One of the joys of Thanksgiving - besides getting together with family and friends of course -
is making Turkey Noodle Soup out of the turkey bones. With Thanksgiving right around the corner,
I thought I'd post my simple recipe, complete with homemade egg noodles.
It all starts with a big pot and some aromatics - carrots, celery, peppercorns, and bay leaves. If you're using celery, go ahead and use the tops and the leafy greens - there's lots of good flavor in there. You can also
add other of your favorites: onion, garlic, fennel... If you're going to share the soup with your 4-legged
family members, please don't use onions - onions can be toxic to dogs and cats.
Add in the turkey bones and enough cold water to cover.
Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer the broth for an hour or two.
After simmering, the veggies and bones will be completely cooked down and will have given the broth
a wonderful flavor, but it's time to remove all of them from the broth.
Pour your cooked broth through a colander, catching the broth in another pot. See all those limp veggies? They've
given their all to the broth - go ahead and toss those out. Save the bones to glean any meat.
I like to also pour my broth through a fine strainer to catch any little bits and stray peppercorns.
Pick off any meat that may be still clinging to the turkey bones. I like to add this back to the soup, but will
also sometimes supplement with some of the leftover turkey meat that hasn't been cooked in the broth-making step. That meat tends to be moister and more tender.
Now we're ready to make soup! Start with some fresh chopped veggies - I like the carrots and celery, but again - anything goes. Add your favorites here. You *could* stop here and just cook your veggies in the broth and season to taste with salt, pepper, and perhaps some poultry seasoning or sage, but the soup gets even better with homemade noodles! If you're in a rush, go ahead and use store bought noodles (I won't tell anyone), but if you've got a few minutes, read on and make your own homemade egg noodles - they're well worth the little bit of effort!
The egg noodles start with 1 C. of all purpose flour, a few sprinkles of salt, and one egg. You'll also need about 2-3 Tbs of cold water.
Mix the egg/flour/salt all together with a fork, trying to use a light touch to not work the flour too much. Stir from the bottom up as opposed to mashing down on top of it - this will keep your noodles nice and light. The dough will look kind of ratty at first and you'll need to add the water a little bit at a time - add only enough water for the dough to come together.
Shape your dough into a ball and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Then divide the dough into 4 pieces to make it easier to roll out.
Roll your dough out on a floured board. Be sure to move your dough around on the board to ensure it doesn't stick on the bottom - add more flour as need to keep it free.
Roll each piece of dough into a "circle" about 12" across. Don't be too fussy here - the rolled dough doesn't have to be any particular shape, but you want it pretty thin.
I've found that a nice way to cut the dough into nice long noodles is to sprinkle the surface of the dough lightly with some flour and then wrap it around the rolling pin...
... then slide the rolling pin out.
Now slice the layered dough into noodles of whatever width you'd like.
Toss your noodles between your fingers to separate the layers - add a little bit more flour if they're threatening to stick to each other. Place your cut noodles on a tray lined with a clean kitchen towel while you roll/cut the remaining dough.
You could spread these noodles onto a wire mesh tray and allow them to dry at this point, but I like to use them in their fresh, soft state in my soup.
After the veggies in your soup are cooked through, drop the noodles into your boiling soup. Be sure to stir as they go in so they don't stick together.
Your fresh noodles will cook up really fast - only 3-4 minutes tops and they're done! Taste your soup again for seasoning and adjust if need be.
And you've got yummy homemade turkey noodle soup - enjoy!
If you're lucky enough to have more broth than you can use right away, it freezes really well. I like to freeze the plain broth and then I can use any veggies I like when I make soup. I cool the strained broth and then put it into freezer containers and then can make soup whenever we feel like having some. My big pot that I usually use for broth making is too big to fit nicely in the fridge (especially when there are other Thanksgiving leftovers hanging out in there) so I've found that an ice chest with lots of ice does a great job of chilling the broth quickly so I can get it packed up and into the freezer.
