Turkey Bone Broth ~and~ Turkey Wild Rice Vegetable Soup

EDIT: You know you've got a good, collagen-rich bone broth when you put the pot on the counter to ladle out a bowl and it looks like this.

I scooped out what I wanted and the hole created never filled in. It was SO gelled that a spoon stood up in the center  😊

I don't make turkey bone broth often, so I always forget what deep brown, rich flavor it has! Roasting helps with that of course, but I also roast my chickens, so I'm not sure why the broths are so different.

I really scored here! 😃

$1.61 for two turkey backs, necks and. . .uhhh, well. . .as my mom would say, that little triangular piece 'that jumped over the fence last' :-)

I trimmed off the excess fat then drizzled on some EVOO, seasoned the parts and pieces with Poultry Seasoning and Chicken Seasoning. 

Roast these at 375° - 400° for an hour or so, until everything's nicely browned in a 4-6 quart Dutch oven.

Somehow I wasn't thinking, and roasted everything in this porcelain pan. Not as efficient. I had to use a silicone spatula to scrap all the good brownings back into the big Dutch oven pot.

Remove the meat from the bones, and set that aside. Put everything else back into the pot, with a few bay leaves, and enough water to cover the bones. This only yielded a couple ounces of meat that I'll combine with some roasted chicken.

Simmer this, covered, on a very low bubble for 3-4 hours. After an hour, I added 1/2c white vinegar (or you can use apple cider vinegar) and enough water to bring everything to 1" from the top of the pot.

Stir occasionally and continue to simmer the rest of the time. Cool an hour or so, then scoop out all the bones and everything solid. Throw this away. Strain the broth back and forth into another clean pot, using a finer mesh strainer each time. After 3 or 4 strainings, cover and chill overnight.

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YEA! It's Soup Day!!

Scrape the solidified fat off the top of the gelled broth. What simmered down and concentrated is shown in the Dutch oven on the left. About 2-1/2 quarts of good, rich, brown turkey broth that gelled nicely. Heat it up. To this I added 3 bay leaves and a big spoonful of chicken Better Than Bouillon. 

In a heavy frying pan, melt 2T butter and add the chopped 3 carrots, 2 celery stalks, and 1 onion. Drizzle with some EVOO, then heat everything to a sizzle. Add 2T Kalamata olive EVOO and 2/3c Lundberg Wild Rice Blend. Stir this for several minutes until the bottom of the pan starts to brown and the rice is snapping.

Add just enough chicken stock from a carton to keep it cooking but not getting too brown.

Transfer the rice and vegetables to the pot of broth and add enough stock to bring it to within 1" of the top of the pot.

Add 5 oz. turkey (and roasted chicken) and a big handful of sliced, fresh spinach.

Simmer just long enough until the carrots and celery are done the way you like them, and the rice is cooked. . .Lin

Turkey-Goat-Venison and Vegetable Soup

If a soup you make for New Year's Eve is any predictor of how your year as A Foodie will go, I think I'm off to a very good start!

I made smoked goat a while ago. The bone broth turned out so well, I canned a quart of it. I opened that recently to give a little to the dogs, on their dry food. Then I realized how wonderful it was! Jelled perfectly and it had excellent flavor. After a couple days I still had half a quart left.

After Christmas, I made turkey soup and had an equally good pot of well-jelled turkey bone broth and leftover gravy. A friend gave me a quart of venison, and I only used half originally, so. . .all this converged in my refrigerator within the same time frame, asking to be used! I saw it yesterday and went into Soup Planning Mode. Today, it all happened within the space of just over an hour. 

I combined the bone broths, the turkey gravy and venison cooking liquid in the 3 quart pot and started that simmering while I gathered vegetables. 

1 giant carrot

1 sm. onion

2 mini peppers

3 stalks celery

8oz. fingerling potatoes

I scrubbed, chopped and sautéed the well-peppered vegetables lightly in 2T EVOO, for about 15 minutes, then added them to the pot of broth, with the venison, and simmered everything, covered, another 15 minutes.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope 2022 brings you much Health, Happiness, Love and lots of Good Food. . .Lin

Christmas Turkey Bone Broth and Soups

So many people are not fans of leftovers, of any kind. They would probably throw the skin and bones from the turkey away, after picking off most of the meat.

Big Mistake!

You can use it to make wonderful, healthy bone broth to use as a base for future soups.

Today, my bone-picking resulted in the following, from left to right, top row: scraps to mix with the dogs dry food, in the toasting pan: 1/2c white vinegar, bones, cartilage, skin and 3-4 quarts of fresh cold water. Left to right, bottom row: 8oz. of little pieces of meat for soup, dressing, gravy, 9oz. white and dark meat for future turkey salad or turkey tetrazzini.

Put the skin, bones, water and vinegar, in the roasting pan, over low-medium heat. This should just barely bubble the entire time, not vigorously simmer. I keep this very plain -no seasonings, onion or garlic. Those are bad for dogs and cats. I often add a little bone broth to their dry food. Today I added carrot peelings, some outer cabbage leaves, chopped up, and a little bit of celery, all animal-friendly vegetables 😉 Gently stir everything around the pan and slow cook it, covered, for 3 hours.

While this is slowly cooking, prep your vegetables for a big pot of soup. Today I used the vegetables shown, chopped, sliced or minced them and simmered them on low heat for about 45 minutes before chilling them overnight, until the bone broth is ready. Today I simmered the vegetables with the following seasonings and NO starches (pasta, rice or potatoes) for someone who is on a low-carb diet:

4T butter

1t fresh ground black pepper

1/2T poultry seasoning

1/2T roasted garlic & herb seasoning

1T dried parsley

1T Better Than Bouillon - chicken

After 3 hours, remove the roasting pan from the heat and it let come to room temperature. Scoop out all the solids then strain through a colander, large strainer, then a smaller mesh strainer. Finally pour it through a clean four sack type dishtowel lining a colander.

Chill the liquid overnight.

After it's thoroughly chilled, scrape off all fat. This can be used like you would use butter, to brown vegetables or meat. You can also melt it and add a little to your dog or cat's dry food. The more 'jelled' the broth is, the more collagen it contains. Collagen is excellent for healthy skin, hair and connective tissue. The addition of the vinegar in the simmering process is what draws the collagen from the skin, bones and cartilage.

This bone broth turned out very well gelled, so I wanted to make as much soup from this batch as possible. For each of these pots of soup, I used half bone broth and half water with seasonings to make a strong or milder flavored broth. One pot with herbs and poultry seasoning, the other more plain.

Soup is a year-round thing! Have fun with it! . .Lin

Bean and Barley Vegetable Soup

I needed a big pot of vegetable soup!  

I made this one with turkey bone broth from our Christmas turkey, so it wasn't vegetarian or vegan. All the turkey was gone by the time I simmered the bones. . .but it sure was good while it lasted! And now. . .there's soup!

1c medium brown beans

Rinse and sort the beans, watching for little pebbles. Cover the beans with fresh cold water and simmer 20 minutes. Repeat this process at least 3 times, testing the beans for doneness after the 3rd simmer. Drain, spray with cold water and let drain in a colander.

Put 2-3T EVOO in a 4 quart pot, and add the following:

• 3c chopped carrot, celery and onion
• 1/2c pearled barley - long cooking

• 1 14.5oz can stewed tomatoes
• 3 bay leaves, 1T garlic and herb seasoning, 2-3T dried chives, 1T BTB soup base
• 5 BIG garlic cloves - minced

Sauté the chopped vegetables and barley several minutes then add seasonings, tomatoes, garlic and 3c bone broth. Simmer on low heat 45 minutes. Add another 2c bone broth, stir and check the flavors. Simmer another 20 minutes or so then serve with crusty bread, biscuits or cornbread. . .Lin