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

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      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