Turkey Rice Soup, a Great Way to Use Your Leftover Turkey

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      I love having leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, but I have never saved the turkey carcass before and made soup with it.  Well, this year I decided I would save the carcass and do just that.  So today I got my HUGE stockpot out and filled it with the carcass along with carrots, celery, onions and everything I use to make homemade chicken stock.  I ended up getting 9 quarts of stock out of that carcass and 6 cups of meat off of the bones.

     Once I got the stock taken care of, I went to work on the soup.  I wanted to make a turkey rice soup and I had found the perfect inspiration for the recipe from Isabelle at Home.  She has a great recipe for Cream of Wild Rice Soup.  I changed it up a bit by using both wild rice and brown rice.  To keep it light, this soup is thickened with flour and milk rather than with cream.  I made a double batch of this recipe since I had so much stock and so much turkey.  So now my freezer is full of lots of soup for later!

Turkey Rice Soup
Adapted from Isabelle at Home

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts turkey stock (you could use chicken stock)
• 3 cups cooked, shredded turkey (if you don't have any turkey, you could, of course use chicken)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1 cup cooked wild rice
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• salt and pepper

Chop all of your veggies and herbs.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot.  Add carrots, celery, onions and poultry seasoning to the pot and season with salt and pepper.  Saute for about 5 minutes until onions are translucent.  Add garlic and saute for about another minute and add bay leaf.

Add the turkey stock to the pot along with the thyme, parsley and turkey.  Add a little more salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.

While soup is coming to a boil, slowly whisk milk in with the flour, making sure flour has completely dissolved in the milk.

Once soup has come to a boil, stir in the milk and flour mixture.  Simmer soup until it's thickened slightly, about 10 minutes.

Stir in both rices and season with more salt and pepper if necessary.

Heat just until rice is hot.  Serve immediately.

ENJOY!


Shared at This Chick Cooks on 11/30/11
Shared at Newlyweds Blog on 11/30/11
Shared at Family Fresh Meals on 11/30/11
Shared at Miz Helen's Country Cottage on 12/1/11
Shared at Easy Natural Foods on 12/4/11

A Thanksgiving Recap

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      The big day has come and gone and I must say, it was a wonderful celebration.  There were thirteen of us for dinner at our house and boy did we FEAST!  It started with appetizers, which were plentiful and then we moved on to our fabulous turkey feast and ended with coffee and perfect pies.

     In the aftermath, there were multitudes of dishes to be washed and lots of leftovers to be put away.  After the mess was cleaned up, we all stretched out in the family room.  Once our guests had left, out came some of the leftovers for a little late night snack. I'm not sure where we found room for more food, but somehow we managed!

     Here is a little glimpse for you of what our day was like.  I hope your celebrations were all just as wonderful!

Here's the crew we had for the day.

We started with appetizers...lots of appetizers!  This is fried plantains topped with a  mango salsa, cream cheese mixture and lettuce, tomato and avocado.

These are mushrooms stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, Italian dressing seasoning and onion and then topped with stuffing mix.

This is a Norwegian dish called klub (pronounced kloob).  It's a mixture of  potatoes, flour and thyme.  It's formed into a ball and then boiled.  Once it's been boiled you slice it and fry it in butter.

This is sweet potato bisque with truffle oil

Can you believe we had dinner after all of this?

My parents surprised me with a new apron embroidered with Lisa's Dinnertime Dish.  I thought that was very cool!

That's Alex getting the plates out for appetizers.

Kelly and my Mom

Waiting in anticipation for turkey!

Now on to the main event!

Here's our lovely bird.  It turned out juicy and delicious!

Steve's a master carver.

The gravy and mashed potatoes are all ready to go.

My favorite....stuffing!

Green beans, of course!

Cranberry, jalapeno and cilantro relish fromRich and Sweet

Homemade dinner rolls brought to the table by Nicole

And of course.....the turkey, all sliced up and ready to feast on !

Dinner's ready!!

My Turkey Day Menu

       Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      Just one more day until it's Thanksgiving!  There will be a flurry of activity at my house today.  I like to make as much ahead as possible so that I can relax and enjoy my company on Thanksgiving day.  Along with making most of my dishes ahead of time, I also always try and have the table set the day before as well.  Then it's one less thing to worry about on Turkey Day!

     This is my menu for this year.  It really doesn't vary that much from year to year, my family likes to keep it traditional.  I have two new things this year, sweet potato bisque and cranberry, jalapeno and cilantro relish (which I found at Rich and Sweet)

Appetizers


Sweet Potato Bisque with Truffle Oil

A Surprise (my mother-in-law is bringing something)

Side Dishes


Apple and Dried Cranberry Stuffing

Mashed potatoes
Gravy (lots of gravy)
Green Beans with Shallot Butter (I will post this recipe later, it's a great dish for Christmas, too)
Raspberry jello (my mom brings this every year)
Dinner Rolls (my sister-in-law makes my Grandma's recipe every year)

Cranberry Jelly (yes, my family likes it from the can, sorry)
Cranberry, Jalapeno and Cilantro Relish  (I found this recipe at Rich and Sweet and it is absolutely delicious)


Main Dish


Roast Turkey (of course)

Dessert


Pumpkin Pie with Real Whipped Cream
Apple pie (my mom is bringing all of the pies)


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!  Enjoy your families, friends and all of the fantastic food!!

Lip Smackin' Good Sweet Potato Bisque with Truffle Oil

       Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


     Most members of my family do not get excited about sweet potatoes.  I happen to like them, and so does my mom.  So most years I make them mainly for the two of us and I'm always trying different recipes hoping that someone else will come around to them.  For a long time I was always making a sweet version with maple syrup, brown sugar or a struesel topping.  Both my mom and I always enjoyed them, but there were always so many left over.  Finally, last year, I decided to make a more savory version and just simply made mashed sweet potatoes.  This was much more popular, so I realized I needed to give up on the sweet, sweet potatoes.

     Even though more of the family ate the mashed sweet potatoes, there were still leftovers.  So to use them up, I created a sweet potato bisque, which was even more popular than the mashed sweet potatoes.  It was definitely a savory bisque with onion, garlic and even a little bit of hot sauce.  It really turned out to be a good combination of flavors.  There is just a little bit of sweetness from the sweet potatoes and then there are the flavors of the garlic and onion, with just a hint of heat in the background.

     This year I decided that I'm going to make the bisque for Thanksgiving and serve it as an appetizer.  I'm also going to bump it up a notch and drizzle it with a little white truffle oil (YUM).

Sweet Potato Bisque with Truffle Oil

• 4 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used already cubed)
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 cups chicken stock
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• hot sauce to taste
• salt and pepper
• truffle oil for serving

Put sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and cook until tender.  Drain.

Meanwhile, chop onion and garlic.  Melt butter in a dutch oven or other large pot over medium heat.  Add onions along with a little salt and peppr and saute for about 5 minutes, until translucent.  Add garlic and saute for another minute.

Add cooked sweet potatoes to the pot.  Mash with a potato masher and add milk and chicken stock.

Add nutmeg.

Puree bisque either with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender.  

Add hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste.  Heat through and let simmer for a few minutes to let flavors combine.

Dish into individual bowls and drizzle with truffle oil.  Serve immediately.

ENJOY!


Shared at Mandy's Recipe Box on 11/22/11
Shared at Newlyweds Blog on 11/23/11
Shared at Easy Natural Food on 12/4/11