Turkey Soup à la Jamaica - Soup Slurp Season
By: Kelsey Adams
Last December, I saved the turkey carcass from my family’s Christmas dinner, freezing it for some later kitchen experimenting. The way we’ve been taught to consume in North America is incredibly wasteful and I’ve been taking stock of the ways I can be a little more conscious while cooking. I’ve recently been trying to reduce food waste or use food scraps in my cooking processes. I’m not obsessively switching my lifestyle but rather tempering my consumption and creatively reusing things before tossing them in the garbage.
All this to say that, you can definitely make this recipe with fresh turkey meat, but this soup is so much more about the process of the turkey becoming something entirely new and the connection between the meals, the people you shared the meals with and the love put into the preparation. For my family, because the turkey carcass I used was from our Christmas dinner, this soup carried memories of a wonderful time of gathering and sharing joy.
I also inflected the recipe with a little flavour from my motherland, Jamaica. Add thyme and scotch bonnet peppers to anything and it immediately takes on the sweet, savoury and spicy warmth of the Caribbean island.
If you make this soup I hope you enjoy it, and more importantly, I hope you share it with your chosen family.
Ingredients:
Turkey carcass
2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
3 large white potatoes, cubed
3 carrots, sliced in rounds
One red onion, diced or sliced (your preference)
3 scotch bonnet peppers
Fresh thyme (3-5 sprigs)
3 celery stalks, chopped
Chicken broth
Scallions (for garnish)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Cayenne (to taste)
Paprika (to taste)
Steps:
Place your turkey carcass in a large, deep pot. Fill the pot half-way with water and cover.
Bring to a boil and then simmer. (This is to soften the carcass to make it more malleable and to let some of the fat release into the water.)
After 30 mins remove the carcass from the water and break it apart.
Set the water aside for later use.
In the same pot, add your carrots, celery, onions and potatoes. Pour in a healthy dose of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Cook on medium heat until the onions become translucent, stirring regularly.
Add thyme, more salt, pepper, cayenne and paprika. Stir and be sure to coat all the veggies with the seasoning.
Cover with chicken broth and a few cups of the cooking water you preserved.
Add the scotch bonnet peppers.
Bring the pot to a boil. Reduce to a simmer after reaching the boiling point.
Add the turkey meat and bones.
Cover and let simmer for one hour minimum.
After an hour, taste and adjust spices to your liking. Take out the peppers if you can’t handle a lot of spice (scotch bonnets are about 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville units, compared to a 1,000 Scoville jalapeño —they don’t play around.)
You can keep the soup simmering for as many hours as you like but I believe it’s good after two.
Pour into serving bowls and garnish with chopped scallions.
Nourish your body, tantalize your taste buds and share the meal with someone you love.