admit that turkey was never a part of the feast.
Well luckily, this year good friends of ours volunteered to bring the turkey so we did have one giant delicious bird on the table.
I’ve never made turkey myself, I just know that it takes a very long time to cook in the oven, so I don’t have any tips for making the turkey, but what I do have to share is a leftover recipe.
Don’t you just love it when you end up having leftovers that are not just good for a meal the day/s after but it’s also something you can transform into something else? I love it.
So we had lots of turkey leftovers and I had to to make something from them so I combined it with other leftovers I had in the fridge which were Phyllo pastry sheets.
I made these yummy turkey “cigars” in the oven, no deep frying, and served with broccoli and salad. A leftover feast on its own.
- 6-8 Phyllo Pastry Sheets
- 2 Cups Chopped Turkey Leftovers (cooked)
- ½ Carrot
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 Egg
- ½ Cup Shredded Cheese (Optional)
- Vegetable Oil - For Brushing
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and layer a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Place the turkey, carrot, salt and cumin in a food processor and process until finely shred.
- Pour the mix into a bowl and add in the egg (and cheese if you’re using any) and mix using a fork or spoon until egg is fully incorporated.
- Spread one sheet of Phyllo Pastry on your working surface and brush with some oil and place another pastry sheet on top of it.
- Now that you have 2 sheets of pastry on top of each other with oil in between, divide your double layered pastry sheet into 4 strips (using the shorter side, so don't use the length of the sheet but the width) and divide each strip into two equal rectangles.
- Scoop one tablespoon of turkey mix a time, and form a small log/roll between your hands and place it 1 cm or ½ inch away from each rectangle edge.
- Fold the two rectangle edges over the turkey filling, the fold should be about ½ cm on each side, and then roll lengthwise to form a cigar/roll (instructions in photos below).
- Brush the cigar’s edge with a bit of oil right before rolling it all the way (this will help keep it closed while baking - like glue) and place the cigars on your baking sheet with the seam facing down (so the seam will be the bottom).
- Brush each cigar with oil before baking and bake for 15-17 minutes until cigars are brown.
