Recovery Soup

After the looooong Mother's Day weekend, we were all tired, sluggish, and in general need of recuperation after our overindulgence in food and travel. When I asked my hubby what to do about dinner on Monday, he said, "Soup."

"Soup?" He never wants soup. So I made soup. Recovery soup, designed to make us feel all warm and loved inside. And able to go to bed without feeling overly full.



Ingredients:

2 cups chicken stock
1 cup quinoa
ends and bits of about 4 pieces of celery
1 onion, chopped and divided
4 carrots, chopped and divided
4 cloves garlic
3 tbsp. thyme
2 smoked turkey drumsticks
2 smoked turkey wings
4 cups water
6-7 sliced mushrooms
2 tsp. olive oil


In a small pan, cook together the ends and leaves from your celery (I save these up for such a time) along with 1 chopped carrot and about 1/4 chopped onion in 2 cups of water. Once water is boiling, reduce to a simmer and add 1 tbsp. of the thyme. Let simmer on your stove at a low heat. If the liquid starts to evaporate, add more water.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, and carrots, and stir. Cook until the veggies begin to grow soft. Throw the smoked turkey in there, mine was still frozen when I did this step. Pour the chicken stock over it and add the remaining water. Cook over low heat, not really boiling anything. Let it cook for 30 minutes or so, occasionally stirring. At this point the turkey was sticking out above the liquid, and that was ok. After thirty minutes or so, throw in the rest of the thyme and add a lid to the pot, continuing to cook over low heat.

Take your small pan and strain the liquid from it into a bowl, discarding (composting) the vegetables. Pour the liquid back into the pan and add the quinoa. Bring the quinoa and liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat. Put a lid on it and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the quinoa looks curly. The veggie broth helps not only flavor the soup, but also flavors the quinoa.

Remove the smoked turkey from the pot and shred the meat off of the bones. Return the meat to the soup, reserving the bones to make more broth out of.
Once your quinoa is finished cooking, pour it, liquids and all, into the larger soup pot. Stir everything up and let it simmer together for about 5 more minutes.


Why, might you ask, is this recovery soup? The quinoa makes it filling, but still not overly heavy. You're getting protein, veggies, a great dose of minerals and liquids. It made us all feel good. The baby and I each ate two bowls, I think my hubby had four. My daughter had eaten dinner earlier at my parents' house, but tried it and declared she wished she had room because it was delish.




Tomorrow I am making Curry Lentil Soup. It's from a recipe given to me by a friend, so I'll have to see if I can share it here......