Turkey, Stuffing & Vegetable Soup

Hello folks! BBC1 here. We hope you have ‘survived’ Christmas and had a relatively good and peaceful time, and that Santa brought you what you wanted!

If you’re a regular reader you know that I won in the annual debate of ‘what are we having for Christmas dinner?’ So we went traditional and had turkey and all the trimmings. The following recipe is purely a guide, measurements etc are very rough as this is a soup that has evolved over the years from the one my mum would make every Christmas and Easter.

1 turkey carcass, stripped of as much of the meat as possible, include all bones and skin etc left over.
1 large onion cut into quarters
As much sausage meat stuffing as you have left over
3 large carrots – one for the stock, the others for the soup
3 potatoes – one for the stock, the others for the soup
A couple of handfuls of red split lentils
4 celery sticks – one for the stock, the others for the soup
A handful of dried pasta, or spaghetti broken up
Enough cold water to cover the the carcass in a large soup pot
2 to 3 pints of chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:
Strip as much meat as possible from the carcass, including any brown meat from any legs or wings left over, and set this to one side for addition later. Place carcass and any skin leftover into a large soup pot.

Peel and roughly chop, one or two sticks of celery, an onion, a carrot and a potato and put these into the pot with the carcass. Then pour in enough cold water to completely cover the carcass and the vegetables, coming at least an inch or two above it. Now bring this to the boil and leave to simmer for approx one and half to two hours. Skim the fat and the froth regularly.

Once done, using a colander and a large bowl remove all of the ingredients from the stock and let them drain. When drained I return the cooked vegetables to the stock along with the drained juices and a couple of handfuls of red split lentils. Fetch this back to a boil and simmer for about twenty-five minutes or until the lentils have gone to mush. I now use a stick blender to purée the stock and vegetable mix and add the chicken stock.

Once this has come back to a simmer, I add the other diced and uncooked, celery, carrots and potatoes. After another ten minutes of simmering I add a handful of pasta and the leftover sausage meat stuffing. After another ten minutes I add the turkey meat which I stripped from the carcass earlier. Then about ten minutes later check for seasoning, and depending on the consistency you prefer, either add more chicken stock or more lentils/pasta.

Once completed to your taste, serve with the bread of your choice.

This soup just reminds me of my childhood, and of course can be made in a variety of ways with whatever you have leftover. As I said earlier it is just a rough guide, but it’s hearty, wholesome and thrifty! I hope you enjoy…what soups do you folk make?