by Emilie Carrillo

Created on: May 16, 2008

I love Thanksgiving. I love the smells wafting from the kitchen. I love spending all day laboring over a meal that brings family and friends together. I love the moist, flavorful turkey; the mashed potatoes; the cabbage salad; the stuffing; the pumpkin pie and the apple cider that follows.

I also love the day after Thanksgiving when piles of leftovers are waiting in the refrigerator for me to experiment with. Turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey pot pie, mashed potato pancakes, mashed potato soup

My favorite thing to do with leftover turkey is make turkey soup though. I make sure to clean off the turkey the day after and freeze it in containers with just enough turkey for a batch of soup.

My own recipe follows:

1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, roughly diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 can stewed tomatoes, with juices
2 cups leftover cooked turkey, both white and dark meat
6 cups chicken broth or 6 cups water with chicken bouillon
1 cup rice
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the tablespoon of oil in a soup pot, add onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add carrots, celery and stewed tomatoes. I usually sprinkle some salt and pepper in and then stir it all together.

Add chicken broth (it seems like a lot of broth, but the rice absorbs about two cups of it) and cooked turkey and bring to a boil. Once the broth begins to boil, add the rice and turn down heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is soft and fluffy. If it absorbs too much broth, add water to create desired amount. Try not to stir very often while the rice is cooking. Serve the soup with leftover rolls or buttered bread.

My husband loves rice in his soup. If you prefer soup with noodles instead, omit the rice and about 1 cup of broth. Add the noodles toward the end of cooking time and follow the directions on whatever noodles you choose to use as though the soup broth were boiling water.

Another of my favorite things to do with turkey and potato leftovers is make a sandwich. I heat the mashed potatoes and turkey up in the microwave. I spread mashed potatoes on the bread, salt and pepper it and then place slices of turkey on top. It is just like Thanksgiving dinner only easier to eat.

A twist on the sandwich would be to spread warm gravy on the bread before the mashed potatoes. Or to add stuffing to the sandwich and make it an entire meal in your hands!

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