Recipe: Turkey Soup

We love this soup.

Scott insists on buying turkeys that feed 100 people just to make sure he gets lots of turkey soup the day after every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Also, if you substitute chicken for turkey and noodles for rice, this is a great homemade chicken noodle soup recipe.

Ingredients:

Celery, Onions, Carrots (diced)
Olive Oil
Leftover turkey, chopped
Chicken Stock and / or chicken bullion cubes or powder
Water
Basil, Parsley, Salt & Pepper, A bay leaf or two
Corn
Rice

Start with diced onion, celery, and carrots. I don't measure these. For a big pot, I use approximately 1 large onion, 4-5 carrots, and 1/3 stalk of celery.

Saute the onion, celery and carrots in a couple Tbsp of olive oil in your big pot. Give them about 5-7 minutes or so and stir occasionally as they start to cook.

Now you add your spices and stock.

For the spices, I use pepper (to taste), dried basil (quite a bit), a little dried parsley, and a couple of bay leaves. Again, add as much or as little as you like. I don't add salt at this point because the stock will have salt already.

For the stock, I have used all boxed chicken stock, bullion cubes and water, homemade stock, or a combination of the three. Last time I used 2 boxes of chicken stock (low sodium) and 3 bullion cubes with water.

Let the stock and veggies heat up and get your meat ready.

Usually I make this with leftover turkey, but I have used chicken as well. You can buy a rotisserie chicken and take all the meat off the bones, chopped it up, and added it to the soup. You could also cook your own chicken and add it, but I love to save time. Any kind of chopped, cooked chicken or turkey will do. Throw it in.

Get this nice and bubbly and hot, then turn it down and let it simmer for a while - anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more on very low heat.

About 30 minutes before you serve it, add some rice and corn. You can use a combination of white rice and wild rice. To give you an idea of amounts, last time I used about 2/3 cup white rice and 1/3 cup wild rice. Again, quantity is up to you.

For corn I used 2 cans of corn. You could also use frozen.

Let the rice cook through and keep stirring occasionally for another 25-30 minutes or so. Season to taste. You may wish to add a little salt at this point. Sometimes you may not need salt, as it depends on how salty your stock is.

Serve with fresh homemade buns, hot from the oven, with plenty of butter.

Enjoy!