Reinventing Leftovers For Dinner: My Family’s Favorite Hash

Want quick and easy dinner recipes for your family? This is my favorite:

I like using up leftovers from the fridge for dinner.

Ever since I was a student working my way through school, I’ve challenged myself on a regular basis to invent dinner out of whatever we have on hand in the house.

Not only does it save me the time, effort, and money of going to the store, but it also pushes me to think outside the box.

Last night was one of those nights. We were just back from a week away visiting family, and I hadn’t had time to get to the store yet. And while our tiny garden was overflowing with cucumbers and zucchini, we needed a break from these after eating them almost nonstop at my mama’s.

I went hunting through the freezer for the last half-pound of our Easter ham, but came up empty-handed. What I found instead was

  • a half-pint of baked beans leftover from the Fourth of July, which I’d hastily stuffed into the freezer before we left town, and
  • a small chunk of deli ham that had met a similar fate the month before.

Searching through the veggie bin in our fridge, I came up with

  • a 12-ounce bag of carrot sticks I’d gotten off the clearance pile at the store before our trip, and clearly forgotten to pack for snacks along the road during our travels.
  • This discovery prompted me to check the plastic basket where we keep potatoes. Sure enough, there were a few stragglers there in an equally sorry state, starting to sprout after having been left alone for so long.

Perfect.

Some nights you need to make dinner by reinventing leftovers you already have in the house. If your fridge is full of them, hash can be the perfect answer.

I first learned how to make hash from my mother, who learned it from her mother-in-law. It was a favorite “use up those leftovers” meal of my father. As one of five boys my grandmother raised through the Depression and World War II, he grew up on his share of suppertime inventions along these lines; so to him, ending the day with hash on the table was as much about comfort as it was about frugality. It’s always been a “comfort food” meal for me, too, and it’s one that my own kids and husband love just as much as I do. Best of all, the speedy prep and low-maintenance cooking time leave ample opportunity to set the table, make a salad, and get most of the cleanup done before supper even starts!

Hash is one of my favorite ways to figure out something for dinner when all I come up with for ingredients are sorry-looking leftovers.

My Family’s Favorite Hash

Prep time: 10 min / Cooking time: 20 min / Total time: 30 min / Serves 4-6

The basic idea:

What you need

  • One large onion
  • Approx. ½ lb. leftover ham, chicken, turkey, or other cooked meat (approx. 1-2 c.)
  • 2-3 medium potatoes, raw or (leftover) cooked (mashed OK)
  • 3-4 large carrots, raw or (leftover) cooked
  • Cooking oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

An electric skillet is what I always use for cooking hash.

  1. In a food processor, chop the meat and vegetables into little bits. (If the potatoes are raw, I use the grater disc; if they are already cooked, I use one of the chopping blades.)
  2. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a large flat skillet or electric frying pan over medium heat.
  3. Add the chopped food to the frying pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stir well to blend all ingredients. Using the back of a spatula, press the mixture into a large, flat mass in the pan.
  4. Cook approximately 10 minutes, then gently lift and flip large sections with a spatula (it should be starting to crust over a little on the bottom).
  5. Cook approximately 10 minutes more, or until any raw ingredients are fully cooked and the whole thing is heated through.
  6. Serve hot; promptly refrigerate any leftovers.

Mix it up:

  • My family loves to eat this topped with ketchup. My father used to top it with his mother’s homemade tomato-and-onion sauce. Your family’s favorite condiment, whether it’s salsa or barbecue sauce or steak sauce, would probably be equally tasty.
  • Last night, I skipped the onion. Also, as I noted above, since I didn’t have anything close to ½ lb. meat last night, I threw in some baked beans instead. (You could even use a can of kidney beans to stretch the protein, or two cans to make a vegetarian version.)
  • While ham is my favorite meat to use, because it adds a bit of saltiness, you could also use chicken, turkey, or whatever you have on hand. When I was growing up, we most often had hash made with leftover venison or bits of pot roast.
  • If you’re doing a Thanksgiving leftovers version, feel free to throw in the stuffing and mashed potatoes along with the Cuisinart-chopped turkey – cranberry sauce too, if you like! – and top with your leftover Thanksgiving gravy.
  • This is one of those recipes that is designed to swallow up whatever leftovers you’ve got to throw at it, whether that’s leftover cooked peas, a half-cup of cooked rice or pasta, or a few branches of cooked broccoli. Get creative, and have fun!

 

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Hash is a delicious, fast, and easy way to reinvent the leftovers lurking in your fridge into a tasty new meal. My kids LOVE hash; I hope yours do, too!

Hash is a delicious, fast, and easy way to reinvent the leftovers lurking in your fridge into a tasty new meal. My kids LOVE hash; hope yours do, too! what to do with leftovers | reinventing leftovers for dinner | my family's favorite hash | what to do with the leftovers in your fridge | making leftovers into a new meal

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Reinventing Leftovers For Dinner: My Family’s Favorite Hash

22 thoughts on “Reinventing Leftovers For Dinner: My Family’s Favorite Hash”

    1. So do we. And you’d be surprised how yummy (and unique!) the flavor is – it really has its own taste, not like any of the component ingredients. But delicious.

  1. I love having ways to use up leftover foods like this. It’s so much better than throwing them in the trash! Now I want to try it with a little bit of all the sauces and see which one works best!

    1. LOL! Ours go through phases. Essie was the queen of ketchup for years, but then she decided 6 mos ago she “hates” tomato and all tomato products. Last night she put ketchup on a burger again, though (!!!), so maybe she’ll be back to ketchup on her hash soon!

    1. Haha, know what you mean about the “oops”! Fortunately, this one seems to be just about foolproof – no matter what I throw in, it tastes yummy! 🙂

  2. This is definitely a skill!! And one that I don’t have. I’d love to be More inventive, look at some food and know what to do. I can keep hoping. Thanks for the inspiration

    1. You’re welcome! The recipe as I wrote it is pretty straightforward, so give it a try sometime and go from there 🙂

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