Turkey Tortellini Soup Using Thanksgiving Leftovers
What to do with Thanksgiving Leftovers! How about a nice robust soup that will get you through a cold New England evening?
This soup is one that I like to make when I have a whole turkey carcass left over from a large turkey dinner.
When hosting Thanksgiving, I like to get a big turkey for several reasons. First, it is just so nice to see a beautifully cooked turkey on my table; second, I love to send my guest home with leftovers so that they can enjoy it for another day; and third, I like to make several meals after Thanksgiving using the carcass and other leftovers.
This soup is a bit complex to make for one reason. You need to boil the carcass to create a robust base for your broth. It isn’t necessary to make this soup with a bone broth, but I must admit, it does taste better. Since there is often still meat and skin on the turkey carcass, you often have the residuals of the spices used to bake the turkey in the first place. When roasting my turkey, I will use spices such as, rosemary, thyme, sage, orange peel and of course butter!
**If you choose not to use a carcass or don’t have one, you can use chicken or turkey stock. I’ll address which kind below.
How to make Turkey Tortellini Soup Using Thanksgiving Leftovers
Ingredients you will need for the soup broth: (Directions for the Broth and the Vegetable portions are separated below):
2 - 32 oz boxes of Chicken or Turkey Stock - See below for my preference
1/2 Cup Leftover Turkey Gravy (if you have it…)
2 tablespoons of a chicken or turkey bouillon - See below for my preference
2 - Bay Leaf
1 - Sprig of Rosemary
Instructions for making the Broth Base
This recipe assumes you have leftover turkey bones and some turkey meat that you will use for later.
Place Turkey bones (whole carcass if you have it) in a deep stock pan and fill with water covering all the bones. About 64 oz. (Make sure you take off some turkey meat off your carcass - to be put into your finished soup). This will be the beginning of the base for your soup. You can also use either turkey or chicken broth instead of water.
Great product and very flavorful
If you use broth, I recommend using Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock. This brand also sells turkey stock during the holidays. You can find it in any grocery store. I have found this brand has the best complex flavor.
Use 2 - 32 oz boxes of broth.
Add - ½ cup of leftover turkey gravy to the broth if you have it.
If you don’t have that much left over, just add what you have. If you have none, that’s fine too. The homemade gravy will give your broth just that much more a complex robust flavor.
Add - 2 tablespoons of a chicken or turkey bouillon.
This is my absolute favorite stock concentrate. It totally makes a difference in taste.
I generally will use either “Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base” or “William Sonoma Chicken Stock Concentrated”.
As you can see, by adding layers of different flavors, some store made and some homemade, you are enriching the depth and complexity of the broth with each layer.
Add to the broth:
2 - Dried Bay Leaves
1 - Small sprig of Rosemary
Cover the broth and let simmer for about 2 hours.
Once finished simmering, take the carcass out of the pot along with any big bones that are remaining and throw them away. Take out the Rosemary twig and the Bay Leaves.
Once all the large items are taken out of the broth, strain the rest of the broth in a very fine strainer. This will ensure that there are no additional bones in your broth. You need to be sure they are all out.
HINT: I actually strain my broth twice just in case any fine bones are still in the broth.
Put your strained broth back into the cleaned stock pan and put on low to medium heat while you are working on the rest of the ingredients for your soup.
Instructions for cooking the Vegetable for the soup
In a separate pan on Medium Heat: (you can do this while the broth is cooking if you like)
Add:
3 - Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 - Stalks of Celery – Chopped in small slices
½ - large Sweet Yellow Onion – Chopped well
Cook until the onion is just translucent
Then add to your vegetables:
3 - Carrots – Chopped in small slices
2 - Cloves of garlic – Diced small
Cook everything together until you can just smell the garlic.
Once you start to smell the garlic, ADD All vegetable ingredients to the finished strained soup broth that is simmering on the stove.
Let the soup cook together for 25 minutes on medium heat.
Once finished cooking for 25 minutes, add:
1 - 10 oz Bag of Fresh or frozen Cheese Tortellini into the soup.
I will generally use fresh tortellini by GioVanni RANA Cheese Lovers Tortellini. You can find it in the cheese and produce section in the grocery store. You can use your favorite as well. You can add more or less pasta depending on how much you like in your soup. This is really up to you.
HINT: Sometimes if you have soup left over, your pasta will get mushy. I often will cook the pasta separate and just add what I want when I eat the soup. I love the flavor of the tortellini cooked in the soup, but it isn’t any fun having mushy leftover soup either. Its really up to you.
Add:
½ cup - Frozen green peas
1 cup - Leftover turkey meat
Cook tortellini as directed in or outside of your soup…depending on your preference.
Hint: If you cook the tortellini in your soup, only cook it about half the time instructed and take the soup pot off the stove. As the soup sits, The heat of the soup will cook the remaining pasta as needed.
Taste and flavor with salt and pepper to your liking.
Let sit for about 10 minutes and it is finished.
Ready for dinner
My hope is that you enjoy your leftovers as much as we do. This soup is a bit of a process to make, but i promise it is worth the effort and just delicious!
As with everything I post on my blog, please feel free to comment or if you have any questions, please contact me through my contact page. I welcome it anytime!
Happy entertaining my friends!
Mary
