Simple turkey soup, from scratch.

I am no professional recipe writer, but as requested... A tried and true recipe from the homeland! It is absolutely delicious and has a lot of opportunity for creativity. 

You can use either fresh turkey or use the bones left over from a roasted one.

When I use fresh bones, I try to find a turkey neck, leg and wing. If I cannot find a turkey neck, that is okay – I will just use what I found. If you are using the leftovers from a turkey roast, make sure to keep the turkey neck and boil it alone for a few hours while the turkey is roasting, this will bring out extra flavour! On another note, I always strain my veggies and meat after a few hours and let the bones and broth boil for an extra twenty or so minutes, I save the meat but use fresh veggies for the finished broth. 

1)     Turkey – choose the type of meat you would like, for 3 litres of water I use 6 turkey legs or equivalent

2)     3-4 carrots, rinsed – keep the skins on (if you plan on using the same veggies, you cut them to the right size)

3)     2 pieces of celery, same deal as the carrot

4)     2 large tomatoes

5)     1 large onion

6)     1 bay leaf

7)     1 bulb of garlic

8)     Salt and pepper (lots!)

9)     For once the broth is cooked: 3 chopped carrots, 2 chopped celery stalks, 1 chopper tomato, 1 chopped small onion, 2 handfuls of spinach (optional)

 Put the meat, salt and pepper and bay leaf in the water and bring to a boil; wash and clean your vegetables, once the water is boiling you can add them to the pot. Allow the water to come to a boil once again and then turn down to simmer. Skim any fat (bubble) off the top and discard. Let the broth simmer for 2-3 hours, or longer. You want to make sure it is not boiling so that you don’t lose too much water. Taste it every once in a while and add salt/pepper if necessary. It is optional to add a bit of thyme and rosemary to the broth, but keeping the recipe simple at first is best.

 Once the broth has been cooked, strain all the veggies and meat out. Put the broth back on the stove with just the meat bones. In the mean time, you can start cooking your starch of choice (acini de pepe or wild rice, you will want about 2-3 (cooked) cups of starch when you are done, so follow the directions on the package that you use). Discard any vegetables and meat you will not be using. The turkey meat should be shredded at this time, so very easy to separate from the bones. Save the meat that has the least amount of fat attached to it. After 20 or so minutes, remove the bones from the broth and add new vegetables (3 chopped carrots, 2 chopped celery stalks, 1 chopper tomato, 1 chopped small onion, 2 handfuls of spinach (optional)) along with the meat and starch.

Portion it into containers for the week – you should have enough for about 10 servings of soup.

Options – you can always start this with a pre-made chicken broth, but if you want it to be truly homemade then it is best to do it this way. If using roasted turkey, make sure that you really scan to make sure no small pieces of bone fall into the broth. Additionally, you can also throw everything into a slow cooker and let it simmer all day/all night. You can add different vegetables to the broth once it is done cooking, such as beans, peas, spinach, roots…  I would just try it with the basics. If you put too much spinach in it, it will affect the taste. I do not recommend putting kale in this soup as it is too strong. I use wild rice because I cannot have gluten, but it is actually the best with the acini de pepe/pastina balls!

I know there are lots of directions but it is actually quite simple and does most of the work on its own! Good luck J