Turkey Stock & Turkey Soup

After Thanksgiving and Christmas, there were a lot of leftovers.

My mom donated her leftover turkey (and turkey carcass) to me after both holidays. This isn't necessarily dumpstering-related, but free food is free food.

I did end up eating some of the turkey, but decided to make turkey stock from the carcass, and modify my dad's chicken soup recipe (which is fucking awesome) to make turkey soup. (so you can do this whole process with chicken too)

TURKEY STOCK

Ingredients
1/2 Onion
1 large carrot (or 6 baby carrots)
1 large celery stalk
Turkey carcass
1 bay leaf
Pepper & salt

Cover the bottom of a large pan with olive oil. Cook all your cut-up veggies on medium heat until tender.
Fill your pot with water, then drop in the turkey carcass and spices.
Bring to a boil.
Simmer for a minimum of 2 hours (the first batch I made I simmered for 5 hours, the second for 3). Skim off any scum on the water's surface.
Strain the turkey stock. Remove any bones & the bay leaf from your strainer and throw the veggies back in the stock. Remove the meat off the carcass's bones and set aside for your soup.

TURKEY SOUP

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 carrots (or 6 baby carrots)
1 large celery stalk
1 can diced tomatoes (or boil and de-skin/de-seed your own tomatoes by running them under cold water)
2 large potatoes (optional - makes a heartier soup)
2-5 tbsp rice (wild rice is my favorite in this recipe)
Turkey meat
Turkey stock (you can substitute canned chicken stock if you don't want to spend 3 hours making your own)
Salt & Pepper to taste


Repeat the same process of softening your veggies as you did when you made your stock (leave the tomatoes & potatoes out).
Pour in turkey stock, tomatoes (with or without the water from the can), and turkey meat
Bring to a boil.
Throw in potatoes, then cook until they're soft.
Throw in rice.
Cover and cook under medium heat for about 30 minutes (or until the rice is done).

This soup tastes especially good with bread and butter that you dip into it.

Et voila!


Items not dumpstered or donated: Olive oil, can of diced tomatoes, butter for bread, and rice (which I got from The Beet Food Co-Op)