Creamy Turkey & Potato Soup with Spinach

When you’re tired of being frozen on a day where you’re totally snowed in and its storming like crazy… you’ve got to make this soup to warm up!!  If you use all of the listed ingredients, this recipe will remind you of a Thanksgiving dinner of sorts in a bowl.  B and I enjoyed this Sunday evening while watching movies.  I highly recommend it.  I know that using ground meat in a soup in definitely not ‘normal’ turkey soup, but trust me… this turns out wonderfully.  I will warn you… There are several ingredients and this soup cannot be made in 20 minutes or less, but it’s SO good… you’ve gotta try it just once!     

What You Need:

1 – 1.25 lbs ground turkey

1 – 32 ox box chicken or turkey stock (broth works too)

2 cups milk, at room temperature

3-4 small Yukon gold potatoes, 1” dice (or any other thin skinned potato)

6 oz grated cheese (I used garlic infused jack)

½ large brown onion (about a cup), ½ “dice

3 medium carrots (about a cup), thinly sliced

3 small stalks celery (about a cup), thinly sliced

8 oz baby spinach

6-9 cloves garlic, minced (to taste)

2 Tbs Italian parsley, minced (dried would probably work here also)

2 Tbs butter

3 Tbs flour

1 Tbs + 4 tsp olive oil

1 tsp 21 seasoning salute (or your favorite salt free seasoning blend - to taste)

½ tsp poultry seasoning (optional, but highly recommended)

2 bay leaves (optional, but highly recommended)

½ tsp salt and pepper, divided (to taste)

 

What To Do:

Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the celery, carrot, onion and bay leaf. Sauté over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until softened. Season the vegetables with ¼ tsp salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add another 2 tsp of oil into the pan and turn the heat up to medium high heat. Add the ground turkey and bay leaf and sauté for 4-6 minutes or until lightly browned, adding the garlic during the last minute of cooking. Season with ¼ tsp salt and pepper, 21 seasoning salute and poultry seasoning.


Push turkey and garlic to the outside of the pan and melt butter in the center with 1 Tbs olive oil. Once the butter is mostly melted, add the flour in and cook over medium heat stirring constantly for about 2 minutes.


Add the carrots, celery and onions back into the pan and slowly add the chicken stock a little at a time, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.


Bring to a simmer and add potato for 10-12 minutes or until potato is fork tender.


Add the milk and bring up to temperature without boiling or the milk could curtle.  Remove from heat and add spinach, mix and then put the lid on until wilted. Add cheese and parsley. Serve with crusty bread.




Edited to add: makes 10 - 2c servings

Nutritional Stats for 1 Serving

Bon Appétit!
Mary

**cook’s note: I don’t recommend freezing this soup as it has a creamy broth and also potatoes which tend to break down quite a bit when defrosting and then cooking again…**