Once you make this turkey gnocchi soup you will dream about it all year long. It is so comforting, nourishing, and delicious.
It is best to plan to make this soup right after a holiday meal, using the leftover turkey, bones, and mashed potatoes. This is a great way to make sure none of your food goes to the landfill.
I recommend you follow the whole recipe rather than use store bought broth because homemade is so much more flavorful, doesn’t have yucky additives, and is much more nutritious.
While preparing my holiday meal, I like to keep a bag or bowl nearby where I can put all of my vegetable scraps including potato peels, carrot ends, onion ends, leeks, parsley stems, other fresh herbs, and a limited amount of kale or broccoli stems (really any vegetables will work). Then they are ready to toss into the pot to make the broth either right away, or the next day.
When I make mashed potatoes for the holiday meal, I immediately set aside 1 cup (already buttered and seasoned) to make gnocchi the next day. In my house, mashed potatoes are a popular side dish and there isn’t usually too much leftover.
After your holiday meal, remove the extra meat from the bones right away. Shred some for the soup, and save the rest for sandwiches or casseroles. The bones can go into a storage container to put in the fridge or you can put them right in your soup pot and start simmering immediately. You can also freeze your bones and veggie scraps in zip top bags to use in the future.
Don’t be turned off by the total recipe time because the majority of the time is used to simmer the broth to extract all of the wonderful minerals and vitamins from the bones and vegetable scraps. You can let it simmer for as little as 4 hours or up to 24 hours, the longer the better. The simmer time is totally hands off. If you don’t want to use your stove, you could put the bones into a Crock Pot to simmer all day and feel comfortable about walking away from your kitchen.
Once the soup is made you can serve it immediately or freeze it in zip top bags for 3-6 months
Turkey Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients
Bone Broth
- 1-2 pounds turkey or chicken bones from a previous meal
- 4 cups vegetable scraps OR chunks of unpeeled carrots, celery, and onion
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- salt to taste
Gnocchi
- 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
- 1 cup flour
For the Soup
- 2 medium carrots sliced into rounds
- 1 cup grated celery root (or diced celery)
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1-2 cups leftover shredded turkey
Instructions
Bone Broth
- Place the turkey bones, vegetable scraps, and vinegar into a large stock pot that can hold at least 8 quarts.
- Fill your pot with water until every thing in the pot is covered by an inch of water. Make sure there is still 1-2 inches left to the top of the pot.
- Place on your stove over high heat to bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat and cover. Let simmer at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours to release all the good minerals and vitamins from the bones and veggies.
- When you are ready to make the soup, place a colander over a large bowl and strain your broth. Discard bones and compost the vegetable scraps. At this point if you would like a very clear broth then you can strain your broth again using a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth, but I rather like the vegetable and meat bits as they add flavor to the broth.
- Return 8 cups of the broth to your stock pot and salt to your preferred taste. Any leftover broth can be frozen in zip top bags or stored in the refrigerator for a week.
Make the Gnocchi
- While your broth is simmering, get out a medium sized mixing bowl and add the leftover mashed potatoes and 1 cup of flour.
- Use clean hands to mix until a dough ball forms. It is going to seem very dry and you will think it will never become dough, but keep kneading and in about 5 minutes you will have a dough ball.
- Split your dough into four pieces, then roll each piece into a snake about 1/2 inch thick. Use a table knife to cut 1/2 inch pieces off your dough roll.
- Use the tines on a fork and press it into the dough pieces. You will get anywhere from 60-90 gnocchi, depending on how big you are making them.
- Place gnocchi in a bowl and set aside.
To Make the Soup
- Turn your burner to high and bring the broth to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add sliced carrots, celery, and onion and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the mashed potato gnocchi and simmer another 10 minutes.
- Add the shredded chicken or turkey. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Serve hot.
