While Thanksgiving is a holiday of excess, it doesn’t have to be one of waste. We’ve got our leftover game on lock, and love coming up with creative ways to use up all the extra food from dinner — but what about everything that gets tossed in the process of pulling together your feast? We think those Thanksgiving cooking scraps deserve a shoutout too.

Turning your Thanksgiving cooking scraps into something delicious can be a fun culinary puzzle and an amazing opportunity to practice reducing food waste. We can’t think of a better way to harness a sense of gratitude this season than putting a little more effort into living a low-waste lifestyle and learning to make the most of what we have — even if what we have is just a bunch of cranberry sauce and celery root bulbs.

11 Delicious Recipes For Those Thanksgiving Cooking Scraps

From veggie scrap dumplings to carrot top pesto, we’re showing you a few genius ways to transform your Thanksgiving cooking scraps…

Celery toast | Meet the unexpectedly amazing recipe that’s giving avo toast a run for its money. We discovered it this summer from Hayley Feldman, who owns the stylish, Cali-French restauarnt Chez Tex. Make use of the remains of any part of the celery you used for Thanksgiving. READ MORE

Camilla Marcus leftovers galette | Save those food scraps and make a stunning galette from waste reduction advocate, Camilla Marcus. Find the fun recipe from last year’s holiday prep guide HERE. 

Carrot top pesto | (Shown at top) This bright and tangy carrot top pesto trumps the traditional version in every way. It’s free of cheese and pine nuts but is still loaded with flavor that pairs perfectly with roasted veggies. READ MORE

turkey Bone broth | Don’t toss the turkey just because the meat is gone. Save the bones and make this magical, gut-soothing, adaptogenic-packed recipe from our friends at Erewhon. READ MORE

Claire Thomas Leftovers Soup | Simple, warm, homey and light — this soup recipe is just what we want to eat over Thanksgiving weekend. Make this one a tradition! Don’t skimp on the fresh herbs and green onions. GET THE RECIPE

CRANBERRY OVERNIGHT OATs | Get Pamela Salzman’s cozy AM recipe from her full guide to fun leftover ideas! Chia seeds, oats and almond milk make this fun and easy work to feed a crowd in the morning. GET THE RECIPE.
Veggie Scrap dumplings | When you’re cooking, save any and all of your veggie scraps in a bag and make this game-changing recipe later. It doesn;t matter if the scraps are ugly or seemingly in-edible. Mixed together with some key condiments and folded into delicate bundles of rice paper, your Thanksgiving cooking scraps will take on a whole new life.  READ MORE

Pumpkin pie bread pudding | We love this festive bread pudding recipe from clean cookbook author, Pamela Salzman. What we love even more is the genius low-waste tip she gave us last year: sub half the bread in the original recipe with an equal measurement of cubed leftover pumpkin pie — it is to die for!  READ MORE

Cranberry smoothie | We love this adaptogen-packed, blood sugar balancing smoothie from celebrity nutritionist, Kelly LeVeque. It is a heavy-hitting – and totally delicious – defense against getting sick when everyone else seems to be, thanks to chaga mushrooms and vitamin-rich berries. It’s also a great way to use up the last bits of that bag of cranberries. READ MORE

Cranberry Avocado Toast | Excess cranberry sauce is not the easiest thing to find a use for beyond a topper for turkey. At least, that’s what we thought until we added a dollop onto a slice of avocado toast. We love this festive remix of a wellness diet staple, especially as a way to use up Thankgiving cooking scraps.  READ MORE

Alfia’s Maple Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins | Spiced with cinnamon and a hit of ground ginger, sweetened only with maple syrup and not an ounce of butter in sight, they might even get your metabolism up and running again! GET THE RECIPE