Leftover Roast Turkey Soup

At my family's place, when Thanksgiving is done right, there are a few things you're sure to find strewn about the place the morning after: A couple guitars and some half empty bottles of scotch. Turkey meat and a carcass. Plenty of mild hangovers to nurse.

I don't know about you, but if it's not staying in bed and wishing I were never born (or at least that the damned Scotsman who first decided to distill fermented barley had never been born), my next course of action to cure a hangover is to cook my way through it. There's something quite soothing about the repetitive task of cutting carrots into bite sized cubes, or very deliberately slicing an onion, one sliver at a time. Force of habit from working too many Sunday morning shifts at restaurants, I suppose.

So it makes sense that turkey soup is up there on my list of Thanksgiving leftovers.

As far as leftovers recipes goes, it's pretty much a no-brainer. You have the turkey carcass lying around, so all you need is a bit of store-bought or homemade chicken broth to simmer it in and you'll end up with a flavorful turkey base in just about an hour. Meanwhile, carrots, celery, onions, and some chopped up lardons of bacon are my go-to additions, though really any leftover vegetables will work. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, Brussels sprouts leaves, whatever you got, the soup pot can take it.

The beauty with Thanksgiving food is that we're used to mashing all those flavors together on one plate, which means they'll work just as well in one bowl.