Turkey and Noodle Soup

Turkey and Noodle soup.

Is there really a recipe for it? Doesn't most everyone just take their turkey and boil it down to make a good stock and add vegetables and noodles and it's good to go?

I froze my turkey bones on Thanksgiving and brought them out today, while my son and daughter-in-law are here visiting. It seemed like a good lazy day soup.
And to answer the question above, I realize that some people really do have actual recipes for Turkey and Noodle soup.
I don't. Because here at our house, it's all about the noodles. The noodles are the star. And these are very rustic noodles. We like them thicker than the average noodle lover. And the shape doesn't really matter either.
If I had the time, I might have made spirals or curly cues, but as it is at our house, we take what we can get.

I brought the frozen bones in today and stuck them on the stove in the big red pot. (I love my big red pots) and....well.....boiled the heck out of it. It smelled so good, just simmering away on the stove.
When that was done, I took out all the bones and pulled the meat off the carcass, once it had cooled some. Added minimal vegetables and then made my noodles.

Everyone who makes pasta knows that you are supposed to let the noodles dry out before added them to the broth. I don't. I let them dry a bit....we ran to the store to pick up a few things, but when we got back, I went ahead and dropped them one by one into the big red pot.
And then we ate.

Turkey and Noodle Soup with Rustic Noodles

turkey bones
onion, chopped
carrots chopped
celery chopped

Boil your turkey bones/carcass down to make a good stock. Some salt and pepper may need to be added. Take bones out and let cool for a bit. Pull off meat and and back to the pot, which has been strained of any bones, skin and fat.
Add the onions, carrots and celery. However much you want. Make it how you like it. You could add garlic too if you wanted.
Let simmer until the vegetables are tender.

Rustic Noodles

2 cups flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk

Mix all together and roll out on a floured board to the thickness of noodles you want.
Cut noodles...however many you want, however thick you want, however long you want.
Let them dry. Or not.

Add to the soup pot and cook for a while. Sprinkle with parsley.
Then eat!

So easy.

My cousin Linda has a good turkey soup she calls Thanksgiving Soup.

Thanksgiving Soup

After you've had your Thanksgiving dinner and a day of leftovers, cut whatever turkey you can get off the bones for sandwiches. Then boil the heck out of the carcass. Drain (save broth), throw away bones, any fat and skin. Return broth to pot add in the meat you boiled off of the bones.

Now add in any left over mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, veggies you might have had. Cook until everything has heated clear through.

You can serve as is, OR you can add noodles, OR rice, OR dumplings.
It's good.
*******

I have a book by Jacqueline Heriteau, "A Feast of Soups". In her introduction she talks about a summer spent in France when she rented a cottage from a couple in the country. The main house was close by and she would often wander over to visit and watch the madam of the house prepare a soup. She said, "Madame Bertrand never made her soup twice with the same ingredients, and there wasn't a cookbook in her house. Sometimes there were drippings from a roast, a bit of curried beef, a tail end of fish, leftover mussels, meat sauce from a pasta meal, wilting salad and it's dressing, bits of beef, a roasted lamb shank or baked chicken....."

My point being, that soup started out not having a recipe, so just go for it.
Make that Turkey noodle soup by just tossing in what you have in your fridge. Leftover Thanksgiving dinner or whatever.

Good soup!