One of the best comfort foods hands down is SOUP. And one of the easiest ways to make it is by making your own broth with the carcass of poultry.
After you have a wonderfully roasted turkey or chicken dinner and pick off as much meat as possible for leftovers save your carcass. If you can’t make broth immediately put it in a freezer bag and freeze it. Try to use it within 6 months – mark the date you put in the freezer to make life easier.
When you are ready to make your broth place the carcass in a Dutch oven/stock pot (large pot with lid) and cover it with water. The broth will be naturally flavored as the remaining bits of meat and seasonings escape from the carcass but it is also recommended to add a whole onion (sliced), carrots, celery, smashed garlic cloves, bay leaves, and a handful of peppercorns. None of these are mandatory however. Use what you have. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Allow the stock to simmer on low heat for at least 3-4 hours. The longer you simmer, the richer the flavor will be. After simmering, strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth into another pot or large bowl. Let the stock cool to room temperature, then refrigerate or freeze it for later use. I have a plastic pitcher with lid that I keep in Drew’s beer fridge. Yes, he is just as thrilled about that as you can imagine.
As far as pots and pans there is a difference in quality and price will reflect that. We had amassed a large selection of random pots and pans from who knows where. When we redid our kitchen in 2022 we installed an induction stovetop - this uses only stainless pots and pans. Guess what? Most of our random pots and pans did not work. Drew and I made the executive decision to buy a high quality set. We went with Cuisinart. I am very happy with this decision. They are heavy and solid but also easy to clean.
I make a very simple broth forward soup by adding very few ingredients – primarily greens (kale or spinach are both great!).
For this particular soup I also made stuffing dumplings with leftover stuffing (where there is turkey there is often stuffing). I never know what to do with stuffing leftovers. It gets boring after a while. On this day I just rolled them into balls, coated them with melted butter and sprinkled a herb and spice blend on them since the original stuffing was bland. I put them on a greased cookie sheet and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Have you ever made your own veggie broth? I have been saving veggie discards in a freezer bag and making veggie stock. My sister, Rose, gave me this tip.
In October I made a veggie stock that included turnip stems, broccoli stalks, some kale starting to turn soft, and an iceburg lettuce head I bought for taco night that we just never used again. I just covered them with water and cooked them on the stovetop for several hours and then strained right into the pitcher. I used this as a base for a butternut squash soup.
To make the soup I slow roasted a whole butternut squash in the oven. I really roast it whole. I don’t even cut it in half. After it cools the meat comes right off of the skin and you can easily scoop the seeds out (much easier than when raw).
I sauteed the following items in olive oil (this was a cook by feel recipe so sorry there are no quantities) minced garlic, dried onion, ginger paste, cumin, dried ground mushrooms, dried cilantro, and S and P. I added the cooked squash and mashed it until no large chunks remained. I transferred everything to the crock pot (I was bringing it to the homeschool co-op for our fall party) and added the veggie stock until the soup was a desired consistency. I used an immersion blender to blend. I love these because I make a lot of soups.
Here’s a bonus leftover recipe – I had a little bit of the soup leftover but not enough to have family meal. So I cooked some spaghetti in 1 pot, and sauteed some greens and shrimp in another. I mixed the 2 pots together and added the soup. It was a lovely fall pasta dish!
