Turkey rice soup is a fantastic way to use up leftover turkey after the holidays. Healthy, flavorful and easy to make. And oh, so comforting! Plus, it freezes well, making it a good option for meal prepping.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 yellow or white onion chopped
- 1 large carrot cut into thin half-circles
- 1 large celery stalk chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1.25 teaspoon dried thyme
- 3/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
- 3/4 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth or more if needed (See Note 1)
- 3/4 cup brown rice rinsed well (See Note 2)
- 3 cups chopped or shredded cooked turkey breast (see Note 3)
- 3 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
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Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan set over medium heat.
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Add the onions, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and becomes translucent.
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Add the garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
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Pour in the chicken broth and stir in the brown rice. Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce the heat so that the liquid is at a lively simmer. On my stove, that’s between medium-low and medium, but varies from stove to stove.
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Cover the saucepan. While cooking, stir the soup occasionally, scraping gently along the bottom of the saucepan with a wooden spoon, to make sure the rice isn’t sticking. Cook until the rice is tender, about 45 minutes. This will vary, depending on the rice and stovetop heat. Tasting the rice (careful, it will be hot) is the best way to test for doneness.
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Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the turkey and parsley. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.
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Add additional broth if too much of it cooked down while simmering.
Notes
Note 1: If the broth cooks down too much while the soup simmers, you may want to stir in more broth at the end. Be sure to heat the soup for a couple of minutes if you do so.
Note 2: I use brown basmati rice, but other varieties work, too. Avoid using short-grain brown rice for this recipe. It is much stickier than a long-grain brown rice.
Note 3: Feel free to use either light (turkey breast) or dark (thigh) roasted turkey meat, or a combination of the two. The nutritional information was calculated using cooked turkey breast.
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I provide nutritional information for my recipes as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using the LoseIt! calculator. While I attempt to provide information that is as accurate as possible, you should calculate the nutritional information independently before relying on it.
