Turkey Soup

After Thanksgiving Detox Soup



Everyone talks about what to eat for Thanksgiving. And I have seen more than one article about what to eat before Thanksgiving. (Egg white omelet, thanks Self.) But do you know what to eat AFTER Thanksgiving?

No? Well you're in the right place old friend. Alayna's sister made turkey broth from her leftover carcass. (Recipe below- my favorite line: "break bones into small pieces." Sounds badass, right?) And I know what you're thinking, but I'm so full. That's why this soup is SO great because it's super light (think Detox Soup). It's a great light meal for the day after. A perfect after Thanksgiving soup.

Dang. You think, those soupies do it again. Knock your socks off with a spot on soup. I know, I know. We're so good at this by now-- month 11 of soup laboring- scratch that, I mean ladling- that we should probably get a book deal. Any day now, folks...

I bumped into a closet soupie while in my hometown in Jersey, she suggested a good idea for the new comer soupy- to make a top five list of best soups for easy navigation when a first timer wants to make a winner (or an old timer). I know, all the soups are winners, but some are like, big time lottery winners.

Either way, ballots are open. Cast your vote: Best soup.

In the meantime my little pilgrims and native americans, eat up.

The perfect post turkey day light soup without losing the spirit of the holiday:

• roughly chop about 5 pieces of garlic and saute in olive oil, adding half of a chopped yellow onion when becoming fragrant
• add a fennel bulb (only the white parts) 4-5 carrots, 4-5 celery sticks, all roughly chopped, and cook covered with a few bay leaves until you can stick a fork through them
• cover with FRESH TURKEY BROTH* (or any other kind of broth if you don't have an awesome sister) and bring up the heat, adding a handful of chopped parsley, three heaping handfuls of sugar peas, and your leftover turkey torn into little pieces
• serve once it's heated through!
  

Turkey broth, courtesy of my sister:

• first, thoroughly clean the meat off the turkey carcass, then break the bones into small pieces and bake them at 400 for about an hour until they look crispy
• put them in a pot of water with the onions, apples and celery, (adding salt and herbs) and boil for about an hour with the lid on, on low heat
• pour through a colander to get out the 'gross stuff' and refrigerate or freeze for later use!

Ginger Asian Soup

I came home sick from work yesterday and promptly fell asleep. I woke up for the last 45 minutes of Legends of the Fall, wept like a baby when Isabel 2 was shot by the prohibitioners' stray bullet when they were trying to intimidate Tristan- like that's even possible. Once again I was left feeling cheated I wasn't born as a native American two hundred years ago. Then I fell asleep again. Woke up to Alayna buzzing up with groceries. I said what should I help cut? She looked at me with disgust in her eye as if I were a leper and said, Nothing. I sat back and she cooked me soup and it was pretty fantastic.

Then Paul came over. (Mom, stop reading this now.)

Paul came over with bloody hands.

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."

- William Shakespeare, Macbeth 2.2

Paul had just ended the lives of two pigs, with two bullets, a slit to their throats and four large man's knees holding their squealing piggy cries down in the dirt while they died. Paul ate our soup and shared the (curly) tales of the pig slaughter in a cold barn in Vermont just the day before. (Paul will go back to Vermont to cut and salt and store all this meat- he is in culinary school and this acted as his first butchering experience.)

I felt bad that we made our soup with chicken but didn't say anything.

So this Ginger Asian soup is dedicated to our chicken and pig friends. And once again I am inspired to make one of those promises to myself that when I do happen to buy meat it's the more expensive kind that says it's slightly more humane than the other ones.
Because it can't be good- for our bodies or our karma- for those mass slaughters of those industrial animals with those shitty lives- who die without anyone giving them much thought. Or being sad. Or sitting on my couch eating my soup marinating over the experience- and the life- thoughtfully. Like someone probably should when something dies for our benefit.

I thought about this after Paul left but then I fell asleep again.
I was really tired afterall.

Ginger Asian Soup

• chop 5-6 cloves of garlic and a generous amount of fresh ginger and saute in olive oil

Your ginger doesn't have to be growing stems like mine...

• add a bunch of roughly chopped broccoli rabe (include the stems in leaves! they're delicious, i promise... just not the very bottom of them)
• add in mushrooms (we had shitake, baby bellas and... something else that came in the three pack. if only one option is available, i would go for shitake)
• once the rabe is getting to be a darker green and the mushrooms cooked through a bit, add your veggie or chicken broth and bring up the heat to get to a boil
• in a separate pan, cook up a few chicken breasts in bite-sized pieces
• once the broth is boiling, add a packet of udon noodles (snapping them in half first) and two generous handfuls of fresh sugar snap peas with your cooked chicken

• Flavor with soy sauce (and salt and pepper if you are a sodium addict like moi)
• Once the noodles are cooked through (about five minutes) enjoy!