Leftovers Again?

It's 8:00 pm, and I've been cleaning all evening. I realize I haven't even had supper yet, and slaving over a meal is the last thing I feel like doing. I have a ton of Christmas leftovers, yet I am sick of the traditional meals of the Holidays at this point. That means it's time to experiment!

My new favorite, which has GOT to become a tradition from here on out, is definitely the Turkey & Rice Soup! Oh my goodness- leftovers never tasted so great! Never would I have thought to try this, but Mr Jess encouraged me to take over his kitchen and use anything I could find. What an invitation! It turned out to be super easy, and in reality, doesn't take very long at all. I was experimenting, so it took a little longer than it should have. Next time, it will be a synch! Here's the super easy and slightly ambiguous recipe:

Ingredients:

• Leftover Turkey
• As much or as little as you like - He had SMOKED turkey! PERFECT for this recipe. Also, you want to shred it up into bite-sized bits of yum!
• 1 C. of Brown Rice
• 32 oz. Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 3/4 bag of frozen Mixed Veggies - I used a carrot/cauliflower/broccoli mixture
• Velveeta Cheese to taste - optional, but it's a good option! :-) If you don't use cheese, find something else to use to thicken the soup up a bit.
• Some butter - to taste - and please don't use plastic-coated nickles! ... I mean margarine.
• Minced Garlic (So much better than powder!)
• Minced Onion
•  Spices
• I used lots of pepper, little salt, lots of chili powder, parsley, and would have used some red pepper flakes if I had some...

First, start your rice cooking in a fairly deep pot. But instead of water, use 1 & 1/4 C. of the chicken broth to boil it in. SO much more flavor! Cook according to package instructions, except I added the extra 1/4 C. of broth, just because I wanted to. Because I don't follow recipes exactly - where is the fun in that? :-)

While the rice is cooking, I did a quick saute with the butter and onions, until they are soft. Then toss the minced garlic in for about 60 seconds, but don't let it brown. Add about 1/4 C of the chicken broth to this, let it heat up, then put the leftover turkey in this. Add your seasons to the turkey, and let it simmer in the liquid-gold mixture. I left this simmering for a good 15 minutes, just don't let it burn or reduce. Keep the heat nice and low. Sing some Christmas songs while you wait. It's never out of season :-)

You can add the rest of the chicken broth to the rice now. Let it heat back up, and then add your frozen veggies. Let me tell ya, the carrots, cauliflower and broccoli were perfect for this! Let them cook in the rice and broth until tender. Make sure not to over-cook those beautiful veggies!

Once the veggies reach tender perfection, you can add all of the turkey and broth mixture into the rice and veggies pot. It will look kind of greasy, due to the beautiful butter sitting on top. Just go right ahead and pour that in, too! Saturated fat in butter is SO much better for you than the receptor-blocking nickle components found in margarine (it's true, margarine will turn you into a nutrient-blocking, plastic-artery partial-human thing- research it!). Keep the soup at a low simmer.

This is where you cube up your Velveeta and plop it into your soup to melt up all creamy and delicious. I put about an inch and a half worth of cheese into our soup. It thickens the soup up and gives it a great flavor, of course! If you don't add the cheese, your soup may be a little runnier than you want.

Let it all melt together, add a few more seasonings if you feel it needs it, and spoon it into the deepest bowl you can find! This recipe yielded about five single servings.

Fast, simple, and quite possibly the best Turkey and Rice Soup I have ever had! But that is probably because I've never had it before. I hope you try this recipe with your leftovers and enjoy it!

Thanks to Mr Jess for the use of his kitchen and leftovers to make this!