Turkey soup is chicken soup’s restorative country cousin, so to speak. It’s something to make with that leftover Thanksgiving carcass sitting in the freezer on a day when we’re too schlepped out to go to the store. With a house full of people with bronchitis, and one who subsequently developed pneumonia, soup was the only thing on our minds, and it had to be easy and made with items already in the house. This wonderful turkey soup with lokshen (thin soup noodles) was the felicitous outcome.
If you don’t happen to have a turkey carcass sitting in your freezer, make it from turkey necks or a combination of turkey necks and wings. Roast them or not as a prelude to making the soup. It’s delicious either way.
Turkey Soup with Lokshen
Yield: 12 or more servings
Ingredients:
- 1 turkey carcass or 2 pounds of turkey parts, such as necks and wings
- 3 T. white wine vinegar
- 1 ½ T. salt or more to taste
- 2 large bay leaves
- 1 T. whole black peppercorns
- 1 T. thyme, divided
- 6 carrots
- 2 heads of garlic
- 2 large onions
- 8 stalks of celery, preferably some with light-colored leaves
- 4 T. schmaltz or oil
- 1 lb. thin soup noodles
Method:
- (If using turkey parts, drizzle with a neutral vegetable oil, and roast in a 425° F oven until brown, about 40 minutes, turning once, halfway through.) Place turkey carcass, or roasted turkey parts and their juices into a stockpot with cold water to cover. Add 3 T. white wine vinegar, and steep for one hour at room temperature.
- Bring pot to a boil on high heat. Add salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, 1 ½ t. thyme, 2 peeled carrots cut into chunks, 2 skin-on heads garlic sliced in half horizontally, 3 roughly cut up stalks of celery, and one skin-on onion, sliced in half. Lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for three hours.
- Strain soup over large bowl. Place strained soup back into soup pot. When cool enough to handle, pick any turkey meat off the bones, chop, and reserve.
- Chop onions finely and sauté in schmaltz until soft. Chop remaining vegetables finely and add to onions. Sauté for 5 minutes and then add remaining 1 ½ t. thyme and sauté until fragrance rises.
- Add vegetable sauté to soup pot and simmer while you cook the noodles.
- To cook noodles: bring medium pot of water to a boil, add a handful of salt, and then the noodles. Stir until done, 3-5 minutes. Drain, and add 1 T. schmaltz and some salt to drained noodles to keep them from sticking.
- Serve soup with noodles and reserved chopped turkey.