Turkey Noodle Soup

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hrs 45 mins
  • Serves: 10,Yield: 5quarts

    • About This Recipe

    “With Thanksgiving close at hand (early October in Canada and late November in the United States) this simple recipe helps utilize the inevitable turkey leftovers. Enjoy!”

    Ingredients

  • 5quartswater
  • 1cupcelery, chopped
  • 1/2 cupcelery leaves, chopped
  • 1cuponion, chopped
  • 7chicken bouillon cubes
  • 1tablespoonsalt
  • 1/4 teaspoonblack pepper, ground
  • 1bay leaf
  • 1/2 cupfresh parsley, chopped( see notes)
  • 1cup fresh peas or 1cupfrozen peas
  • 1cupcarrot, sliced
  • 1cupcut green beans, fresh or frozen
  • 4cupsfine egg noodles( 8 Oz)
  • 1/4 cup butter or 1/4 cupmargarine
  • 1/4 cupflour
  • turkey carcass, from a 15-20 pound turkey

    • Directions

  • In an eight quart kettle or Dutch oven place turkey bones, water — down through to and including the bay leaf.
  • Heat to boiling; reduce heat, cover and simmerfor 1 hour.
  • Remove the bones to a platter and let c ool.
  • Add the parsley through to green beans.
  • Heat to boiling; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, scrape meat from carcass and return meat to soup pot. Add liquid ifrequired.
  • Heat to boiling; add noodles and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
  • Melt butter in a small frying pan; stir in flour.
  • Cook over low heat, stirringconstantly, until the flour browns.
  • Stir into boiling soup.
  • When the soupreturns to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Serve hot in largebowls – as if there were any other kind! – Enjoy.
  • Notes: I serve this with fresh French Bread and butter.
  • I have used yellow beans and a mixture of both.
  • Once I wound up using frozen mixed vegetables – and itwas still good.
  • On two makings, chicken was substituted for the turkey – and itturned out well.
  • Hints on Herbs and Spices: To substitute dried herbs for fresh, use 1/3 tsp powdered or 1/2 tsp crushed for every Tbsp of fresh chopped herbs.
  • To test for dryness before packing (in case of drying f resh herbs for winter use) put a few sprigs or leaves in a tightly covered jar and watch for condensation.
  • Store herbs in tightly covered jars, away from heat. Add mint, oregano, basil and any other dried herbs to recipes at the end or near end of cooking time for a more pronounced flavour.
  • If you are enlarging recipes, spice to taste rather than to measure. When preparing cooked foods for freezing, it is advisable to under-season them with herbs or spices, then add more seasoning to taste when you reheat them and you will have the ultimate in flavour.

    • Reviews

  • “This recipe is easy, economical, and excellent.I enjoyed preparing the soup and I had many curious inquiries in the kitchen where I work as to what I was heating up for my lunch.Yummy!”

  • “WOW, so easy and an incredibly good, hearty soup!Based on other reviewers comments and our own preferences, I made a few adjustments, but the overall recipe is a WINNER that I will continue to use, with chicken as well!My modifications were: Instead of water, used low-sodium, low-fat chicken broth; instead of bouillon cubes, I used ½ packet Lipton onion soup mix; I used 2 bay leaves instead of 1; instead of green beans, I used a jar mushroom pieces; can of corn; 3 gloves crushed garlic; and 1 tsp rosemary.Instead of flour/water roux, I poured in leftover turkey gravy, which was perfect.And finally, also cook my noodles separately and spoon them into individual soup bowls so they don’t get overly done or leave the soup starchy.Thanks, Frank!!!”

  • “Fantastic! I make this with chicken after having a roast chicken for dinner the night before. I omit the peas and beans and add more carrots, but it is so yummy and some real “comfort food.” As an American living in the UK we cant get chicken noodle soup readily so having a great recipe to make it from scratch has been a lifesaver, and a little taste of home. Thanks for the recipe!”

  • “Excellent!I used Rescued Turkey Broth (recipe on zaar) instead of the water and bouillon cubes.Left out the green beans and peas due to family’s preferences and added a little white wine and some thyme.This made an outstanding soup and will be my new Thanksgiving leftover soup from now on.Thanks for posting this wonderful recipe!!!(Gobble, gobble)”

  • “So fabulous!I even made this without the turkey carcass and used chicken stock for the base.I added 6 cloves of minced garlic and satuee’d the garlic, onion, celery and carrot in a bit of EVOO before adding to the boiling stock.I made pasta on the side (so I could keep the leftovers from getting starchy) and I omitted the green peas and green beans (hate them!) and upped the other veggies.I used leftover turkey meat.PHENOMENAL and RICH!Great recipes!”

  • “Very easy and tasty. I actually made my own favorite turkey broth (just using salt, no bouillion), then added the veggies, leftover turkey and gluten-free noodles. I wasn’t sure if I would like the butter-flour roux, but it added just the right amount of thickness and butter flavor.”

  • “This soup was fabulous!I omitted the flour/butter as I was afraid it would thicken it too much for my taste.I loved it!My 15 year old son, who usually grunts and groans when I make something new, loved it as well.Thank you for the recipe Frank!”

  • “This was such a good soup.I made it after Thanksgiving for my family.They just raved over it.Had many compliments.Thanks for posting this recipe.”

  • “Everyone says this is the best turkey soup ever!This is almost identical to how I’ve always made it except for the roux and I was surprised by what a nice flavor and consistency it added, I wouldn’t skip it.Thanks for a staple!”

  • “This recipes is by far the best soup I have ever made!I brought it in to share at work and left with an empty pot.”

  • “Yummy! We didn’t have any egg noodles, so we made homemade ones and they were perfect in this dish. Nice & hearty!”

  • “Fantastic recipe!The only thing I would change is to add more of the turkey to the soup.We always end up with plenty of left-overs, and this was a great way to use them and have a hearty soup.”

  • “Fabulous, and fabulously easy if the stock is already made and the turkey cleaned.Thank you, Frank!”

  • “We had Turkey for the Thanksgiving (Canada) and used the bones and the leftover meat for this recipe. Man oh man!! It’s the best!! I made some changes though, instead of chicken bouilon cubes, I used chicken powder also used dried parsley. I also added a little bit of thyme and used mixed veggies (carrots, corn, peas, beans and lima beans) as I have a lot of them in the freezer and lastly added some mushroms. We all enjoyed it and now we are looking foward for the next holiday to have turkey and I’ll surely made this again.”

  • “Simply fantastic!!!I made it today and used many of the suggestions made by other reviewers – adding garlic, using chicken stock instead of water, added corn as well.I made the noodles on the side and added them in – great suggestion – makes the soup more versatile.I omitted the making of the roux as I did not think it was needed based on the other reviews.I am going to make this using rotisserie chicken from the store – dice up the skin and all.Thanks Frank!!!!!”

  • “Very nice on this cold wintery day. I substituted corn for the peas, tossed in a cardamom pod, too. Served with warm rolls.”

  • “This is a terrific recipe!!It is the first one I’ve found with so much flavor, even my picky kids ate this up!The only modification I made was to add a chopped clove of garlic (being italian we gotta add garlic).And maybe a little less water next time.Thanks Frank for a great recipe!!”

  • “Delicious!!Perfect meal to clear out leftovers in the fridge.After having a delicious turkey over the weekend, the carcass was used as well as the carrots, celery and corn. (WOW lots of c’s in this soup!) I did feel that I did not need the 5 quarts of water and could of added more water at the end, if necessary!To make it healthier, I left out the noodles and used a harvest grain blend from Trader Joe’s. Thankd Frank!”

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