Slowcooker wild rice, turkey/chicken, vegetable soup and turkey stock recipe! Perfect for leftover roast turkey!

Posted by I think I like turkey leftovers more than the actual turkey.  I always save the picked over bones and leftover turkey bits for soup.. and it really doesn't get any easier than making soup in a slow cooker... you just dump everythign in, ignore it for a few hours and then you have soup!  If you like richer tasting soups and lots of turkey stock to go into your freezer, then you can go all out and make the turkey stock, then the actual soup, or if you're feelign lazy or are short on time, you can use the short cut recipe for a easy, healthy and tasty soup!  You can sub out the wild rice (a nutty grain that takes forever to cook - perfect for simmer in a slowcooker) with noodles or plain rice.. just add them in 20-30min before you want to serve the soup.  Its soup, not rocket science :P

Ingredients for scratch low sodium turkey stock/broth
-bones leftover from 1/2 a roasted turkey
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 roughly chopped onions
-2-3 bay leaves
-water

First up, if you want to have extra stock on hand, toss the bones of 1/2 a turkey into a crockpot, add in 2 roughly chopped onions, 2-3 bay leaves, a teaspoon of salt and fill it up with water (up to about 1/2 inch to the pot). Then crank it on low for 8 hours, skim off the fat, discard the solids and you have yourself some awesome easy turkey stock. I usually divvy mine up into containers and freeze them until I need to use them.

If you're just interested in making a wild rice, turkey/chicken, vegetable soup, here we go! I usually make multiple batches (minus the broth), place them into zip lock bags and I have easy ready to go crockpot soups whenever I want!  If you want better flavor, instead of arranging them all nicely for a picture, sautee the veges and sear the chicken in a 1 teaspoon of oil or butter before tossing into the slowcooker.

Ingredients for turkey/chicken vegetable soup with wild rice, rice or noodles
- one onion diced (about 1.5 cups)
-2-3 carrots diced (about 1.5 cups)
-2-3 stalks of celery diced (about 1.5 cups)
-1-2 bay leaves
-1 slice of fresh ginger root
-4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled, and diced
-1 teaspoon butter or oil *optional* you can toss everything into slowcooker if you're in a rush withuot sauteeing the veges)
-1 litre of low sodium chicken or turkey broth
-3-4 large skinless bone in (more flavor) or boneless chicken thighs or 1 cup leftover roasted turkey meat shredded or diced
-1 teaspoon granulated garlic
-3/4 cup wild rice or regular rice (I use jasmine - don't use instant rice!) or 2 cups egg noodles
-salt and pepper to taste
-water
**optional herbs and spices: you can pick a few to add to give the soup a different twist: pinch of basil, chili flakes, rosemary, oregano

How to:
1) If you have time, in a large deep frying pan, add 1/2 teaspoon oil or butter, and on medium high heat, sear the chicken until browned, about 1 minute per side and toss into the slowcooker.  Then add remaining oil/butter and sautee all the vegetables, garlic and seasonings about 10 minutes and dump into the slowcooker.  If you're in a rush, just add everything but noodles (if using) into the slowcooker.
2) Pour in the broth, then add in the wild rice/rice and top up the crockpot/slowcooker pot with water until about 1/2 inch from the top (the soup will reduce and not overflow). Set the crockpot/slowcooker to low for 6-8 hours.
3) Take out the chicken (if using, remove bones and shred the meat - put meat back into soup), or add in the left over roasted turkey meat. Add in the egg noodles (if you didn't like rice) about 30min before you plan to serve the soup so it has time to cook. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!