Cilantro Turkey Rice Soup

For those of you that don't know this, never EVER throw a turkey carcass away after a turkey dinner until you've made broth from it! The first time I heard this I thought, blech how can you get anything tasty from a carcass. But I trusted the reviews and really, I don't know why I doubted it since it's common sense that your broth flavor comes from the bones and not the meat. All you do put the turkey skin and all, minus any leftover meat into a large pot, cover generously with water and let this simmer for 3 hours. Strain and it's ready to be used.

Now on to my soup, I had the broth that I made last night and I knew that I didn't want it to go to waste but I wasn't in the mood for your typical chicken noodle soup, I was actually in the mood for the refreshing taste of cilantro, I love the taste of cilantro. But after looking all over the web I couldn't really find a recipe that was perking my interest. So I winged it and came up with great results, will be making this soup again, and again... you get the picture.

I will say that this made a large soup, we're a family of five and we'll get two meals out of this soup.

Cilantro Turkey Rice Soup

4-6 litres of turkey broth (or chicken)
1 bay leaf
5-6 whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp chicken bouillon (I use yellow kind from a Mexican import store)
salt to taste
about 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro
3 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large zucchini, sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large jalapeno, whole

2 cups cooked rice
2 cups leftover turkey, chopped

Bring the broth to a simmer and add your herbs and seasonings. While this simmers cut your vegetables and add to your broth. Cook until tender. Add the rice and turkey. Serve soup with fresh lime juice and baked tortilla chips. We also used saltine crackers. Either way it's a good summery kind of soup, just what I wanted today.

Enjoy!
Tina