This leftover turkey soup recipe is delicious! It’s such a waste to throw out any bones or carcasses after you have carved up its meat! So why not save it up for later and make another meal out of it?
It is the end of November.
And that means that Thanksgiving is just over. And guess what we had for dinner.
You are right, a beautiful bird. This year I had 8 people around my Thanksgiving dinner table. Two more than last year. But even 8 of us couldn’t finish the turkey.
Leftovers
So now I have Thanksgiving leftovers again!
You can easily keep those in the fridge for a couple of days until you need it. Or even freeze whatever is left.
However, I have something else in mind for the turkey bones this year.
Soup!
Easy Turkey Soup Recipe with Zucchini
Remember this.
You can prepare the most amazing homemade broth with these underestimated scrapings. Bones, carcasses, cartilage. And yes, even those golden roasted skins are still full of flavorful fat and juice!
They not only release that very deep and rather savage flavor. But also give your broth such natural fatty richness that it is totally unnecessary to add any butter, cream or whatever in the end.
Add the broth to your sauces, vegetables, stews etc.
Or make a plain simple broth soup like my turkey soup recipe below.
Broth
I can assure you that it tastes much better than the ready-made ones you can get everywhere.
This is also something every self-respecting restaurant does first thing in the morning: prepare a good old-fashioned stock depending on yesterday’s trimmings or leftovers.
You can replace the turkey carcass broth in this turkey soup recipe for regular chicken broth of course and add your leftover turkey meat.
Do you love clear soups and broths?
Then also check my colorful cauliflower stem soup!
Enjoy!
Easy Zucchini & Turkey Soup Recipe
- 1/2 fresh turkey carcass
- 4,5 oz fresh zucchini (125 g), finely diced
- 10 cups water (2,4 l)
- 2 medium garlic cloves chopped
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- pepper
- salt
1) Heat the water in a large pan until boiling point. Then add the turkey carcass, chopped garlic, thyme and bay leaves. The carcass should be fully submerged. If not chop it into smaller pieces. Season with pepper and salt. Then turn the heat low and leave the carcass to simmer for 1 hour.
2) Take the pan off the heat and pour its content through a fine sieve over another pan. Let the turkey broth drip for 1 minute.
3) Pick any remaining chunks of turkey meat off the bones. Discard the rest. Put the turkey broth back on the heat and simmer gently. Then check the seasoning and add more pepper or salt if necessary.
4) Add the turkey meat and diced zucchini to the soup. Stir and take it off the heat again. Serve immediately.