Leftover Turkey Soup with Wild Rice

A Solid Recipe Plan For Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey.

Take this turkey soup recipe and immediately add it to your holiday recipe arsonal. It’s so easy, so good, and ensures that none of that leftover turkey goes to waste. There’s always a lot of focus on the Thanksgiving feast itself—but what do you do with all that leftover meat?

Every year, we find ourselves looking for ways to incorporate leftover turkey into our weekly meal plan once Thanksgiving has passed. Whether it be Turkey Hand Pies, Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Pozole Rojo or this simple and flavor-packed turkey and wild rice soup solves that age-old problem.

Waste Not Want Not.

The last thing we want after a holiday is more heavy food, but we also don’t want to be wasteful with what is left in our fridges. This light and simple turkey soup with wild rice and lots of veggies is, without a doubt, the ultimate healthy comfort dish.

Repurposing leftovers is a great way to take part in Kroger’s Zero Hunger Zero Waste initiative. If you weren't already aware, more than 40% of the food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten, yet 1 in 8 Americans struggle with hunger. Food waste undermines food security. So Kroger has committed to eliminating waste in their company completely by 2020 and ending hunger in the communities they serve by 2025.

How Do You Make Turkey Soup?

This rice and turkey soup recipe is so easy and comes together in a flash, making it just the kind of recipe you’ll want to have on hand after the hustle and bustle of the holidays. It is guaranteed to put your fridge full of leftover turkey to good use. Here’s how to make this soup:

1. Head to your local store to pick-up ingredients. Our market of choice is our local Fred Meyer store, which makes shopping for our meals such a breeze.

2. Cook the onions and celery in the olive oil until tender.

3. Add the broth (or homemade turkey stock), seasoning, and rice and simmer for 20 minutes until the rice is tender.

4. Add the turkey and kale and simmer for 5 more minutes until the turkey is warm.

5. You just made yourself a healthy, easy 30-minute dinner, enjoy!

Do I Have to Use Leftover Turkey For This Soup?

Can we let you in on a little secret? It doesn't have to be November to enjoy cooking with turkey! Most supermarkets (like our Fred Meyer stores) carry turkey in the freezer section ALL year long, making this turkey soup recipe a great weeknight dinner option any time you’d like. However, there’s no rule that says you can’t swap in chicken for the turkey meat.

Here is a little tip for our fellow turkey fanatics: before our local Fred Meyer store stops selling turkeys at Thanksgiving time we buy ourselves just one more of those beautiful birds and are usually able to get a great deal on it. We save it for a few weeks before cooking it up for dinner (so we are all in the mood for turkey again) and feed the whole family (plus dinner guests) a toned down version of the classic Thanksgiving turkey all over again. Then, I use the leftovers (once again!) to create stunning dishes like this Leftover Turkey Soup recipe!

Tips For Making This Easy Turkey Soup:

The tips we have for making this soup are simple:

• Make sure you cook the onions for a long time. The idea here isn't to caramelize them, but to get them completely translucent before adding them to the broth. This will ensure that there isn’t a sharp onion taste to the broth.

• If you can’t find wild rice, feel free to use white or brown long grain rice instead. The recipe will be great either way.

Reminder: Wild rice still has a “toothsome” bite to it when it is fully cooked. It doesn’t turn into mush like other rice varieties which makes it a wonderful choice for this turkey soup recipe.

What to Serve With Your Turkey Soup:

This turkey soup recipe makes for a wonderful lunch all on its own. It can also be a hearty dinner served with a piece of good bread or this Cornbread with Creamed Corn and Jalapeño Infused Honey on the side.

If you’d like to turn this humble bowl of leftover turkey soup with wild rice into a bountiful dinner for guests, why not add a salad? Both this Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Creamy Maple Dressing and this Celery Pear and Hazelnut Salad would make festive additions to a thoroughly autumn dinner.

What Else Can I Make With Leftover Turkey?

• This Asian inspired Turkey Soup is another one of our go-to recipes when trying to use up Thanksgiving leftovers.
• Why not use some of that turkey as a meaty addition to this Green Curry Buddha Bowl or this Coconut Curry Lentil Soup?
• You can also use your turkey in place of chicken in this Skillet Chicken Pot Pie or this Quinoa Bowl with delicious sauce with delicious results.

Leftovers For Dinner? Yes, Please!

If you make this Leftover Turkey Soup Recipe we’d love to hear about it! Be sure to snap a photo, add it to your Instagram feed or stories and tag @themodernproper and #themodernproper if you do. Also, feel free to leave a comment on the post and tell your friends where you discovered the recipe!