Welcome to another edition of “Clean Out the Fridge” As a Meal Plan, Otherwise Known as: What the F* to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers when you’re sick of turkey sandwiches.

Ingredients List

From the Fridge:

• 1 Head of cauliflower I forgot to use in the appetizer crudite platter
• 3C Red Cabbage – Its Mr. Wonderful‘s favorite, we always have some of this around, plus its super high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Potassium and Manganese
• 1/2 bunch of leftover celery from the stuffing
• 1C chopped Fresh Parsley from…well, I don’t remember what it was for…
• ~3/4C Apple cider I never got around to putting spiced rum in
• One lonely shallot
• 3 Almost rotten tomatoes
• ~ 1 cup turkey leftovers, white meat is best, but you do you, boo
• Zest and Juice of 3 Lemons on their way out the door
• 1/4 bag of shredded parmesan

From the Spice Cupboard:

• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Red Pepper Flakes

How to Make It:

Wash the cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and parsley, and cut off any questionable bits (think, anything brown, floppy, or otherwise a smidge past its prime). Chop it all into bite-sized pieces, no need to be perfect. Let your husband eat the weird cores of the cabbage and the cauliflower…cause he actually likes that sh*t.

Add all of this stuff into a big old bowl that has extra room for mixing, cause you know you’ll probably be sending some pieces of cabbage across the counter when its time to toss the salad with the dressing; no need to waste it needlessly.

Mince the shallot, and combine with the apple cider, zest and juice of the lemons, olive oil, and red pepper to taste. We like it spicy up in here in our house, so I use a about 2 tbsp of red pepper, but you can adjust as you like for as much zing as you can handle. No judgement if you need it to be more bland than I do. Mix with a whisk or a fork until the olive oil starts to form an emulsion (the mixture will start to look creamy or frothy).

Toss the chopped veg with the dressing emulsion. Plate into 2-4 servings (depending how much those in your house like the veggies). Top with the chopped turkey pieces, minced tomatoes, and shredded parmesan. Finish by grinding fresh sea salt and fresh peppercorns over the top to your taste. Look how happy it makes your husband…

Substitutions:

Seriously, anything you like and/or have in your fridge. The point here is to keep the salad quite crunchy and use the buttery-creamy-ness of the turkey and the parmesan to balance out all that crunchiferousness. I didn’t have any for this particular instance of this Fridge Cleanout, but chopped apples, citrus, or other tart fruit would also be particularly nice in this bowl.

You should also probably go ahead and put the rest of the rum in the rest of the apple cider. What is this…6th grade harvest fest??

XOXO,