after Thanksgiving egg drop soup with zucchini and leftover turkey

Hello dear neighbors ! For those of you who have just celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope it was a pleasurable moment. Our turkey was very good. I served it with homemade cranberry sauce using Nora’s recipe here and with gravy that I made using some of the pan drippings and organic chicken broth – store-bought, as there was none to be found in our son’s freezer. On the day after Thanksgiving, nobody was very hungry so I decided to make soup using some of the leftovers I had ready at hand : turkey meat, pan drippings, some chicken broth, as well as the heart of three zucchini, you know, the part that is softer and full of little seeds (The outer part had been peeled for zoodles).

To give this soup a little more flavor, I included a leek – but don’t if you are extremely sensitive to sulfites — , some tamari (optional), ginger « juice » and an egg for an Asian twist, and served the soup with chopped frozen chives.

Ingredients ( serves 3 to 4 people)

– 1 leek, green top removed (about 130g, optional)

– some olive oil

– the hearts of 3 good size green zucchini (about 500g net weight from 1 kg zucchini before peeling)

– 1 thigh (or other bony part) from a cooked turkey

– 2 to 3 TBSP turkey pan drippings*

– chicken broth + water for a total of 750 ml

– 2 TBSP tamari (optional) + untreated sea salt to taste

– 1 egg

– 1 piece of fresh ginger root, peeled

– chopped chives

* NOTE : after a night spent in the refrigerator, the juices congeal.

How to:

1. Wash and finely chop the leek. Saute in heated olive oil and cook on medium-low in a saucepan until the leek is soft. Meanwhile, cut the zucchini hearts into biggish chunks.

The chopped leek should be very soft before you add the stock.

2. When the leek is very soft, add the zucchini pieces, the stock with added water if necessary, the meat, as well as the pan drippings and salt to taste. Cover and cook on low between 20 and 30 minutes or until the zucchini pieces are very tender. With a fork, beat the egg in a cup while the soup is cooking.

After both congealed pan juices (the two brown dollops on the left) and salt have dissolved, taste and add more pan juices or salt if necessary.

After a good 20 minutes the zucchini should be very soft.

3. Remove the meat to one plate and zucchini chunks to a bowl or glass container. Detach the meat from the bone and cut up into small pieces. Mash or blend the zucchini. Return everything (except for the bone 🐶) to the saucepan.

Blended zucchini in the back and shredded turkey meat in the front (plus a bone for Fido)

4. The soup will have somewhat cooled down; heat it up again. Make sure you wait until it is bubbling hot to drop some of the beaten egg, using the fork, at the edge of the saucepan when it is hottest. Do not stir; simply let it coagulate before you can repeat the operation. This should have been filmed but my cameraman was unavailable! When you have used up all the egg liquid, turn off the heat, and season with what I like to call “ginger juice” (i.e. ginger pieces squeezed in a garlic press) and tamari, if desired. Serve and garnish each bowl with chopped chives.

This was a light supper, a welcome break for our overworked stomachs! Of course this recipe can be made after any turkey meal – as you know, Christmas is just around the corner!

Nothing like a bowl of warm soup when it starts getting cold outside…

I thought I was going to make a pear cranberry pie for Thanksgiving; but after my sister-in-law told me about all the desserts that everyone was bringing (which unfortunately my husband could only look at), I simply made gluten and nut-free cookies for him and our nephews. However I will make one soon and post the recipe for my dear neighbors, while pears are still in season!