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This month, my youngest son Jakey Boy became a 40 year old man! He has been married for nearly 10 years, has 4 kids under the age of 7…and he happens to be a great cook. Back in the day when I had my catering company Klass Act, he would work for us and was truly one of the best employees I had. He could whip up 10 batches of Caesar salad dressing quickly and accurately, he would cut vegetables exactly as specified, and was one of the few people I did not have to micromanage.
So, it is no surprise that he and his wife now make amazing food for their family. He and I like the same things, the same amount of salt and spice. For his birthday dinner, he served a 16-pound turkey with gravy, an herb filled seasonal salad, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with tahini sauce, a fresh baguette, and I made an orange cake for dessert. As we were packing up food, I offered to take the turkey carcass and make soup for their family (and save a small amount for the two of us). And finally I wrote down what I put in the soup since I use my large pressure cooker. Voila!
Turkey Vegetable Soup
Serves 10-15
Ingredients
- Carcass and bones remaining from 14-16 pound turkey
- 2 cups leftover turkey meat if you have it (I usually do not)
- 1 large yellow onion, peeled but left whole
- 1 cups of pearl barley, rinsed
- 1 cup dried brown lentils
- 1 cup dried split lentils or split peas (yellow or green or red or a mix
- 1 ½ cups dried large lima beans (these are my favorite)
- ½ cup fresh green beans, trim and cut into 1” pieces
- 6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into ½ inch pieces
- 3 stalks celery, diced into ½ inch pieces
- Salt and pepper to taste – about 20 grinds of black pepper and 2 tsp of kosher salt
Instructions
Ideally, ask whoever is carving the turkey to leave some meat on the bones. With your hands, try to break the carcass into a few pieces so it fits in the pot. If you have extra turkey meat, add this at the end.
Place the carcass into a large pressure cooker and add the remaining ingredients except the fresh vegetables, and cover with water by two inches. Bring to high pressure and cook for 25 minutes.
Let the pressure come down on its own.
Open the lid and remove the onion. Remove any bones from the pot. Add fresh vegetables and any turkey meat you happen to have left, and continue to cook for a few minutes until the vegetables are a bit tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
The soup thickens a great deal after it stands and cools and is really better the next day, although we never wait. This makes enough for 14 of us with a bit left over!!
If you ever end up with a turkey carcass, wrap and freeze well to make this soup when the urge strikes!














