Everyone has that one thing that makes them feel better when they’re not feeling well … I have multiple. When I’m sad, I want popcorn with lots of butter. When I’m sleepy, I want chocolate milk. When my belly hurts, I want peanut butter on toast. When I have a cold, I want soup. When my muscles ache, I want a burger. When I am stressed, I want pizza. When Dan is any of the above, he wants “feel better soup.”
Turkey vegetable soup, aka feel better soup, became Dan’s go-to back when we had dated less than 6 months and he got a really bad cold. Wanting to be a good girlfriend, I took the Thanksgiving leftovers and tried to recreate my grandmom’s turkey soup as best as I could from memory. I somehow succeeded in both making a fantastic homemade soup and making Dan feel better in a snap! Now it’s become my annual tradition: every Saturday after Thanksgiving, I turn my leftover turkey into “feel better soup.” I try to make a HUGE vat of the soup and preserve it to last through cold and flu season, but it rarely does. Dan drinks this soup like water, having it every evening between dinnertime and bedtime, like it is a preventative medicine. If he does get sick, he’ll eat it and only it until he’s better. I’ve found I make multiple batches of feel better soup throughout the year now, in addition to the once a year event (side note: it also cures hangovers). I do have to admit that I sometimes wonder if this soup is magic!
I don’t know how to explain it, there’s just something about it; the smell wafting through the house as it simmers on the stove puts a smile on my face and starts to make me feel better hours before it’s ready for eating. So when Dan wasn’t feeling so great this past weekend and said he wanted feel better soup, I went to the store and bought some turkey breasts, hit the produce aisle and went straight to work. While it wasn’t exactly the same as our after-turkey-day soup, it came pretty darn close and it still cured my honey. I’ve tried to make it with chicken before and it’s just not the same, chicken does not have the healing powers of turkey. The soup varies from year-to-year based on what’s left over from the turkey day feast and batch-to-batch based on what I have in the fridge; however, the main components are always the same: turkey, broth, tomatoes, and lots of vegetables!
Here is the soup, as made this past weekend:
•1lb turkey breasts
•6 cups chicken broth
•4 cups water
•15oz diced tomatoes
•15oz stewed tomatoes
•4-5 carrots
•4-5 celery stalks
•1 medium onion
•2-3 cups mushrooms
•2 heads broccoli
•2-3 cloves garlic
•Olive oil, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning
Lightly season the turkey breasts with olive oil, salt, pepper and poultry season then bake until cooked through. Allow the turkey to cool then shred it into small bites.
Peel and chop the carrots; chop the celery and onion; slice the mushrooms; break up the broccoli into small florets and mince the garlic.
Pour a healthy bit of olive oil in the bottom of a large stock pot and add minced garlic, sauté until the garlic opens up and makes your kitchen smell fantastic. Add the carrots, celery and onion and sauté about 10min or until the veggies are tender. Add the mushrooms and sauté about another 5-7min. Add the broth, water and both cans of tomatoes; bring to a boil. Add the turkey, broccoli and some pepper; reduce heat to low, cover, and allow it to simmer for 2-3 hours.
You can add egg noodles, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Serve garnished with a little bit of parmesan and fresh cracked pepper … and a big hunk of bread!
Turkey vegetable soup, aka feel better soup, became Dan’s go-to back when we had dated less than 6 months and he got a really bad cold. Wanting to be a good girlfriend, I took the Thanksgiving leftovers and tried to recreate my grandmom’s turkey soup as best as I could from memory. I somehow succeeded in both making a fantastic homemade soup and making Dan feel better in a snap! Now it’s become my annual tradition: every Saturday after Thanksgiving, I turn my leftover turkey into “feel better soup.” I try to make a HUGE vat of the soup and preserve it to last through cold and flu season, but it rarely does. Dan drinks this soup like water, having it every evening between dinnertime and bedtime, like it is a preventative medicine. If he does get sick, he’ll eat it and only it until he’s better. I’ve found I make multiple batches of feel better soup throughout the year now, in addition to the once a year event (side note: it also cures hangovers). I do have to admit that I sometimes wonder if this soup is magic!
I don’t know how to explain it, there’s just something about it; the smell wafting through the house as it simmers on the stove puts a smile on my face and starts to make me feel better hours before it’s ready for eating. So when Dan wasn’t feeling so great this past weekend and said he wanted feel better soup, I went to the store and bought some turkey breasts, hit the produce aisle and went straight to work. While it wasn’t exactly the same as our after-turkey-day soup, it came pretty darn close and it still cured my honey. I’ve tried to make it with chicken before and it’s just not the same, chicken does not have the healing powers of turkey. The soup varies from year-to-year based on what’s left over from the turkey day feast and batch-to-batch based on what I have in the fridge; however, the main components are always the same: turkey, broth, tomatoes, and lots of vegetables!
Here is the soup, as made this past weekend:
•1lb turkey breasts
•6 cups chicken broth
•4 cups water
•15oz diced tomatoes
•15oz stewed tomatoes
•4-5 carrots
•4-5 celery stalks
•1 medium onion
•2-3 cups mushrooms
•2 heads broccoli
•2-3 cloves garlic
•Olive oil, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning
Lightly season the turkey breasts with olive oil, salt, pepper and poultry season then bake until cooked through. Allow the turkey to cool then shred it into small bites.
Peel and chop the carrots; chop the celery and onion; slice the mushrooms; break up the broccoli into small florets and mince the garlic.
Pour a healthy bit of olive oil in the bottom of a large stock pot and add minced garlic, sauté until the garlic opens up and makes your kitchen smell fantastic. Add the carrots, celery and onion and sauté about 10min or until the veggies are tender. Add the mushrooms and sauté about another 5-7min. Add the broth, water and both cans of tomatoes; bring to a boil. Add the turkey, broccoli and some pepper; reduce heat to low, cover, and allow it to simmer for 2-3 hours.
You can add egg noodles, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Serve garnished with a little bit of parmesan and fresh cracked pepper … and a big hunk of bread!
Thanks for posting this Val. When you can it do you use a hot water canning method or pressure cooker? If you use a hot water canning method how long do you process it? Thanks for all the tips.
ReplyDeletei use a hot water bath for canning; i fill the empty jars with water and sink them to the bottom of a stock pot filled w/ water then turn on the burner so the jars get brought up to the boiling temperature slowly and they're already hot when i fill them with soup/sauce (i've had a jar explode on me before, scary!). then dump the water out, fill with sauce/soup, put the lid on, make sure all jars are just barely below the top of the water and boil for about 30-45min. make sure it's a very slow boil so the jars don't all bump against one another and cause little cracks in glass. good luck!!!
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