Thanksgiving Dumpling Soup

A slightly different way to get rid of Thanksgiving leftovers – This is just going to be an idea more than an exact a recipe. I can’t remember exactly what I used, but I remember the chipotle was a really great kick.

Stock made from turkey bones
Shredded turkey, whatever is left over
One butternut squash, diced (about 4 cups)
Two carrots, diced
8 oz cremini mushrooms, choppped
One can diced tomatoes with juice
Onion, Garlic
2 or 3 chipotle peppers, pureed or diced finely
1 or 2 tsp adobo (from the can of chipotle)
Cumin, salt, pepper

Caramelize the onion, add the garlic towards the end. Add the butternut squash and carrot, saute till almost soft. Do the same with the mushrooms a few minutes later. Add the shredded turkey and mix it around with the other flavorings. Add the cumin, salt, pepper, chipotles and adobo. Mix in the tomatoes and broth and let it simmer until the squash and carrots are soft.

Dumplings – these were a bit hard, so I’m open to suggestions for another method.

1 cup flour, 1 egg, dried herbs, salt, pepper

Mix the egg and flour and seasonings till it forms a sticky, eggy dough. Break of little rounds of it and drop it into boiling broth. They’ll float to the top when done.

I made these for a family dinner this weekend – we had Ameir’s mom and Ameir’s stepfather over for dinner (and Mom gave me this phenomenal floral blooming tea set that I can’t wait to try. And yes, there will be pictures). The whole dinner, attempting to be mostly low carb, was: this stuffed chicken – spaghetti squash with garlic cherry tomato sauce – grilled asparagus garnished with grilled lemon – grilled eggplant rolled with ricotta, carrots, and olive tamponade – couscous with corn (oop, not low carb) – potatoes (ouch, sorry) and bruschetta with garlic-sundried tomato-herb butter (ouch again). I said mostly low carb.

These were very tender and a fresh change from my usual, heavy, creamy mushroom stuffed chicken. I’m glad that the chicken was still super moist without having to stuff it with bread cubes.

Recipe here: (more…)

Another extraordinary part of the Sara-TQ Asian dinner extravaganza. The flavor in this meat was so incredible because of the soy sauce and red curry paste. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Make sure you let your mouse scroll over the pictures for the caption!