My turkey noodle soup is the ultimate comfort food. If you are in Canada, you are most likely celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend. My friends over in the Unites States celebrate later in November so be sure to save this soup for your upcoming Thanksgiving as well. Our thanksgiving table is full of delicious recipes but one of my favourite things to make from all of the leftovers, is soup. I never throw out any turkey or turkey bones because it makes for the most incredible and nutritious soup, or broth. This soup is comforting and perfect for the colder days. This soup is what I always look forward to and I know it’s become a staple in your home as well since I have been sharing it on my Instagram stories over the years. Please give my recipe a try and let me know how you liked it in the comments.
Turkey noodle soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 finely diced onion
- 1 finely diced carrot
- 1 finely diced celery rib
- 2-3 minced garlic cloves
- salt to taste
- pepper is optional
- leftover turkey bones
- 4 cups water
- 4 cups unsalted organic vegetable broth
- 1 cup pasta I broke capellini pasta into little pieces
- 1 cup leftover shredded or chopped turkey as much as you like
- parsley for garnish
- freshly squeezed lemon juice is optional but delicious
Instructions
- In a big pot on the stove, on medium-high heat, sauté the onions, carrots, and celery in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes. Stir in the garlic and let it go for 30 seconds.
- Add in any of the big leftover turkey bones and add hot water or unsalted stock. You can also add 1/2 water and 1/2 stock. Let it come up to a boil, add a generous pinch of salt, reduce the heat to medium and boil for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes take out the big bones and add any pastina or pasta of choice. If you add pastina you will need to add less than one cup so that the soup is not too thick. The word Pastina simply means tiny little pasta so feel free to add any shape you like.
- Add the shredded or chopped leftover turkey and always taste and adjust for salt. Don’t forget to be careful and discard any small bones, if any as they can fall in the broth.
- Boil the soup for 5 to 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked, add fresh and finely diced parsley for garnish and enjoy with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Notes
- You are more than welcome to use any gluten-free pasta of choice or rice.
- You can also break angel hair pasta or capellini into little pieces like I did. Orzo will also work beautifully in this soup.
- Feel free to add all the vegetables whole with the turkey bones. After 30 minutes you can discard the bones and blend the whole vegetables with some of the broth and pour it blended back into the soup if you have picky eaters. I will link the hidden broth method here which you have seen in all my other recipes already. I am leaving this as a suggestion for anyone that doesn’t like to see vegetables in their soup.
- If you don’t have any leftover turkey, you can simply make this the same way and leave out the turkey. You will have a delicious broth regardless that you can sip on.
- You can absolutely cook the pasta separately as it will thicken and expand in the soup the following day.
- You can also add the turkey bones in a cheese cloth so that it’s easy to remove and it will also catch any small bones that may fall.
- Feel free to make this recipe with chicken as it’s just as delicious.