Name: 15 Minute Leftover Turkey Noodle Stirfry Bowl
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 13 min
Ingredients: 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1/2 tbsp sugar; 2 tsp cornflour; 115 g egg noodles (2 blocks dried egg noodles from packet); 1 tbsp vegetable oil (or coconut oil/rapeseed oil); 1/2 red pepper; 1/2 green pepper; 4 spring onions; 2 cloves garlic; 200 g roasted turkey; 1/2 tsp ground coriander; 1/2 tsp ground ginger; 1/2 tsp chilli powder; 100 g frozen peas (defrosted); 25 g cashew nuts

Recipe Video

Coming up with creative and tasty ideas for using up leftover turkey can be a challenge, but this leftover turkey noodle stirfry bowl is the perfect way to make the most of your cooked turkey. You can have this deliciously spicy turkey stirfry on the table within 15 minutes.

I’ve used my leftover turkey in many ways over the years, including this leftover turkey curry recipe. But this time I wanted something seriously quick and easy.

The inspiration

There are so many great recipes out there for using up leftover turkey from Christmas (or Thanksgiving) dinner but many call for a variety of ingredients you might not have to hand.

Let’s face it, in that no-mans-land between Christmas and New year when you have turkey leftovers to use up you really don’t want to be going out to the shops. After all, you spent weeks food shopping on the run up to Christmas so who wants to hit the shops again?

I wanted to come up with a recipe for leftover turkey that only used storecupboard basics and bits from the fridge and freezer.

My leftover turkey noodle stirfry bowl recipe is one created out of inspiration really. The need to put a meal on the table quickly and just use up the turkey leftovers and all I had left to use up in the fridge.

Ingredients for this turkey stirfry

Leftover cooked turkey meat, of course, half a red pepper, half a green pepper, and some spring onions from the fridge.

Frozen peas from the freezer, I always seem to have about half a bag of these lurking around. Never a full bag, it always seems to be half a bag, strange that…

From the spice rack, I took ground coriander, ground ginger, and some chilli powder.

Then from the larder some soy sauce, cornflour and sugar to make my stirfry sauce, some noodles, and a few cashew nuts to sprinkle on top.

The only other ingredients are a couple of cloves of garlic and a few basil and coriander leaves just to decorate my leftover turkey stirfry bowls.

How to make this stirfry

First I make the sauce simply by mixing together the soy sauce with cornflour and sugar in a small bowl. Just set it aside for now.

Cook the noodles in boiling water for about 4 minutes while you chop the peppers into strips, chop up the spring onions and thinly slice the garlic.

Heat some vegetable oil (or coconut oil) in a wok till it shimmers then add the peppers, spring onions and garlic for just 3 minutes.

Now toss in the leftover turkey plus your spices and the defrosted frozen peas, stir it all in and just cook for another minute.

Drain the cooked noodles and add them to the wok along with the sauce you prepared a few minutes ago. Stir everything together and cook for just 2 minutes longer.

How to serve leftover turkey noodle stirfry

Just pile your stirfry into two bowls and top with some toasted cashew nuts and a sprig of basil and coriander.

How to toast cashew nuts

Use a dry pan and toast the nuts over moderate heat for barely a minute. Watch them like a hawk as they burn easily. Remove them from the pan as soon as they start to release that gorgeous nutty aroma and take on a bit of colour.

Don’t leave them in the pan as they will continue to cook in the residual heat.

Alternative ingredients;

If you have those straight-to-wok noodles then you will be able to cut out the boiling noodles stage.

Use sweetcorn, especially those cute little mini sweetcorns if you have any.

Sugar snap peas are great here or frozen green beans.

Use peanuts or sesame seeds instead of cashews. I just happened to have some cashews leftover in the house.

If you don’t have many spices in the cupboard you can easily use Chinese 5 Spice powder instead of mixing up different spices as I have.

leftover turkey stirfry in two bowls on table

How many does this stirfry serve?

This leftover turkey stirfry recipe is for 2 people. Just double up the quantities to suit however many folks you are catering for.

Looking for more leftover turkey recipes? Then check out this post;

Leftover turkey curry plus 5 other great leftover turkey recipes

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.