Whether you hosted Thanksgiving and cooked the turkey or you brought home a plate of leftovers, you have to decide to eat it as is, or turn it into a new meal for a quick dinner. Every year I make turkey vegetable soup from the carcass and enjoy a richly flavored broth for a soothing bowl of soup- a nice way to stretch the turkey. If you don’t have the carcass you can substitute chicken broth to make this soup with the extra turkey you may have .
And what to do with the stuffing? Have it for breakfast with your eggs and get a quick boost for the day. The recipe is below with just one example – have your eggs scrambled or sunny-side up, your choice.
- 1 leftover turkey carcass, cleaned of most the meat,cut into two pieces
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ onion
- 3-4 peppercorns
- 2 celery
- 3 carrots
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 6-8 cups turkey broth, (chicken or vegetable will do)
- 3-4 carrots,peeled and chopped ½ inch thick
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- ½ cup fresh or frozen corn
- ½ cup fresh or frozen peas
- 1 or more of the turkey meat torn into small pieces
- ¼ cup tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ cup orzo (rice or noodles)
- In a large dutch oven place the carcass in the pot with water to cover one inch above the bones.
- Add the remainder ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a couple of hours.
- Remove from the oven and cool. Pour and strain the broth through a sieve into a big bowl.
- Discard the bones and cooked pieces. Cool broth.
- In a large soup pot saute onions, carrots, and celery with olive oil until onions are soft.
- Add the broth and all the remaining ingredients except the turkey and orzo.
- Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until carrots are tender around 10-15 minutes. Add the turkey, orzo, frozen corn, and frozen peas and simmer for 20 minutes. Test to see if orzo is done.
- You may need to add more broth or water if the soup is too thick.
- Taste for salt and pepper.
Have leftover stuffing? Why not make it a meal for breakfast or a quick lunch. Here, I decided to add an egg to the pan and make a delicious and savory meal to carry me into the day! I make my stuffing with bulgar which adds a hearty element to this dish. But any stuffing will do.
Here’s how:
- Place a frying pan on a medium heat and add a little olive oil or butter.
- Add stuffing to the pan and flatten with the spatula so the egg stays in place.
- Crack one or two eggs on top of the stuffing and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add any fresh herb; parsley, thyme, oregano
- Cover and cook on low until egg is ready.
- Carefully slide the stuffing and egg onto the plate.
© 2012 – 2015, Mary Papoulias-Platis. All rights reserved.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
We just finished our turkey soup. Love the idea of stuffing with eggs! YUM!
Hey Laura,
The stuffing was in the way of the eggs as I started breakfast one morning….and a new recipe popped into my head, and it was delicious!