Early Thanksgiving Turkey Soup

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Thanksgiving style turkey soup just screams comfort food. I like to eat soup any time of the year. It’s usually pretty simple to throw together, is healthy and filling, and travels well for packing a lunch at work. It even freezes well to keep for later if you don’t think you can finish off the whole pot!

I had to do my full elimination diet right through the winter holidays. It was so hard to not break my diet plan and go full force on all the holiday feasts! This early Thanksgiving turkey soup is not going to fully replace a full turkey dinner but it will give you a lot of those flavors you’re craving without any of the guilt.

If you just want to bring a little taste of the holidays to you without any of the fuss of feeding an army of people this early thanksgiving turkey soup will satisfy a few of the cravings with none of the fuss. The rice bulks out this dish to make it stick to your ribs filling while the sweet potatoes compliment the turkey and veggies.

The secret ingredient is sage. That’s what’s really going to give this soup that homemade stuffing inside the turkey flavor. I honestly don’t use a lot of sage in my cooking, it’s not my favorite flavor. But paired with the ingredients in this turkey soup it really works to bring it all together and make it taste like more than just turkey and rice. No need to buy expensive fresh sage, dried is fine. If you do have an herb garden go ahead and use 2 tsps of the fresh stuff!

Do bay leaves actually do anything?

Yes! However, it is slight. Bay leaves enhance stocks and sauces just like any seasoning will. You may not be able to tell right away if something has bay leaves in it, unless they forgot to scoop them out before serving, but they do provide another layer of flavor. They have a subtle tea like flavor that helps brighten up a dish. For lighter soups like this Thanksgiving turkey soup it will be more noticeable than in a heavier dish.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 2 large stalks celery diced
• 2 carrots diced
• 1 medium sweet potato peeled and chopped (about 2 ½ cups)
• 1 yellow squash chopped 
• 1 zucchini chopped
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried thyme 
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 2 tsp salt, or to taste
• ¼ tsp pepper, or to taste
• ¼ cup chopped loosely packed fresh parsley
• olive oil
• 4 cups cooked brown rice

Instructions

1. heat soup pot at medium high
2. brown ground turkey
3. remove and drain turkey, set aside
4. drain pan of liquid, return to heat at medium low, drizzle with olive oil
5. place diced veggies (onion, celery, carrots) in heated pan and cook for about 10 minutes until the onions have sweat
6. add garlic and other seasonings except fresh parsley, saute for a minute more
7. add the chopped veggies sweet potato, squash, zucchini
8. add chicken broth 
9. bring pot to boil then lower heat to low and cover
10. cook for about 15-20 minutes until sweet potato is soft
11. remove bay leaves
12. serve with rice and top with parsley

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