Not One but TWO Turkey Soups for Those Turkey Leftovers
Plus gingerbread balls and gratitude jars!
Colorful chefs - new and old, welcome! This is where we cook easy, delicious, saucy, colorful meals made from whole, unprocessed foods, and we make it fun, easy, and learn important stuff about metabolic health while doing it. I’m grateful you are here!
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On today’s menu:
Turkey Chickpea Minestrone: Free for all subscribers! Make some stock with your turkey bones and then this very flavorful, colorful, and nutrient dense soup for the weekend. Recipe is below, up on my website and of course on the Color Club.
Creamy Greens and Turkey (or Chicken!) Soup: This is the soup for when you feel like you want some more GREENS in your system. You know the feeling. It’s perfect for the days in between big holiday meals, or when you just want to give your immune system some extra love. This one’s for my Color Club members only (join us! $5/month or $50/year!)
Gingerbread Balls: Another free recipe for everyone! I made these as part of a FREE recipe round up by WeNatal that includes 10 other recipes to support preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. They are easy enough to make for a little post-meal treat but also fun enough to bring to a party!
Since it’s Thanksgiving, a quick note on gratitude:
One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions that I’ve brought with me (some may say forced 😂) to whatever Thanksgiving I’m attending is a simple gratitude jar. Here’s what you need:
Jar (or basket)
Pens
Paper
Throughout the day or night, encourage people to write down little things they are grateful for on pieces of paper and put them in the jar. I usually prompt people to do at least one silly thing and one serious thing.
However, at the lecture this past weekend at Lake Shrine (a Self Realization Fellowship temple in LA that Alex and I go to), the monk was encouraging us to nurture an attitude of thankfulness in three ways:
When it’s easy. This is the simple one - give thanks when it’s easy! For someone holding the door, doing the dishes, bagging your groceries, making you a cup of tea or for the simple pleasures in life like fall foliage, morning sunlight, etc.
When we take it for granted. It’s easy to take the good in our lives for granted, but what if we didn’t? In the lecture, he spoke about recognizing and cherishing the full worth of our loved ones and our lives well before someone’s gone or circumstances have changed.
When it’s hard. If we can train our minds to be thankful in the face of adversity, we will ultimately focus more on what’s positive in that situation. If we can use our willpower to embrace the things that are difficult, hard, or painful and find gratitude in those moments, well, then we will start to see everything in life as part of the next step in our unfolding.
So perhaps the prompts for this next gratitude jar (I’ve already done two this month!) are:
Something that’s easy to be grateful for
Something you take for granted but want to express gratitude for
Something that’s challenging that you can still find gratitude for
At dinner or during dessert, you then pass the jar around and each person takes one out and reads it aloud until you are done. It’s fun to try and guess who wrote what, and for some reason it always feels easier to read someone else’s than to read yours!
One of the things I’ll be writing down this year is my gratitude for YOU ALL! This new Substack and Color Club community motivates and inspires me, and I love engaging with you all. Thank you for being here. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Let me know how it goes if you try a gratitude jar! Now, onto the recipes!
This Turkey & Chickpea Minestrone is the perfect post-Thanksgiving recipe when you have leftover turkey and potentially some turkey bone broth. After a big Thanksgiving meal, my body is always craving vegetables, and this soup has tons of colorful veggies!
Fun fact, the history of minestrone (think as far back as the Roman Empire) is that it was made from whatever leftover veggies were on hand to avoid wasting food and to put together a cheap and filling meal. I’m here for that!
While it’s great with turkey leftovers, this is a soup staple and it’s also delicious with a rotisserie chicken or any other meat. You can also leave out the meat if you want to make it vegetarian/vegan.
You can use my easy weekly bone broth recipe to make the turkey stock.
Yields: 6-8 servings
Total time: ~45 minutes
Prep time = 10 minutes
Cook time = ~35 minutes
INGREDIENTS
In the order you’ll use them, always :)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp red or white miso
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
6 cups turkey broth (or any broth)
2 bay leaves
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
2 zucchini or squash, diced or semi circles
1 (14.5-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed or 2 cups of cooked chickpeas
2 to 4 cups shredded cooked turkey (or you can use a rotisserie chicken!)
1 bunch dino kale (or any sturdy green), finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/4 cup chopped oregano
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon (or 2 tbsp lemon juice), and more to taste or for serving
Grated parmesan (optional but encouraged!)
HOW TO DO IT
Get everything out! I find I enjoy cooking so much more if I set everything out, so take a deep breath and then begin grabbing all items needed vs. running around the kitchen continuing to go back and forth to the fridge and pantry! 🤣
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, diced carrots, and diced celery. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
Stir in the tomato paste, miso, ground cumin, garlic powder and salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes more.
Pour in 6 cups of turkey broth, 2 bay leaves, and a can of diced tomatoes (with juices). Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in the diced zucchini or squash, drained chickpeas, and shredded cooked turkey. Simmer for another 10–15 minutes until the zucchini is tender.
Lastly, stir in the finely chopped kale and cook for 3–5 minutes until it’s bright green and wilted. Remove from heat, then squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon into the stew and add the chopped basil and cilantro (or your herbs of choice).
Taste test! Adjust lemon and salt as you desire.
Ladle into bowls and top with grated parmesan (optional but encouraged!). Enjoy warm!
^^A 4-minute cooking video — it’s raw, silly, fun, maybe a little educational? For every new Color Club recipe, I include a video like this. It’s nice to have a little more time to explain things vs. on IG.🙃
SWAPS, TIPS, TRICKS
Want to add in pasta? For a more classic minestrone, add in your preferred refined grain free pasta in step 5! Chefs kiss is my favorite (code SONJA for 20% off)
Out of turkey? Use a rotisserie chicken!
Chickpeas: Swap for any beans!
Make vegetarian or vegan: Swap bone broth for veggie broth, leave out the turkey or chicken, omit parm.
Storage: Keep in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for 3 months. This soup defrosts and reheats super well!
NUTRITIONAL INFO
Per serving, makes about 6-8 servings
Calories: 300
Carbohydrates: 22g
Fiber: 7g
Net carbs: 15g
Protein: 31g
Fat: 10g
Sodium: 1788mg
Sugar: 5g
These gingerbread balls are a (not too) sweet treat that’s easy enough to make for a little post-meal treat but also fun enough to bring to a party. I made these as part of a FREE recipe round up by WeNatal that includes 10 other recipes to support preconception, pregnancy and postpartum.
I’m so fortunate to know the founders of WeNatal, Ronit and Vida, well, and I know that they are obsessive about formulation and product integrity. It’s never too early to start a pre-natal and build up your nutrient reserves, and Alex and I both take them (the For Her and For Him) as well as the Omega DHA+ every day. Happy to answer any questions about it! You can use my link to get a free Omega DHA+ with your purchase.
Another soup staple…this one is a Creamy (but without the creme) Greens and Turkey Soup! I must confess, I used a rotisserie chicken instead of a turkey here because we ran out of leftover turkey.
The trick for getting this soup a little “creamy” is taking 2 cups of the soup (before you’ve added in the turkey and broccoli etc.) and blending or pureeing it, then pouring it back in. Easy peasy. Also, I felt like a million bucks after eating this soup. It’s PACKED with nutrients.
Pro tip: Cut up your broccoli first and let it sit out on the cutting board for 10-15 minutes! This helps with the production of sulforaphane, a potent antioxidant that is formed when an enzyme called myrosinase interacts with glucoraphanin, which is a compound naturally present in broccoli. This reaction is triggered when broccoli is chopped or chewed, but it requires some time to fully develop. Allowing broccoli to rest for 10-15 minutes after cutting gives the myrosinase enzyme time to do it’s magic, significantly increasing the amount of sulforaphane available. Sulforaphane has been widely studied for its potential to support detoxification, combat inflammation, and protect against chronic diseases. So first things first, chop your broccoli!
Recipe and details are here on the Color Club!
Happy Thanksgiving all!
Chef’s Kisses,
Sonja
I would be SO GRATEFUL if you forwarded this newsletter to someone you think would enjoy my recipes or content. My recipes are especially great for the home chef who wants to support their health and better learn what “healthy” actually means.