Creamy Turkey Soup

We had friends visiting over the weekend. Because of our guests, we decided it was the perfect time to cook the turkey that'd been sitting in our freezer for a month, waiting for a special occasion.

I know what you're thinking - "How can you have a turkey in your freezer for a month?! Didn't it take up all the room?"

Well, it would have, except we finally went out and purchased a stand-alone freezer.

This is the key to creating affordable gluten free meals when you live rurally like we do. We make a Whole Foods, Costco, and/or Trader Joe's run once a month or so, but since these stores are all at least an hour away, we have to stock up when we're there. Add to that garden produce and CSA veggies, and you get the picture. An extra freezer is a necessity.

So we cooked up a Thanksgiving-esque meal with our freezer turkey and enjoyed it to its fullest.

But then we were left with the unappealing turkey leftovers. You know the ones I mean - not the delicious light-and-dark meat that is great for sandwiches.

I mean these leftovers.

Ewwww...

In our house a year ago, this lovely turkey carcass would have gone straight into the trash. Who wants to stare at that thing for long? It's like a horror film!

"Oh no! The zombies got at the turkey!"


Now, however, in the spirit of good stewardship, watching our food budget, and just wanting to learn more about cooking delicious food, we decided to try a soup.

How was it?

See for yourself!

Here's the recipe. I modified it to make it healthier (the previous one called for a whole pound of butter! eep!), tastier, and gluten free.

As a bonus, you even get some extra broth to save or freeze for later. The original recipe can be found here at All Recipes by Valerie Walker.

Ingredients:
1 leftover turkey carcass (our turkey started at 12 pounds before we picked it clean)
1 onion, chopped
5 large carrots, diced
1/2 c. spinach
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. gluten free flour (we used 1/2 c. Bob's Red Mill brown rice flour and 1/4 c. Bob's Red Mill white rice four)
2 cups milk (we used skim)
1 cup uncooked rice (we used brown basmati)
1 1/2 t. black pepper
2 t. parsley
2 t. sea salt

Instructions
1. Place turkey carcass in a soup pot and cover with water. Add 1/2 t. black pepper, 1 t. parsley, 1 t. sea salt, and 1/2 one small onion, chopped. Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.

2. Remove carcass; cool. Strain broth to weed out any scary chunks. Set broth aside.

3. In the soup pot, saute the rest of the onion, the carrots, and the spinach in the butter until tender. Reduce heat; stir in flour until blended. Gradually add 1/2 of the broth. Set the other 1/2 aside; save for a later meal.

4. Add milk, rice, salt, pepper, remaining broth, and extra turkey meat from the carcass. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 40 minutes, or until rice is tender.

5. Eat. Love it. Be happy.