Tuscan Turkey Soupy Noodles

If you're like me, and you must be at least a little like me or else this blog would hold no interest, when roasting an entire bird, you feel compelled to make stock from the carcass. When confronted with my my turkey carcass from Thanksgiving, I decided to chop up some mirepoix, throw in the bones, boil the hell out of it, and figure out what to do with it later. And eventually I came across the best leftover turkey solution I've found yet, short of the Leftover Sandwich dipped in gravy, Tuscan Turkey Soupy Noodles.

I had already made my stock when I came across this recipe, but if you haven't yet, the recipe includes instructions for making the necessary stock. Or if you want to try this but you already tossed your bird, using stock-in-a-box will give you a similar flavor (though I'd go easy on the salt). It calls for 10 cups, I had 12, which meant boiling down, which I did while I turned the veggies from the first picture to the second picture.

Here's where I recommend two great tools that

will impress whoever watches you cook, even if it's your cat. The first is prep bowls. Buy them. Buy more than you think you will use. Buy all different shapes and sizes and colors and, if you can, buy them with matching lids. The second thing is a benchscraper, that helps you get all the bits from the cutting board to the prep bowl or pan. A lot of people get frustrated when they cook because they don't plan ahead and do their mise en place (French for "getting your sh*t together"). When you read the recipe through ahead of time, chop everything that needs to be chopped, and have all your tools and ingredients on hand, cooking gets SO much easier and more fun.

Back to the soup. Cooking the onion and garlic will make your house smell like an everything bagel. Resist the urge to run to the bagel store and throw in the other veg as instructed. Cover while you cook the leeks, they are a bit sturdier than onions and will soften faster. You will be able to tell the celery and carrots have cooked long enough because they will become a lot brighter, as shown. Don't worry about them getting soft, they will have about 20 minutes to do so while simmering in the stock, which if you're lucky, is enough time for you to run and get that everything bagel. Also, feel free to use diced or chef's cut canned tomatoes rather than chopping the whole ones yourself: when you're already using canned tomatoes, do you really give a damn who chops them? Just make sure you run them through a strainer and give them a good shake to get rid of the liquid.

The instruction about breaking the pasta is a little vague. The

picture shows about the size I think they mean. Not pictured: all the tiny bits my first few attempts produced. The problem with using the no-boil lasagna noodles they recommend, is the box doesn't say how long to boil them until they're cooked. My rule of thumb for pasta is 10 minutes give or take, your mileage may vary.

Throw in the spinach at the very end. If you were wondering where this soup gets its substance from, this is it. This went from a watery, vegetabley, I-don't-think-this-will-make-a-meal soup to a hearty concoction the instant I dropped in the spinach. Add just a sprinkle of cheese to serve, it really adds depth of flavor but you don't need very much. The pasta pieces were a bit unwieldy, I ended up cutting them with my spoon, so you may prefer to just make them smaller to begin with. Otherwise, a very warming, healthy meal and a great use of leftover Thanksgiving ingredients. Enjoy!

"Cream of" Broccoli Soup

What to do when you have a ton of extra broccoli lying around and you're about to go away for the weekend? Soup! In my constant battle with my waistline, I decided vegetables would be a good weapon, but as usual overbought and under-ate. Making a nice creamy, cheesy soup seems like a good way to get the broccoli eaten, but it kind of defeats the low-calorie purpose. So I found this recipe and decided to give it a whirl. It's kind of a misnomer, as there is no cream, but as I say, this is what I was going for.

As you can see, there's not much prep to this soup, beyond chopping a lot of vegetables. The only way I know to make vegetable soup without chopping a lot of vegetables is to open a can and if that's what you want, you're on the wrong blog. After reading some of the comments (hint for newbies: ALWAYS DO THIS), I altered the recipe a little. I used 3 c of broth (instead of 2 c broth + 1 c water) for extra flavor. I also substituted chopped garlic and ginger root for the mustard seeds, about a 1 t of each, because it sounded interesting and because bite me, Gourmet, I don't have mustard seeds.

So, saute aromatics, then add the veg & liquid and

simmer "until the broccoli is very tender." This is a GREAT recipe for people who have a tendency to overshoot the mark and cook the life out of their vegetables (like me), because that's actually what you're going for. Soggy veg = easier pureeing = smoother textured soup.

The recipe says to puree the soup in a blender and transfer to another pot. Cue my very best Kevin-Spacey-as-Lex-Luthor impression: WRONG. Use a good stick blender right in the pot, if you have one. If not or if, like me, yours is a piece of crap, it should all fit in the work bowl of a decent-sized food processor. Then transfer right back to the same pot, unless you like washing extra dishes, in which case, I have a treat for you in my kitchen sink. The soup will still have some texture to it from the the carrot and broccoli chunks, but adding the sour cream smoothes it out nicely. You can see the difference in the clarity of the reflected light in the pictures above and below. Use a whisk to incorporate the sour cream to avoid it melting in one spot and sticking to the bottom of your pot.

I ended up freezing this until I returned from my

trip, but it defrosted just fine, in about 20 minutes on 50% power in the microwave. (Side note for non-microwave users: check this month's Bon Appetit for a great article, which is sadly not online, about the health benefits of microwave cooking that might just change your mind.) Using extra stock definitely paid off, adding an extra punch of flavor to what might have been a much blander soup. I can't say what using mustard seeds would have produced, but the garlic and ginger gave the dish a subtle, interesting flavor using ingredients I already had. This turned out to be a simple, easy, healthy dish. As it yields about 4 cups, I'd recommend it as a starter for 4, a side for a week of nice hot lunches for 1, or even a hearty main course, accompanied by some nice crusty bread, for dinner for 2. Enjoy!