Happy Easter! If you are reading this today, Easter Sunday, then thank you loyal reader! If this is a day, week, month after the fact, don't worry. This post is created with you in mind. On Easter Sunday, the typical American family will enjoy a nice meal of ham and boiled eggs, with many other possible additions including Easter bread, bacon, quiche... This means there is likely to be some amount of ham and likely large amounts of eggs left over.
Since one can only eat so many cold ham sandwiches and limited amounts of egg salad, I put together a reference of many kinds of recipes to re-purpose leftover foods into new and exciting dishes! Keep in mind, cooked ham keeps great in the freezer for up to 6 months, so that is always an option. Hard boiled eggs will keep in the freezer up to a week.
Recipes for Hard Boiled Eggs
Classic egg salad: chop up eggs and mix with mayonnaise. This can be jazzed up many ways- add Tabasco, dill, curry powder, celery, etc.
Tuna salad: take plain tuna fish salad to the next level by adding chopped boiled eggs to it. Adds a nice texture balance, and even more protein.
Potato salad: make a classic potato salad and toss in some eggs as well. Boil chopped potatoes until soft, drain and toss with mustard, mayonnaise, sour cream, spices, and a few chopped eggs.
Deviled: take the yolks from the eggs and mash separately. Add mustard and mayonnaise. You can get crazy and try crushed nuts, pesto, BBQ sauce, whatever your imagination thinks up. Put into a plastic ziplock, cut a corner off, and pipe the filling back into the egg halves. Garnish with a dash of paprika or fresh dill.
This classic strawberry shortcake, from the LA Times, with a secret ingredient: boiled egg yolk in the batter.
Cobb salad: make a bed of lettuce, then cover with chopped tomato, bacon, avocado, and hard boiled egg. Really, boiled eggs can top any salad.
Soup garnish: serve a hearty chilled gazpacho or borscht the traditional way, topped with a halved hard boiled egg.
Pickled: using spices, vinegar, and some beet juice for that lovely ruby color, pickle your leftover eggs and they will keep much longer. Try this recipe from Allrecipes.
Noodle soup: add a cooked egg into anything from fancy glass noodle Pho to ramen to add a kick of proteins and vitamins.
For even more ideas, see Health's article "8 Excellent Recipes for Hard-Boiled Eggs"
Recipes for Leftover Ham
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Photo from "Petit Jean Meats". They recommend heating their ham
in your dishwasher to save oven space. Go read it, I'm not lying. |
Sandwiches: this one's a given. Who doesn't love a few thick slices of ham on a soft roll or bun, slathered in mayo and topped with tomato? But once you've had that three days in a row for lunch, it's time for something a little more exciting...
Breakfast: leftover ham is a rockstar in the breakfast department. Layer it with a cooked egg and cheese on a bagel, wrap it up in a breakfast burrito, or add it to any frittata, quiche, or strata.
Soups: ham and navy bean, ham and barley, ham and potato, the possibilities are endless here. Just search "ham soup" and watch how many pages Google finds. Don't forget, the bone add a nice layer of flavor so don't get rid of it. Add it to the stock while it simmers away and enjoy extra umami.
Scalloped potatoes: another ham classic, just layer thinly sliced potatoes, coat with flour and butter, and ham, add a little milk, and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. You can add in extra veggies like peas, happiness like bacon, or get crazy and use sweet potatoes to up the oomph of health.
Casseroles: add ham into any type of casserole. Ham, broccoli and cheese. Ham, beans and rice. Ham... you get the idea. Adding new ingredients and baking it all together gives the leftover a fresh breath of life.
Pizza: use small chunks or thin slices and add ham to homemade pizza. Add pineapple for Hawaiian, sausage and pepperoni for meat lovers, BBQ sauce, or ranch.
A great idea for any types of leftovers that freeze well is to freeze them in smaller, recipe-sized or single-serving packages. That way, when you're rushed for dinner and just want to throw some ham into tonight's pasta primavera, you don't have to wait to defrost a big chunk, you can just grab one of the two-slice packages you froze.
Two really great resources for inspiration come from AllRecipes. They have a collection of Leftover Ham Recipes as well as a special Easter Ham section. You should also check out PremeditatedLeftovers article on 10 uses for leftover ham plus 5 things to do with a ham bone.
What's your favorite way to use leftovers?
Labels: boiled egg recipes, Easter, egg recipes, eggs, ham recipes, hard boiled eggs, how to use ham, how to use leftover ham, left over eggs, left over ham, what to do with hard boiled eggs
