I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday. Personally, I made it through hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner ever, and I am ecstatic! I learned all of the secret turkey soup tricks from mom, got the hush-hush pumpkin pie ingredients from dad, and saw more of the inside of a turkey than I care to mention – but it was so worth it!
So what was on my menu? I included many Thanksgiving classics, but also added a few healthy twists along the way:
- 14 pound turkey, brined in Williams-Sonoma’s Apple & Spices Turkey Brine for 18 hours
- Rubbed with compound butter: softened butter, mixed with rosemary and sage for flavor
- Hungry Girl’s lower calorie Save-the-Day-Stuffing, with a few of my own twists: a few teaspoons of poultry seasoning, a handful or two of dried cherries, and real egg whites instead of egg substitutes (we tripled this recipe to make enough for 4 + leftovers)
- Taste Test: We cooked half of the stuffing in the turkey, and cooked half of it in a pan. Which one won? They tasted the same! The lesson: Save time and calories by baking your stuffing in the pan, instead of in the bird (same delicious taste, sans the infused fat from the turkey)
- Hungry Girl saved the day again, with her low-calorie Rockin’ Lean Bean Casserole
- Chopped up Idaho potatoes, boiled with a few teaspoons of minced garlic for flavor
- Sea salt + skim milk made these ‘taters delish
- Flour mixed with the leftover juices from the turkey; the salt and herbs from the leftover turkey brine made this gravy the best ever!
- Frozen bricks of squash made this dish easy, but still full of fiber and beta-carotene
- Topped with fresh whipped cream and made with dad’s secret ingredients – you can’t beat it!
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So dealing with this raw bird was an interesting experience for me. My mom had me digging around in its crevices for unspeakable parts, which I could not find for the life of me. Check out the video below to watch me as I went through the steps. You can hear some of my surprise as the neck was discovered and pulled from somewhere within the depths – eek!
My favorite part of the Thanksgiving holiday? The turkey leftovers soup! My mom makes the best turkey soup, and I was able to work with her first-hand this year to get the insider secrets.
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Mom’s Turkey Soup
The secret to this soup is improvisation. Have some extra bell peppers? Throw them in! Extra potatoes? Throw those in too! This soup will be unique from year to year, something that makes it all the more memorable – and that much more delicious!
The Night Before Thanksgiving
This recipe begins the night before Thanksgiving, giving you time to relax after your big Turkey-day feast.
The night before Thanksgiving, chop up one bag of celery, one bag of carrots, one yellow onion, and some leeks. Don’t peel the carrots – you’ll get rid of a lot of the beta carotene if you do that! Just make sure they are rinsed thoroughly. One of my mom’s many secrets, is she uses the water that the mashed potatoes are boiled in as the initial liquid base for the soup; it adds back in some of the leached nutrients from the potatoes, as well as some of that great potato flavor. So mix together the celery, carrots, onion, leeks, and the potato water in a pot, and let it sit so the flavors can begin to mix as you do the rest of your Thanksgiving day prep work (no heat, just leave it out on the stove). Place the pot in the refrigerator to sit overnight before you head to bed.
Thanksgiving Day
The next morning, add in a bit of sage, rosemary, and poultry seasoning (to taste), and place the pot on the stove to begin simmering. This year, I added one bag of lentils to the mix at this point, for an extra OOMPH of plant-protein goodness (excellent idea by the way, it really added a nice fullness to the soup). Let the soup simmer all day, and all through dinner. If the liquid begins to look low at some point, either add more water, or some low-fat chicken broth, to replenish the evaporated liquid.
After you are stuffed to the brim with TGiving goodness, it’s time to clean up, and get back to the turkey soup. Clean all remaining meat off of your turkey to use for leftovers, or pass it on to your guests to take home. Now here is the genius part: Next, take your turkey carcass (yes, I said carcass), and plop it right into your simmering, homemade broth. The meat that you thought wasn’t salvageable will soften while the soup simmers and will easily fall off the bones. If you want to thicken the soup up a bit, warm up some cream, and add it into the soup (make sure it is warm before you add it, or the cream will curdle).
Let the soup simmer until bedtime, then place it in the fridge overnight (if your fridge is packed and you live somewhere cold, you can even stash the pot in the garage to keep it chilled overnight).
Day After Thanksgiving
Remove the soup from your refrigerator (or garage). Now, depending on the type of turkey you used, this may be an opportunity to remove some calories and fat. Some turkey is infused with butter to add moisture, which means their carcasses may also infuse your soup with more fat. Refrigerating your soup overnight will cause this fat to rise to the top and harden, where you can then skim it from the soup with a spoon to discard.
Next, it’s time to remove the bones. Be prepared, this will be cold and dirty. Dig your (clean) hands into the soup, and begin pulling up turkey bones. There will be plenty of leftover meat on the bones still, and you can use this as an opportunity to scrape this meat off into the soup. Feel around until you’ve removed all of the bones.
When you’re ready, place your soup back on the stove-top, and heat it up for dinner! Serve it piping hot with a slice of homemade garlic bread for the true leftover experience. Enjoy for days!
Looking for More Leftover Ideas?
Looking for more ideas on how to use up those leftovers? Check out some of these articles:
- Thai Tacos
- Turkey Tortilla Soup
- Turkey Pasta Casserole with Asparagus and Cheddar Cheese
- Curried Turkey Salad
- Turkey Casserole with Havarti Cheese
- Savory Turkey Cobbler
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Happy Leftover Snacking!
Lindsey
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