Thanksgiving Soup

Cooler weather and rainy days have gotten us in the mood for soup, and long days at work, class, and events have made the slow cooker my best friend. We had some frozen turkey breasts that my mom sent the last time we were in NJ, a plethora of apples from our apple picking weekend, and carrots left over from my carrot ginger soup. Thanksgiving soup was born.

I started by adding the turkey to the slow cooker and seasoning it with pinches of sage, celery seed, black pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper. Then I poured in a cup of apple cider and 2 cups of organic vegetable broth. After I added about 10 carrots, simply broken into pieces, I set the slow cooker to low and cooked it for about 3 hours.

At this point, the turkey was cooked almost all the way through (it started out frozen), and after letting it all cool, I removed the pot and popped it into the refrigerator to eat the next day.

We ended up ordering pizza Tuesday night; my Pizza Fail tasted fine, but it did not satisfy the need for pizza. So the Thanksgiving Soup sat in the refrigerator for another day.

Yesterday while working from home, I brought the soup back out, added a small chopped onion, 2 chopped apples, a little more cider, a pinch of sage, and a drizzle of white truffle oil, then set the soup on low for about 2 hours.

The soup is not very photogenic, but it was really delicious! It was a fork, knife, and spoon soup because I literally tossed most of the ingredients in whole, a meal that couldn’t be any less fancy, but one that hit the spot for 2 cold and tired people.

Served with a side of roasted cauliflower with white truffle oil, salt, and pepper, the soup made a great dinner.

While finishing up the soup, I realized that our cider donuts from Smolak Farms were getting stale and decided to whip up some bread pudding. I didn’t have a recipe, so I just pulled together some regular bread pudding ingredients: 3 eggs, 1 cup of heavy cream, a couple shots of Irish whiskey, and cinnamon.

I poured the mixture over the donuts, made sure they were all nicely soaked, and put it in the oven at 380 for 10 minutes. You know it’s done when the liquid mixture is nice and firm

YUM. You must make this. It is so simple and open to other mix in’s like pumpkin, vanilla, rum, honey, maple syrup. . . one reason I love bread pudding. I served it warm with a drizzle of maple syrup from our friend’s family farm. This could be my new favorite fall dessert and one I might just make for Thanksgiving.

It’s only Thursday, and I feel like I am about to fall over I am so tired. It will be nice to have a long weekend in NYC and NJ.

What is your favorite part of your Thanksgiving meal?