The "What to do With all this Turkey" Minestrone

We hosted Christmas this year at our place (only 8 adults and Magnus) and had a great meal.  Like many of you I'm sure we had a tonne of turkey leftover and turkey buns get old after a few days.  So, in my attempts to get back on track with healthy eating and use up some of that marvellous bird I came up with this very satisfying and comforting soup.


Anyone with a well stocked pantry should be able to make this soup without running to the store for an ingredient.  So, into the slow cooker I added all the prepped ingredients.  I did not drain the juice from one of the cans of beans (Romano) so that it would help thicken and add a creamier texture to the soup.  If you want a thicker soup feel free to add all the beans undrained (draining and rinsing will help reduce  salt so if your watching your sodium keep that in mind).

The great thing about this meal simmering away in the slow cooker is that the less desired turkey meat  can be used: drier bits will soften, the dark meat can hide among the rest of the ingredients, and white meat will become nice and moist.

So me in my creative impulsiveness started up the slow cooker at 6pm for lunch the next day.  I let it cook for 4-5 hours on high until the veggies were tender.  If you have more time though cooking on low would let the flavours develop more and keep the beans intact (about 1/3 of the beans in this soup split but I think that added to the creamy texture).  I would assume about 8 hours would work if simmering on low.  This soup is very forgiving and if you are missing something, wanting to add an ingredient or substitute different types of beans I'm sure it would still taste great!

As I continually attempt to clean up my diet I would like to use more dry beans, less canned ingredients and fresher spices when possible.  But in saying that I'm glad this meal came together so quickly, lol.  I did not add any salt to this soup as with all the canned ingredients there was a sufficient salt.  Serve with of without parmesan, enjoy :)

The Recipe:

3 stalks of celery chopped
4 carrots chopped
1-2 onions diced
1-2 cups of chopped turkey
2 cups of turkey stock (more if you want a more brothy soup)
2 cans of diced tomatoes (not the large ones)
1 14 ounce can of kidney beans
1 19 ounce can of Romano or navy beans
1/2 tsp of dried garlic
1/2 tbs of dried thyme and oregano
1 tbs of dried basil
2-3 bay leaves
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tsp of sugar
ground pepper to taste