Leftover Turkey Risotto, a fantastic 30-minute dinner recipe that puts to great use any leftovers you might have from your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. Or even from a Sunday roast. It's creamy and comforting, and perfect for a cozy dinner.
Cooking a dish from scratch is so fun, but creating a perfectly new dish from leftovers is as exciting. Leftovers do make some fantastic new dishes that go down as well as the initial recipes.
Leftovers are quite inevitable after large dinners like the Thanksgiving or Christmas ones. And while you can always go for a quick leftover sandwich or salad, why not go for a warming meal that makes you happy?
This leftover turkey risotto is easy to make with just a few of simple ingredients, but it's big on flavours and it's the very simplicity that makes it the pefect comfort food after a big celebration.
After all, no one wants to spend too long in the kitchen the day after a feast, given that you had already spent hours or even day preparing for the big celebration. So a quick meal is all you need.
And if you still have leftover turkey even after you made this risotto, why not also try my Leftover Turkey Soup, or the yummy Leftover Turkey Pasta, the spiced Leftover Turkey Curry or my Leftover Turkey Hand Pies.
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Ingredients used
- leftover turkey - cold leftover turkey cut into cubes, it can be either red or white meat, or a combo
- butter & olive oil - for frying the onion, using them together helps not only with the flavour, but the olive oil also prevents the butter from burning
- Arborio rice - the best rice for making risotto, it gives the dish a creamy and rich texture
- onion - I used regular onion, but any sort could do
- turkey stock - or chicken stock if you don't have any turkey one
- fresh parsley - for garnishing
- salt & pepper - for seasoning
Step-by-step photos and instructions
- in a pot, melt the butter and add the olive oil
- fry the peeled and chopped onion, then add the rice and toast it for a minute or 2 until the rice is translucent
- add the turkey cubes and give everything a good stir
- star adding the stock one laddle at a time, stirring often until the stock evaporates, before adding more stock
- continue to add stock and stir until all the stock as been used up and the rice is cooked and you have a creamy risotto
- add the parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with fresh parsley
Expert tips
Risotto is best served immediately as soon as it comes off the heat. I would recommend cooking it just before your dinner, so it can be enjoyed straight away.
Leftover risotto can be turned into delicious arancini, I have a fantastic recipe for butternut squash arancini, which is made with leftover butternut squash risotto, but any other risotto, just like this one, can be turned into arancini too.
Recipe FAQs
While Arborio rice is the most popular brand for making risotto, any shortgrain rice would do. Long grain rice does not give us a creamy enough risotto, so I would avoid that one.
No, we need the starch to get a lovely and creamy risotto, rinsing it usually helps get rid of the starch so that the rice grains do not stick together, but in a risotto we don't have that issue.
No, the rice can be used straight away, no rinsing is needed either.
Other risotto recipes
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Leftover Turkey Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 2 cups leftover turkey, cut into cubes
- 1 onion
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cups turkey stock ( broth)
- 2 tablespoon grated parmesan
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a pot set over a medium heat, add the butter and olive oil, and allow the butter to melt.
- Peel and chop the onion, and add it to the pot.
- Fry the onion until golden, then add the rice and give it a good stir.
- Toast the rice for 1-2 minutes until translucent, stiring often.
- Add the cubed turkey to the pot.
- Next, addd one laddle of turkey stock at a time, stiring it often until it is all absorbed.
- Repeat the process until all the stock has been used up, and the rice is cooked and creamy.
- Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with parmesan and parsley.
Video
Notes
- Risotto is best served immediately as soon as it comes off the heat. I would recommend cooking it just before your dinner, so it can be enjoyed straight away.
- Leftover risotto can be turned into delicious arancini, I have a fantastic recipe for butternut squash arancini, which is made with leftover butternut squash risotto, but any other risotto, just like this one, can be turned into arancini too.
Nutrition
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