About Those Leftovers..

I hate wasting food, so luckily I love eating/using leftovers. It's not a common occurrence in my fridge, but if I go to dinner and manage to not scarf down the entire American-sized portion, I always eat the leftovers the next day. Um, usually for breakfast. Anyway, another time I would have a surplus of cooked food in there is when I roast a massive turkey without pairing it with company to help eat it. People love leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, because sandwiches. Well my sandwich would be pretty awkward since I've sworn off bread, so soup it is! I think the usual go-to is probably some kind of noodle soup for turkey, but mine is a little different. I first made this after last Thanksgiving when I was asked by my boyfriend (and his family) to make something to use up some of the meat they had left. I took a chance that turkey wouldn't taste terrible in my favorite soup. It didn't. Everyone loved it. Nick (like really, who is reading this that doesn't know his name? please) has actually been asking me to make it again recently, so naturally it was the way to use some of this:

(Not actual size)

It may be a small picture but that's a 9.5c container. So anyway, the soup. It's a basic Tuscan Peasant varietal-cabbage (savoy) carrots, garlic, onion, diced tomatoes, white beans, and low-sodium chicken broth. Flavored with rosemary, pancetta, and a squeeze of lemon at the end. It's so easy and sooo good. And seriously cheap too, especially if you leave out the pancetta. But...well, don't. Heh. And here's a tip: a 4oz package of pancetta at the store was $5.99, so I walked over to the deli and asked for 1/3lb. It was $4.25. So..fresher, cheaper, AND you can get it cut thicker so you can actually dice it instead of shredding those thin little slices in frustration. Where was I? Right. So first you heat a little olive oil in your pot and then add the diced pancetta (this is half since I only have a small pot and had to make 2 of them) and some chopped rosemary (sorry I don't measure a whole lot). Cook that until it smells yummy and the pancetta begins to crisp a little bit.

You can remove some of the fat but not all of it, because flavor. Now add a couple cloves of minced garlic, the cabbage, carrots and onion and cook until the cabbage wilts and the edges start to brown a bit. This works much better in a pot that is NOT non-stick, which I do not have.

Sprinkle in a little kosher salt and black pepper, then dump in the tomatoes (14oz can, don't drain them), and pour in the broth (about 4 cups because, well, that's how they sell it). Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer partially covered while you make a drink and clean up the mess. 20 minutes should be good.

Bubbly

Now is when to add the turkey (or even chicken, if you have it..totally not necessary though), you just want to heat it through since it is already cooked. Also a can (or two if you like) of white beans. I made one pot (the one for me) without them just to lower the carbs but they really make it so yummy. Sigh. Cook for a few more minutes. Finally, squeeze a little fresh lemon juice in to finish it. Mmmm.

Oh, I didn't just have leftover meat after my turkey adventure. I also had leftover celery. Which doesn't go in the soup, and I also don't love, soo: