How many different dishes do you make with your Thanksgiving
turkey leftovers? Of course you always have turkey sandwiches and sliced breast
meat with mashed potatoes and leftover gravy, but have you tried making soup?
One of my favorite turkey recipes is turkey and sausage
gumbo. My son Chris first introduced me to gumbo
and I must say it is one of my favorite soup recipes. Try this before you
decide to toss the turkey.
Ingredients:
1 pound of Polish sausage or Andouille (spicy Cajun sausage)
cut into bite size pieces
3-4 cups of skinned chopped turkey from leftovers or roasted
chicken
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup flour
½ cup chopped sweet pepper
1 medium chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery with leaves
4 pints turkey or chicken broth
3-4 cloves minced garlic
2-3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pinch of thyme
6 drops of hot sauce or to taste
¼ cup chopped green onion (for garnish)
1 cup brown rice cooked according to package directions
Directions:
When your turkey dinner is finished prepare the leftovers by
removing skin and bones and separate meat into packages appropriate for your
family meals. Freeze all that won’t be used within a couple of days.
1, Prepare turkey for soup by chopping it into bite size
pieces and set it aside.
2. Place hot water in medium pot with turkey bones and
scraps, some onion and celery.
This will make a flavorful broth. Cook until veggies are
tender.
3. Sauté the sausage in a large skillet until brown. Remove
most of fat using a paper towel then remove sausage from skillet and set aside.
4. Pour vegetable oil into skillet with remainder of fat.
Add the flour and stir constantly on medium heat until roux is the color of
chocolate (about 25-30 minutes).
5. Add chopped peppers, onion, and celery to skillet and
cook until vegetables are tender (about ten minutes).
6. Pour broth from turkey bones and contents of skillet into
soup kettle. Add more water and chicken bullion if needed to make about two
quarts of liquid. Stir until soup is slightly thickened.
7. Add sausage, turkey or chicken, garlic and rest of
ingredients through hot sauce. Simmer about an hour.
8. While soup simmers prepare brown rice according to
package directions. This will take about 40 minutes.
9. Remove bay leaves and sprinkle soup with chopped green
onions.
10. Serve this delectable gumbo over the rice. What a
wonderful way to serve leftover turkey.
Send your recipes for leftovers to our blog. We’d love to share
some of your favorites!
