Season To Taste

November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving Leftover Solutions: Cranberry-Turkey Salad Wrap

Filed under: Recipes, Sandwiches — Tracy @ 9:04 am
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I realize this seems like an odd choice, considering the other holidays have much more hoopla surrounding them.  So what makes turkey day tops with me? The entire day is all about food!  No cards, no gifts, no costumes, and no elaborate decorations.  Just one big, glorious meal with family and friends.  Definitely my kind of holiday.

 My grandmother, who happened to be an excellent cook, made a HUGE deal over Thanksgiving every year.  Any of you who are Italian-American know that Thanksgiving isn’t just about turkey.  It is about soup, and lasagna, and meatballs, and sausage, THEN the turkey, potatoes, stuffed artichokes, brussels sprouts, green beans carrots, corn, and about ten other side dishes.  My grandmother would get up at about 3am to start cooking…and that is no exaggeration.  As you can imagine, our Thanksgiving meals lasted for hours.  No matter how many people were around the table, there always seemed to be enough food for triple the number present.  This also meant lots of leftovers. 

The years of multi-course Thanksgiving overload have given way to smaller, simpler celebration meals, but I still make certain that I have plenty of leftovers.  I think I enjoy the turkey even more the next day, when the house is quiet and cleaned up, but still basking in the post-holiday glow.  While I’m the first to agree that there is nothing like a cold roasted turkey sandwich on toast with swiss and mayo, I also like experimenting with some new turkey sandwich solutions.  This wrap combines the flavors of Thanksgiving (turkey, celery, cranberry) with Gorgonzola cheese, which adds a little tang to the sandwich.  The cranberries add some sweetness and color, and the celery and lettuce give crunch. 
I like to use whole wheat wraps, as they seem to have more flavor than the traditional white-flour variety.  It would also be good on one of the vegetable-wraps (spinach or tomato). 

 So make a little extra this Thanksgiving and enjoy the leftovers! 

 Cranberry-Turkey Salad Wrap

Makes 4 wrap sandwiches

2 cups diced cooked turkey (preferably white meat)

1/4 cup diced celery

2 tablespoons diced red onion (optional)

1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

1/3 cup light mayo
salt and pepper to taste

4 romaine lettuce leaves (or substitute 3 oz baby spinach)

4 whole wheat wraps

Combine turkey, celery, onion, cranberries, gorgonzola and mayo in a medium bowl. Stir until incorporated.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lay out 4 whole wheat wraps on your work surface. Line each with one leaf of romaine lettuce (or divide baby spinach equally among wraps).

Place 1/2 -3/4 cup of salad in center of each wrap, and fold/roll as desired.

Serve chilled or at room temperature

Leave a Reply