Pomegranates and a selection of the spices in the ras-el-hanout spice mix
I love Christmas leftovers. I look forward all year to the wonderful stock you can make from the turkey carcass. I use this to create tasty soup and sauces. Simply pop the bones into a large pot or if you’ve got one into a pressure cooker and add water up to the 3/4 mark. If you wish, you can add flavourings, but I don’t think it really necessary. Let it simmer gently for several hours, or 30 minutes or so in the pressure cooker. You’ll get an amazingly rich broth. Cool as quickly as you can, and store in the fridge for a few days or pop it in the freezer.
A selection of cooked vegetables
With that out of the way, you can now concentrate the remainders of the Christmas lunch or the weekly roast.
It’s inevitable. We’ve made too much food. What to do with the leftovers? I suggest a Moroccan inspired dish. The flavours are light and spicy but not hot hot – ideal for all the family. It’s an easy dish to adapt to include what you have around. Of course, if you’ve not made the stock, you can make it without too!
Spicy inspiration
Ras-el-hanout (loose translation “best of the best”) is a wonderful sweet spice mixture. In the souk in Morocco, the spice vendor might grind a selection of spices together for you – as many as 30! The spice is available from many supermarkets – you’ll find each has their own mix (Asda and Schwartz also have their own Moroccan mix). You can also buy Moroccan Ras El Hanout spice direct from the souk
Avoidable food and drink waste costs each Scottish household £470 each year
Yogurt, coriander and pomegranate sauce
If you cannot find it or do not have any to hand, use what you have: a tiny pinch of any or all of cardamom, coriander, ginger, paprika, nutmeg, turmeric and cloves mixed together will do just as well!
The dish is topped with yogurt with chopped coriander and pomegranate. This adds a lovely zingy-ness to the dish. It works equally well without the coriander or pomegranate, but do try to use one of them.
The recipe
- 400 gr cooked meat (100 gr per person)
- 400 gr cooked vegetables (100 gr per person)
- 1 large onion
- 3 teaspoons ras el hanout spice or your own mix made from any or all of cardamom, black pepper, coriander, paprika, nutmeg, turmeric, cloves, allspice, mace
- 200 gr couscous (50 gr per person)
- Salt and pepper
- 600 ml (approx) Turkey or meat stock or water
- Oil for cooking
- 150 gr plain yogurt
- Chopped fresh coriander
- Seeds from half a pomegranate
- Salt and pepper
- Gather all your ingredients to hand. You want the meat and vegetables to be roughly the same size, about 2 cm pieces.
- Heat the stock or water to boiling point. Pour about half over the couscous that you have placed in a good sized bowl, to soak. This will partially cook the grain
- Make the yogurt sauce.
- Finely chop the coriander and take the seeds out of the pomegranate. To help you do this squeeze the fruit and the seeds will start to pop out. Avoid adding any yellow pith.
- Mix the coriander and seeds into the yogurt and add a little salt and pepper. Let it stand to one side whilst you finish the rest of the dish.
- Heat the oil and gently cook the onion until softened.
- Add the spice, mix well and cook for about a minute. Turn down the heat.
- Add the vegetables and mix gently to cover in the sauce. Add the meat and mix gently again.
- Once the meat and vegetables are mixed through, add the soaked couscous.
- Add more stock or water. The dish should be moist, but not soggy. Mix and cook until the couscous is soft.
- Check for seasoning and serve topped with the yogurt dressing.
Tasty Moroccan inspired turkey topped with yogurt sauce
Find out more
The Scottish Government’s Greener Together campaign encourages everyone to ‘go green together’ so that we can all play a part in making Scotland a cleaner, greener place to live.
Eating in a more ‘green’ way is a good place to start. Save money by buying only what you need, and create tasty dishes with what you have left. If my recipe inspires you, check out the easy-to-use Greener together recipe finder for tasty leftover recipes and/or sign up to receive further inspiration.
