Fall Feasting

There’s nothing like a hot soup on a cold, snowy fall or winter day. With the various holiday feasts throughout the season, we have plenty of good soup making materials.

Turkey, or other poultry, pairs well with just about anything! Let’s try it with some root vegetables, and you can also add in some rice, pasta, or beans, if you wish.

A nice bun or bagel to go with your soup makes for a nice relaxing dinner.

This soup is done in a couple of stages — the first day you simmer the leftover poultry carcass in enough water to fully cover, adding water through the day as needed. Cool for a bit before you put it in a fridge overnight. I put mine on a wooden cutting board in the fridge, as the soup pot stays hot for a long time, especially on the bottom, and it’s also very handy that I have an extra fridge.

The second day, only warm the soup slightly at first, because now you have to sort the bones from the meat, and the fat, so the meat can go back in. If there’s not enough good meat left and you just want to make a quick and easy broth/soup stock, pick out the large chunky veggies that you put in and puree them with blender, or a hand-held immersion blender, or a food processor, and put them back into the soup.

You will also be adding in diced carrot, turnip, and potato (or about 3 cups of veggies of your choosing).

cooking time : up to 2 days if you want a meaty soup, 1 day if you’re just straining out the leftover bones and meat

recipe:
1st stage:

leftover poultry bones/carcass
water to cover – ( 10 + cups)
2 stalks celery, left whole
1 onion, whole, peeled, root trimmed down but holding onion together
2 carrots, whole
~
2nd stage:

meat from picked through poultry carcass
2 carrots (or a sweet potato or a butternut squash), diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 tbsp ground thyme
1 tbsp poultry seasoning (or ground sage)
1 tsp – 1 tbsp salt (start with less, taste as you season)

Place the poultry carcass in a large soup pot, add water to cover. Also add in the whole peeled onion, carrots, and celery stalk. Leave them whole so they’re easy to pick out to puree back into the strained broth.

Simmer this for a few hours or all day. Keep checking the liquid level — add more water when needed. Cool down a bit before refridgerating this overnight. If you have a cold porch or garage that animals cannot get to, this is an option too, as long as it’s as cold as a fridge.

It’s okay if it freezes, it’ll thaw on the stove.

The next morning warm the soup slowly (enough to un-gel the fat) and strain the stock into another large pot. Pull out the veggies and puree them back into the broth/stock. Add the thyme, poultry seasoning (or sage), and salt. Pick out all the edible meat and put it into the soup, discard the rest.

Add in the diced vegetables and simmer until they’re tender.
Serve with a bread/bun of your choice.
Enjoy!