Seriously festive sandwiches
We asked our contributors to share their favourite leftovers sandwiches. Here are the results!
Adrienne Katz-Kennedy is a former dance anthropologist, now a food and culture writer, living in London. Read her recent work here and here.
‘Having given this a bit of thought and looking at the calendar, I noticed that Chanukah and Christmas overlap this year (a few years ago, Chanukah and Thanksgiving overlapped, and let me tell you what a glorious leftovers feast that was - we happened to be stateside that year as well...).
Whenever these holidays overlap, I love adding a crispy re-fried latke into the sandwich mix, either as the bread itself (though this gets greasy and becomes more of a knife and fork situation) or preferably sidled up next to the turkey with either cranberry or apple sauce. I also like to add a slather of English mustard or a lightly pickled crunchy something (I think kimchi would be good here, although sauerkraut or even coleslaw works well, too) to cut through the deep friedness. It is incredibly filling but so, so good (was just thinking you could probably shred some sprouts or leeks into the latkes too which would be delicious!)’
Stuart Heritage is a writer, often for The Guardian.
‘Less a recipe and more a set of guiding principles. Meat, in whatever form it comes, should obviously form the base. Then, given that this is realistically the only week of the year that you will actually remember that you have them in your fridge, dollops of whatever impractical condiments you were given by people who don't know you well enough to have bought you a proper gift. Then it's a free-for-all. Veg, coleslaw, Pringles; whatever, go nuts, it's Christmas. But! No fancy Christmas cheese. This is a red line. Experience has taught me that nothing buggers up a sarnie like a semi-soft artisanal ash-covered sheep's cheese. You have been warned.’
Frank L’Opez is a drifter in a time when you better have your papers straight.
‘Anything as long as there’s lots of mayonnaise and freshly chopped chilli.’
Uyen Luu is a writer, photographer, food stylist and film-maker.
I love Christmas ham, always plenty of it going after Christmas.
I would pop out to my local Londis, who bake on the premises really great Parisian baguettes, I know they are still warm and crackle to the touch. I cut a generous portion for myself with a serrated knife, maybe 25cm long, maybe more, removing the elbow part. Then I would then tear out the middles and smoother it with butter or laughing cow cheese spread and just eat it there and then. Sometimes, a bit of gooey Christmas cheese on top, there’s bound to be Christmas cheese.
Then I would butter the baguette, and smear it with a touch of marmalade, just a touch, not much, then stuff it with sliced, cloved and honeyed Christmas ham which I have made the previous days, pickled gherkins (or break out a gifted jar of something pickled) and a fistful of freshly washed coriander, mint or Thai basil leaves. Then the magic touch of hot Maggi, it has to be hot, there’s a perfect kick to it.
I do like to have this with my perfect cup of builders tea.
Samantha Priestley is a travel and food and drink writer, and a serious sandwich lover. Samantha writes about her working-class upbringing in Sheffield and how food coloured her life. As well as Serious sandwiches, she writes for Reader's Digest, Serious Eats, Speciality Food magazine, and The Good Food Guide
I don’t like turkey. There, I said it. It’s dry, it’s tough, it’s awful when it’s cold. I just don’t know what you people all see in it. But I absolutely love stuffing. I love roast potatoes, and I absolutely love cranberry sauce. My Boxing Day leftovers sandwich, and sometimes on Christmas Day evening, is stuffing, sliced roast potato, and lots of cranberry sauce. If you’re thinking roast potato in a sandwich is wrong, I’ll point to a crisp sandwich and say it’s actually perfect. It’s a simple sandwich, completely free of cold dry turkey, and with all the best bits of the Christmas dinner packed inside it. I like it best squashed down between simple slices of crusty bread.
Karen Resta is an NYC-based former executive chef who writes about food and kitchen culture, whether at home or in restaurants. Find her @karenresta
It depends on what we had for Xmas, but if it was roast pork it would be an adaptation of the Philly Italian Pork Sandwich (which really I don't make often enough)! The traditional recipe is a crusty roll or baguette filled with roast pork with drippings, sauteed broccoli rabe, and provolone. I add roast peppers - previously marinated in olive oil with crushed garlic cloves - and cippolini agrodolce (sweet and sour baby onions), wrap it in aluminium foil then heat it up. :)
Angel Hui is a writer and author of Takeaway.
I don't think we normally have Boxing Day sandwiches, sorry! We're either bubble squeak or a turkey curry lot. Then in the evening we'd have hotpot!
Olivia Potts is a food writer and author of Butter.
My requirement for a leftovers Christmas sandwich is a simple one: someone else has to make it. If I'm given free reign, I'll just inhale 5 cold roast potatoes and any remaining pigs in blankets, before I've even got as far as slicing some bread. But save me from myself and bring me an assembled sandwich and I will accept virtually any filling or combination with absolute gratitude.
Tim Anderson is a writer and author of cookery books including Your Home Izakaya
So it’s often something like this:
bread (whatever’s going but it’s got to be pretty sturdy)
mayo mixed with gravy and horseradish and/or mustard
roast beef, ham or salami or whatever’s going from the charcuterie board
Cheddar and/or something Alpine and/or something blue
crisps (cheese and onion, or any flavour of Piper’s)
and a kind of relish made from chopped-up sprouts and roast potatoes bound together with Branston pickle or brown sauce
This year we’re having salmon en croute instead of roast beef, so like… it’s already a sandwich???
Sejal Sukhadwala is author of The Philosophy of Curry and @SejalSukhadwala
One year I made white nut roast from cashews, macadamias and pine nuts (lighter and less stodgy than regular nut roast) with lots of fresh parsley and lemon zest. The leftovers were delicious in oatmeal baps with a crisp red cabbage and brussels sprout slaw and strong mustard mayo. This year I'm making a pie, and expect to have a lot of leftover stilton - it'll be turned into simple white bread sandwiches with pickled baby pears (from M&S) and the Fine Cheese Co's pickled cherries.
Rosie McKean is a food stylist and publisher of The Dinner Party
I only eat one a year, and that is my own. I am not interested in anyone else's leftovers or even worse - fake, manufactured leftovers. The leftover mindset is so important in constructing the sandwich because you feel like you've made a new thing out of an old thing and the ingenuity is deeply satisfying. For me, it's a toasted sandwich, with melted cheese in it (Tunworth is best) as well as all leftovers and ideally something spicy too like hot sauce or scotch bonnet and something pickled. One year I ran out of leftover roast potatoes to put in it (don't knock it) so I used a potato waffle instead and it was SENSATIONAL.
Lucy Dearlove is the maker of the Lecker podcast.
Look, I'm not going to pretend that I won't do what I do every year and stuff every possible Christmas day leftover between a couple of slices of bread (bread sauce: yes, red cabbage: yes, cold roasted root veg: yes) and dip it in a bowl of hot gravy, but the sandwich I'm most excited to make again is the one I had last Boxing Day, after recovering from covid just in time to actually taste some Christmas food. I won't insult the great history of the Reuben sandwich by calling this one, but I will say that I was thinking about a Reuben when I made it: leftover sliced turkey piled on top of sauerkraut with Emmental melted on it under the grill and doused in thousand island dressing. A flavoursome sturdy rye loaf is perfect for this sandwich; I love the Caraway Rye Sourdough from Toad Bakery, and have one sliced up in my freezer that I'll probably use for this exact purpose!
Holly Catford, Serious Sandwiches art director
I love turkey - like it’s my favourite meat (Helen says I go on about turkey more than anyone else she knows). So my sandwich has to have dark and white meat, bread sauce and prawn cocktail crisps. Maybe a sliced roast potato. The crisps are VITAL.
love so many of these ideas but especially uyen luu's. i'm a bread baker so there are always frozen sturdy slices to use. the latke "sandwich" idea is great but in my home everyone counts how many they can have and they are gone before we can use them creatively. on my fridge is a list i copied (don't know who from, sadly) and it's all about what to toss with mayo: herbs, fish sauce, ancho, horseradish, wasabi, fermented black beans, tamari, olives, nut butters, worcestershire, barbeque
sauce, pumpkin puree, honey, jams, mustards and capers. seems like all of these would work with
christmas leftovers. thanks for this fabulous litany, helen. enjoy!