Leftover Thanksgiving Soup

I had the privilege of celebrating my mother’s birthday on a cruise about a month ago. My favorite thing about that cruise was spending time with my mom and all of the cool people that I met. I guess when you spend a week on a boat, your shared-experience allows you to connect differently than you might would otherwise. For me, this shared-experience included trailing the tail of hurricane Sandy and rockin’ all night long. Literally. Even so, it was a wonderful week in my life.

Travis, one of my new-found cruise friends had the best response ever when I asked him if he liked soup. “I love the s?&t out of some soup!” Ha. His enthusiasm has yet to be matched, except, maybe by me. So, my fellow soup-lover suggested a great idea the other day. Thanksgiving soup.

I found that there are many soup options that would be appropriate for Thanksgiving and I love the idea of serving soups for such a holiday that celebrates family, friends and thankfulness. However, the more I pondered this idea I came to two conclusions:  traditionalist will not stray from their turkey and dressing and this soup needs to be easy. The holidays are tiring enough. Then it came to me. What if I found a soup recipe that used leftovers!?

The search began. Apparently, this is a brilliant idea because there were very few recipes out there. My favorite one that actually had reviews came from www.food.com. I am reposting below with some suggestions from reviewers and some of my own.

Ingredients:

2 celery ribs, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup butter

3 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth

2 cups water

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon thyme

3 cups cooked turkey

1 (12 ounce) jar turkey gravy

1/4 cup left over prepared stuffing

1/4 cup left over mashed potatoes

2 tablespoons cranberry sauce (the jellied kind)

1 cup pearl barley

Directions:

1. Sauté first 4 ingredients for 2 minutes then cover and cook for 2 more minutes.

2. Add next 4 ingredients and cover and cook on low for 15 minutes.

3. Add remaining ingredients and cook until leftovers dissolve and barley is plump.

This recipe received 4.5 stars by reviewers.

Reviewer Suggestions:

-Add more barley for thicker consistency

-Add barley and rice

-Substitute rice for barley

-Add ½ jalepeno

If I were making this soup, I would probably do both barley and rice.  I may also add corn, black pepper and potentially green beans and throw in a bay leaf for flavor. I would use my prepared gravy, not canned.  I’m not sure of the consistency but adding a little flour could give this a thicker texture and maybe remind us of a pot pie. Mmmm…definitely worth trying.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends.

‘Till next time,
Natalie

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.

Henry Van Dyke