December 5, 2022
If you are like me, you enjoy turkey on the day of Thanksgiving but you are ready for something different than just plain, old turkey again for five rounds of leftovers! Today I will be sharing a very simple and nutritious way to use up all that leftover turkey.
When I was a teenager, we had a lovely friend of the family who grew up in rural Pennsylvania on a farm. This friend learned many valuable skillsets on the farm, cooking being one of those skills. This dear soul taught my mom and me how to make venison chili, venison meatballs, oatmeal rolls, and turkey soup which I will be sharing today.
This soup is incredibly simple and just takes basic ingredients and some time to simmer on the stove. You will need:
Bone broth
Onion
Carrots
Celery
Rice (I use brown rice)
Salt
Pepper
Better than Bouillon (or some other type of bouillon)
Fresh herbs (optional)
Brown rice
Diced turkey
If you have followed my blog for anytime, you may know that I try my best to adhere to the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating which separates carbohydrates from fats. This soup definitely combines healthy carbohydrates and healthy fats, but for a once in a while soup that my family loves, I am not going to worry about it! For anyone following Trim Healthy Mama, I believe this would be considered a healthy crossover notated as an XO in THM recipes.
Please do not be intimidated about making bone broth! Making bone broth is actually very simple. Simply pull all of the meat off the bones and save for later. Then take the bones and stuff them in a stockpot. Fill the stockpot up with water until the top of the bones are covered with water. Simmer on the stove for 24 hours. Since bone broth simmers overnight, do take extra precaution to make sure that your stove is clear and nothing is touching the burner or the stockpot. You would not want to wake up to a house fire while trying to make bone broth!
Making turkey soup is not an exact science, but here is a general recipe that you could follow and tweak to your own personal taste. The measurements are approximate and will probably be dictated by what you have on hand.
Ingredients
2-3 quarts of bone broth
1 onion, diced
1 bag of baby carrots, chopped
2-3 cups celery, diced
1-3 teaspoons mineral salt
Pepper to taste
1 to 1 ¼ cups brown rice
2 tablespoons Better than Bouillon
Fresh herbs (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)
4-5 cups diced turkey
Directions
1. Make bone broth. I recommend starting the bone broth about 30 hours in advance of when you want to serve the soup. For example, if I plan to serve turkey soup for supper around 6:00 pm, I should start simmering my bone broth the day before around 12:00 pm.
2. Strain off the bones and add the broth back to the stockpot.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients except the turkey.
4. Let the soup simmer on the stove for 4-5 hours. The soup should not be boiling but just a very gentle simmer. Usually the very lowest setting on my stove is all it takes to simmer.
5. Every hour or so, give the soup a stir to make sure the rice is not sticking to the bottom of the pot.
6. About an hour before serving the soup, add the turkey.
7. Enjoy!
You could also watch me make turkey soup.
How did you use up turkey leftovers this year? I would love to hear what you created in your kitchen! Please leave me a comment in the comments section below.
-Ashley
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