Turkey Gumbo…..Turkey Soup?

So we had an early Thanksgiving this weekend with my family and we were hosting so we bought the turkey. It was the first time we were responsible for purchasing the turkey so it was the first time I had to think… what do I do with all the leftovers?! My dad had mentioned that he normally makes a turkey gumbo with his and had briefly mentioned his recipe… WELL I thought I would try it today!

Let me preface this by saying that although I love to cook… I really just started learning how to cook about a year or two ago. With that being said, I normally follow a recipe to the T! I don’t know how to take a little pinch of this and a little handful of that to make an amazing meal :) However, the recipe my dad told me seemed easy enough so I thought I would give it a go.  Now that I have completed the meal, it looks more like a turkey soup and after talking with a friend and googling turkey gumbo recipes… I DID NOT make a gumbo :) I guess I will call it turkey soup aka Jennie’s Concoction! It is rather good and easy enough that anyone could do it!

This is perfect for those turkey leftovers, it is super healthy because you know what is going in your recipe and you can easily freeze it! Put dinner sized portions in ziploc freezer bags and store in the freezer until you are ready to eat! Thaw the night before and you can have a little piece of thanksgiving for dinner!

O.k. so don’t laugh (jeanne!) but this is my “turkey gumbo”, “turkey soup”, whatever you wanna call it :)

• Cut off what turkey meat you can from the bone
• Fill a large pot with water and boil. Put the entire turkey carcass in the water and let is slow boil for a few hours. (I boiled mine for about three hours and all the meat literally just fell off the bone!) This will make your homemade broth!
• While this is cooking, start chopping all your veggies. You can put in ANY veggies you like! (I added onions, carrots, celery, red peppers and cauliflower.. yes, even cauliflower! If I had mushrooms, I would have thrown those in too!)
• After you have boiled the carcass, strain out the meat and discard the bones.
• Cut the turkey down to bite sized pieces and add to your homemade broth! Throw in all your veggies and add ANY spices you like. (We deep fry our turkeys for thanksgiving and we injected it with creole butter and a cajun rub so the broth had a lot of flavor already. I did add a lot of pepper, some salt, a few bay leaves and some garlic salt.)
• Let everything boil until veggies soften and then simmer and EAT! Serve over noodles, rice or with a side of french bread for dipping! YUM!!

There you have it! Pretty easy- hope the description makes sense. It was SO yummy and I am so excited to have used all of our leftovers! I will be freezing it and am excited I can enjoy it for many meals! I would love to hear your recipes and how you use your leftover turkey meat! I would love to try other recipes out :)