Turkey Vegetable Soup

For Valentine's Day, my family had a turkey dinner since we had a leftover turkey from Christmas that went unused. Since I am an advocate of head-to-tail cooking, which is using all parts of an animal, I made a turkey vegetable soup for lunch today. Making flavourful soup stocks from a turkey carcass is very simple and you could easily substitute turkey with chicken in this soup as well. Here is my recipe for turkey vegetable soup:

Ingredients:

 2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 chicken or turkey carcass
water to cover
2 medium sized potatoes, cut into cubes
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 chicken or vegetable bouillon cube
1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
ground black pepper to taste


Directions:

1.  Heat olive oil in a large soup pot; then, add the onion and celery to cook until softened; add garlic and cook for approximately one minute until flavour comes out (you don't want to add the garlic any earlier or else it will burn).
2. Add the turkey carcass and cover with water. Allow to simmer for 1 hour approximately until you have a yellow turkey-flavoured broth.
3. Add potatoes and carrots, the bouillon cube, and seasonings. Let simmer until vegetables are tender.


 Note: If you have any turkey meat leftover or any still on the carcass, as I did, add that to the soup as well. I find that the meat should get added after the vegetables start cooking, or else it might get tough cooking in the broth. You basically only want to warm the meat through.

I ate my soup garnished with some freshly chopped parsley and a turkey sandwich on the side. For a delicious turkey sandwich, try adding some cranberry sauce in addition to your regular mustard.