I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty delicious, and we had a great family gathering. I was in the kitchen pretty much the whole day, but I made some recipes that I have been wanting to make for a really long time, like Buttery Fan Rolls, and Classic Pumpkin pie, that will be on the blog very soon. For now, we will be talking about the aftermath. The leftovers, that is.
I love Thanksgiving leftovers. After we fill up on all the thanksgiving goodies, I always try to use up all the leftovers in different ways. I make open face turkey sandwiches, by loading up a buttered piece of bread with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and shredded turkey that has been heated in leftover turkey gravy. So yummy.
But today, there is a storm, and the rain is pouring down hard, and it’s very cold outside, so I always wanted to make turkey soup from thanksgiving leftovers. I made my own turkey stock, by placing the bones from our deep fried turkey, and some stock making staples, and simmering for several hours.
The recipe for homemade turkey stock is below the recipe for the soup.
So my twist on this Thanksgiving Turkey Soup, is to add a few tablespoons of gravy to the soup. It gives it a little thickness and some delicious flavors! But this is totally optional.
I usually make soup with egg noodles, but all I had on hand, was rotini noodles, and they were really good in this Thanksgiving Turkey Soup.
Ingredients
- Turkey soup
- 2 quarts turkey stock, store bought or homemade.
- 3 cups of rotini noodles
- 2 cups shredded leftover turkey
- 3 stalks of celery, thinly chopped
- 2 carrots sliced in half, then thinly chopped.
- 3 tablespoons leftover turkey gravy. (Optional)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- Leaves of 2 thyme sprigs
- Salt and black pepper
- Stock
- Leftover turkey carcass, meat removed.
- 3 carrots roughly chopped
- 3 stalks of celery
- 1/2 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a soup pot, melt butter, and add chopped carrots and celery, and cook on medium-high heat, until soft and translucent.
- About 4-5 minutes. Add minced garlic, and let cook for 30 seconds more, then add in turkey stock.
- Bring stock to a boil, then lower to a simmer, and add in shredded turkey, 3 tablespoons of leftover gravy (optional) and noodles, and leaves of two thyme sprigs.
- Let simmer until noodles are tender.
- About 8-10 minutes. Serve with crackers, or crusty bread.
- Stock instructions:
- Place everything in a large stock pot, and fill with enough water to cover carcass by an inch. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 3 hours.
- Every hour or so, skim any foam that may come to the surface.
- After 3 hours of simmering have passed, let cool a bit, then strain through a fine mesh strainer. Store in airtight container, and store in fridge for up to a week or in freezer for up to 6 months, or use for turkey soup.
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