Photos by Claire Lower.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. I hope your turkey was moist, your pie crusts were flaky, and your racist relatives were absent. Once the big meal is cooked and (mostly) consumed, it will be time to turn our attention to leftovers, which is what we’ve been secretly waiting for anyway. I’m a big fan of throwing everything into a sandwich, but once you’ve had your fill of that, you should make a big pot of gumbo.


This is part of Eating Trash With Claire, a Lifehacker series where Claire Lower convinces you to transform your kitchen scraps into something edible and delicious.


There are several reasons this is your best option. For one, every leftover bit of the bird—both meat and bones—get used, ensuring no waste. It’s also a great way to use any vegetable scraps, garlic skins, or onion ends you have leftover from your Thanksgiving prep. Gumbo is also warm, comforting, and everything I want on a cold day, but the main reason I like it is that it has a completely different flavor profile from your Thanksgiving feast. Instead of rosemary, sage, and thyme, we have the holy trinity of celery, onion, and bell pepper, plus Cajun seasoning. Honestly, you won’t even know you’re eating leftovers.

Everyone makes gumbo a little differently, so feel free to play around with this recipe and make it your own. Some people like theirs soupy, but I like my gumbo to reduce down until it’s almost a gravy (you can also just add less broth, which is cheating but gets gumbo into your mouth faster). Either way you like it, you will need:

1 turkey carcass, with every bit of meat removed

Any and all vegetable scraps you cleverly saved from Thanksgiving prep (If you don’t have much, throw a couple of quartered onions, about five garlic cloves, and a couple of stalks of celery in the pot.)

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon of rainbow peppercorns

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons salt

Whatever leftover turkey you have (aim for about four cups of chopped meat)

1 pound of Andouille sausage, cut into coins

¾ cups of all-purpose flour



Approximately 3/4 cups of some sort of fat (vegetable oil or something with a higher smoke point is preferable here, as butter will taste burnt)

1 large onion, chopped



2 large bell peppers, chopped (green is traditional, but I use one red and one yellow)

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, preferably Tony Cachere’s

1 teaspoon of granulated garlic

1 teaspoon of granulated onion

Make a stock by tossing the first six ingredients into a big pot, filling it with enough water to just cover the contents, and letting it simmer for at least four hours, skimming any “scum” off the top and adding more water as needed. Once it’s done, strain, chill, and get it into the fridge to cool. (Scrape the fat off the top once it solidifies.) This can be done the night before you plan to make the gumbo, and can be stored in the fridge for up to three days.

Brown the sausage and set aside. Measure 3/4 cups of flour into a bowl and weigh it, then weigh out that same amount of fat by weight. Combine the fat and oil in a big pot or enameled Dutch oven, and cook over medium heat, stirring slowly and constantly, until you have a roux the color of milk chocolate.


Season the vegetables with salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, and granulated garlic and onion, and add them to the roux. Cook until the vegetables are soft, then add in the sausage and stock. Bring the whole thing to a boil, then reduce and let it all simmer for about 45 minutes. Add in the turkey, cook until it’s warm. If you like a more gravy-like gumbo, just add less broth, and slowly pour it into the roux, stirring continuously until you have a thick sauce. (This is kind of cheating, but it’s how I grew up making it.) Whether you make a soupy or gravy-like gumbo, both should be served with hot rice, with hot sauce and green onion so people can garnish it to their liking.