Turkey | A CoLoRfUl PaLaTe

I feel like this entire holiday season has been filled with turkey. After roasting and frying two free work turkeys, the leftovers were staggering despite inviting several friends over to share in the spread.

Our dog is still enjoying the fried turkey, the oil from which apparently remains in trace quantities in our backyard. And if anyone is going to track down a small drop of fried turkey oil, it’s Madison.

We were left with so much food that the obvious solution is throwing it into a giant soup. I can’t take credit for this dish though. Mike has a knack for randomly deciding to make dinner and busting out an amazing recipe. This soup he made on a chilly day last week is definitely blog-worthy, although he wasn’t used to having to keep track of every shake of the spice bottle.

Soups have the advantage of being filling and giving you tons of leftovers, which was great in the midst of the holidays when I felt like the last thing I had time for was cooking.

Whether you have leftovers or not, this dish is doable with any combination of ingredients, and with our without meat.

What You Need:

2.5 quarts vegetable broth (you can make your own by boiling veggies in water and draining out the broth)
3 carrots, sliced into disks
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch mustard greens, leaves pulled from stems and chopped
2 large yams, cut into 1-inch cubes
1.5 cups roasted turkey, hand-pulled into small pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp olive oil

What You Do:

In a large skillet heated on medium with oil, add carrots and celery and cover, cooking until just softened.

Add garlic and onion and cook until onion is soft and translucent.

In a large soup pot, bring broth to a boil and add the yams, cooking for about 5 minutes.

Turn the soup pot heat down to a simmer and add the carrots, celery, onion and mustard greens to the pot.

Stir and continue heating for about 10 minutes or until all veggies are soft and mustard greens are limp and reduced.

Serve with bread of choice for dipping – we used pretzel bread rolls from our local food store. Delish!

Pro Tip: As I said, you can add anything to this dish that you have lying around. It would be great with other greens like bok choy, spinach or kale, and other veggies like sweet potatoes or turnips.

I love turkey burger night at our house. I go all out – way past the point I probably should considering it began (more than a year ago) as a quick and easy weeknight dinner solution. But I got carried away. And that’s OK, because the end result is always totally worth it. And for a turkey burger, I consider that a decent dinner achievement.

It happened because Mike eats a LOT, and I like leftovers. Since those two things are hard to reconcile, I started thinking of ways to beef up my turkey, so to speak. You might find there are more other ingredients than turkey, but this recipe makes 6-8 burgers so it’s perfect for a family dinner, or a dinner for two with plenty of leftovers 🙂

What You’ll Need:

1 package ground turkey
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup grated sweet potato
1 bell pepper, any color, chopped
3/4 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
Goat cheese (or cheese of choice)

What You Do:

Heat 2 tbsps of olive oil in a large skillet on medium.

In a food processor, blend black beans and sweet potato until course, not smooth.

Add all other ingredients – except the cheese – and mix well. Form into burger patties and place in the skillet. Form a small hole in the center of each patty. Place a few pieces of cheese in each and cover up again.

Cook slowly uncovered, flipping frequently until each side is browned.

Pro Tip: Serve with avocado and pea shoots on top.