Marissa's Turkey Minestrone Soup

Last Saturday was Thanksgiving in February at our house. In other words, my husband's parents were visiting so we went all out and made a Turkey dinner. So for this week, I needed a creative way to use some leftover Turkey. I searched "Turkey" on Allrecipes.com and found a recipe for minestrone. I used the soup base from this recipe, but I ended up changing the rest of the ingredients around, based on what we had in our fridge/at the store. Did I mention that Alina LOVES minestrone? Win.

 

Here are the ingredients that I used. Most of the measurements are a rough estimate, because when I cook I keep adding things until "it looks/tastes right" without always measuring. Not the best habit for a blogger to have...

• 2/3 cup chopped onion
• 1 medium zucchini, sliced
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 c. chopped fresh green beans
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans Italian stewed tomatoes
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 (16 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 c. chopped leftover turkey
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked ditalini pasta
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch pepper

I first chopped all the veggies and put them into my beautiful red dutch oven. I love the color red! I added enough olive oil to lightly coat them and let the veggies cook for about 5 minutes.

Next, I added in all the spices and garlic and cooked for about two minutes. Notice the steam (it smelled SO good!).

I then added the stewed tomatoes (In the future, I would used diced--they are more bite size), chicken broth (which was water + chx boullion), and kidney beans and brought it all to a boil.

Then, I chopped the turkey (this could be done ahead of time, too. I'm just trying to give you an accurate picture of how things took place in my kitchen).

I added the turkey, vinegar, and the pasta too the mix. In the future, I'd pre-cook the pasta then add it. It absorbed so much of the liquid--especially when we put the leftovers in the fridge. It was like a sponge. I let it cook on medium-high heat until the pasta was cooked through.

Easy peasy. It's really all about just adding veggies to a pot. Could it be more healthy or more easy? (Trick Question. The answer is actually "yes". Keep following our blog for more healthy/easy recipes!!)

The finished product:

Adam’s taste rating: 3 ladles
Brad’s taste rating: 4 ladles
Healthy rating: 4 ladles
Ease of prep rating: 4 ladles
Overall average: 3.75 ladles