Ah, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. By now you’re all probably completely and utterly over turkey. I wouldn’t blame you. With the size of turkeys nowadays there’s enough meat on there to feed a whole African village! We began our gorging with the actual turkey which lead into turkey sandwiches the next day and the next. Finally taking off whatever meat is left in order to make stock with the bones, the next obvious step is to make a delicious easy soup with the stock (and if you have turkey still left over–good luck!!)
Here’s how it’s done:

RECIPE:
Serves 4

2 cups leftover turkey – cubed
1 cup carrot- peeled, cubed
1 leek (white only) – sliced 1/4″, washed, drained
1 cup parsnip – peeled, cubed
1 cup white potatoes – peeled, cubed
2 bay leaves
1 quart (4 cups) turkey broth
1 tbsp parsley – chopped
S&P to taste
2 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

This soup is as easy as opening a can but so much better.
Preheat soup pot for 30 seconds on medium heat. Add 2 tbsps olive oil. Saute leeks for 2 minutes, stirring so as not to brown. Next add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT chopped parsley. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat to a simmer and partially cover with lid.
Cook for 30 minutes or until veg are soft through but not braking apart.

Taste and season and add chopped parsley to garnish.

Booya!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon or Saturday. Thanksgiving’s over. You can’t fit another turkey sandwich in you and to be honest really don’t want to. The carcass is sitting in the fridge and you’re sick of the sight of it. You’re tinking ‘get this thing outta my fridge and into the bin’ but……. hoooooold up wait a minute. Instead of doing that how ’bout putting it in a pot with some veggies and making your own stock. It really isn’t that big of a deal and will not only save you some cash but you can say you made your own stock. I usually make a batch of veggie or chicken stock, put them in little tupperware containers, let the stock cool and pop them in the freezer. Then when I want to make something I just pull one out. Believe me you’ll be glad you did.

Organic Chicken Stock recipe.

Organic Veggie Stock recipe.

RECIPE:

1 leftover turkey carcass
2 carrots – chopped
1 leek – chopped, washed
2 large onion – peeled, chopped
3 bay leaves
thyme – whatever you have
parsley – one bunch (or whatever you have)
10 peppercorns
5/6 celery stalks – chopped, washed

DIRECTIONS:

Pop everything in a large soup pot or if you have one of those turkeys that’s as big a baby horse, cut it up and use two pots. Fill the pot with lots of veggies. When I’m cooking throughout the week I keep all the stalks and bits of leftover veg from my prep. Then when it’s time to make stock I have lots of bits n pieces to go in there. The more veggies you add the better flavour you’ll get.
Note: Rule of thumb. Don’t add anything into your stock that you wouldn’t eat so no rotten veggies.

Bring stock to a boil and once boiling reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. If the liquid is reducing to quickly turn the heat down more.

HAPPY TANKSGIVING!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

Gobble Gobble (as the actress said to the bishop). It’s Turkey time! If you saw my turkey post recently you’ll now know what type of turkey you should be getting as we know there’s going to be lots eaten over the next month or so. There will be soups, sandwiches, stews, stocks, casseroles and God knows what else we can think to make with Mr. Turkey. Salting, roasting, brining–each American family has their own style to cook the bird. But what if your family is small and you’d rather not cook an entire turkey? I’ve got you covered!

I’ve made stuffed turkey breasts before (here and here) but for this recipe I wanted to give you the idea of stuffing the breast with something a bit more out of the ordinary yet still in keeping with Thanksgiving flavours. Guess you could say it’s a modern twist on the classic turkey & stuffing. I came across Persimmons in my CSA box and though I don’t have much experience with them after one bite I knew I had to use them.  In November and December persimmons are at their peak. I kept expecting the fruit to soften like a peach but as it turns out this type of persimmon, the Fuyu, is eaten like an apple. The taste of the flesh inside reminded me of a sweeter cantaloupe with the texture of a firm pear. The persimmon’s delightful flavour and texture turned out to be lovely addition to this dish.

RECIPE:
Serves 6

1 1/2 lb Organic, Grass fed, or Sustainable boneless turkey breast
1 cup organic chicken broth

1 cup couscous – dry
2 cups organic chicken broth
1/2 lemon – zested
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup celery – fine dice
1/2 white onion – fine dice
2 Fuyu persimmons – sliced and small diced
1 tbsp fresh thyme – chopped
1 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Begin by bringing 1 cup of the chicken broth, lemon zest and salt to a boil. Once boiling turn off heat and add couscous. Cover with lid.

Preheat saute pan on medium heat for 30 seconds and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Add celery and onion and saute for 5 mins, stirring, until softened. Once soft add diced persimmons and thyme.
Saute together for 4-5 additional minutes until persimmons are soft. Taste and season with S&P.

Add the cooked couscous to the persimmon mixture along with a drizzle of olive oil. Taste and season. Let cool before adding to turkey.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

To Assemble the Turkey: Lay the turkey on a clean cutting board. Using a sharp knife butterfly the breast by slicing along the side creating a book effect. Do not slice all the way through. Open the ‘book’. Place some plastic wrap on your work surface and lay the open turkey skin side down. Lay another layer of plastic wrap on top. Using a kitchen mallet or in my case a heavy bottomed saucepan, give the breast a few poundings to flatten. Don’t beat the living daylights out of it but you just want to thin it a little.

Lay 5 pieces of kitchen twine, about 12″ in length parallel to each other 2″ apart (If you’re saying, huh?….look at the photo). Lay the open turkey breast on top of the string, skin side down and season with S&P. Spoon enough of the couscous in the center to fill. You may have extra so don’t worry. Pat down the filling.

Fold over the top half and stuff any of the filling that falls out back in. Tie the strings tightly but not where the stuffing falls out too much.

Place turkey on a foiled oven tray. Drizzle olive oil over skin and season with S&P. Rub seasoned oil into flesh.
Add broth to oven tray and pop in the oven for up to 1 hour or until internal temperature of 155F.

Remove and let rest for 5-6 minutes to let juices redistribute back into meat.

Notice those glazed pearl onions? Recipe here. Cheers!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.