Turkey, Turkey, Turkey. How many dishes of turkey did you eat over the past week?
We enjoyed a non-traditional Thanksgiving and ate at Latitude 41 in Mystic, CT. Jeff's daughter is a nurse and was scheduled to work on Thanksgiving. We drove down to CT to enjoy a quick lunch with her and didn't cook our turkey until last Sunday. We went with a small 14 pound turkey, compared to our normal 26 pound bird, and enjoyed a mini Thanksgiving. It was missing some of our favorites but it had the good old-fashioned staples - garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, corn bread stuffing, cranberry sauce and an awesome turkey gravy.
Once we had all the turkey removed, we put the remainder into a large dutch oven, cooked down the bones and made a delicious broth, that yield about 6 cups of turkey, too. I knew I would make a turkey soup as a second meal along with turkey tetrazzini with the leftover turkey from our Sunday dinner. As I said...turkey, turkey, turkey.
I was getting ready to make the soup and turkey with wild rice was my first thought. But, we had just finished a homemade chicken and rice soup last week and I thought any type of soup with rice might be repetitious.
SIDE TRACKED THOUGHT- I promise to showcase the chicken and rice soup the next time I make it. It was made and consumed so quickly, I never got to take pictures or blog about it.
I started looking up some southwestern versions of turkey soup. Progresso makes a southwestern soup with corn, beans, tomatoes and spices. I found this Southwestern Turkey Soup through Taste of Home and began grabbing ingredients from my pantry. Some black beans, diced tomatoes, chilies and corn...I was ready to go.
The best part of any soup is a homemade broth. I cooked the turkey bones with garlic, onions, carrots and celery. I strain my broth with a fine sieve so the broth is clear then I use some of the cooked carrots and celery to add color and flavor to the soup.
Having the turkey and broth ready to go made this soup easy to put together. Within 10 minutes I had almost everything in the pan. With some increased heat and the cooking of the wild rice, start to finish was about 45 minutes.
Results: DELICIOUS! First, I loved that we were able to use the turkey (for a third night) in a way that you didn't feel like you were eating another turkey meal. The soup had lots of flavor, some heat and a heartiness that made the soup a meal. I love any combination of tomatoes, corn, beans, cumin and chili pepper - part chili, part soup. Our family devoured half of the soup and I was able to take leftovers to friends and co-workers. So far, everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. (And all the containers have been returned empty.)
Tomorrow is game day, the cold weather is finally setting in (at least in New England), this is a great "end of the weekend" soup that will clean-up the last of those turkey leftovers.
Ingredients:
2 medium onion, chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil
8 cups of turkey broth (we used the broth from cooking down the turkey, use can use chicken broth, also)
4 teaspoons of ground cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
6 cups of cubed cooked turkey
2 can (15 ounces) of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 ounces) of fire roasted diced tomatoes with juice
1 can (4.25 ounces) of diced green chilies
1 (16 ounce) bag of frozen corn (we used a yellow and white corn combination)
1 cup of wild rice
tortilla chips and sour cream, optional
Preparation:
1. Over medium heat, place oil and onions in a large dutch oven and saute until tender and translucent. (about 5-7 minutes)
2. Add the broth along with the cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and salt.
3. Once blended add the turkey, black beans, tomatoes, green chilies and corn.
4. Bring to a boil, and add the rice. Allow to simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes.
5. Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips.
Serves 10-12 people.
Adapted from Taste of Home - Southwestern Turkey Soup