Day 1, cook a 16-18 lbs turkey, around 4 hours at 325 F. 2 hours on one side, 2 on the other. (this method produces juicy white meat, go ahead and try it at Thanksgiving)
Store all pan drippings in a container, refrigerate overnight. Eat as much turkey as you can for the next 24 hours, keep all bones.
Day 2, gather ingredients:
NOTE: All ingredients are fresh, and soup stock is made from scratch.
½ bunch of fresh Basil
4 medium yellow (or sweet) onions
1 bunch of green onions
½ head of cauliflower
2 lbs of fresh green beans
2 hearts of celery (the leafy stuff in the middle most people toss out)
4 stalks of celery
All leftover turkey meat.(hopefully 3 lbs or so is left)
Take pan drippings from fridge, and scrape/throw away thick layer of fat from the top.(yes, this is a low fat meal as well - not just low carb)
Drop all turkey bones/carcass into 12 quart pot, along with drippings. Fill with water until all bones covered, probably 2/3 of the pot. Cover and turn up high to boil, then medium boil for 45 mins.
Meanwhile,
- Quarter and slice onions and pan fry in olive oil until very brown(and sweet and delicious), then set aside.
- Snap off ends and dice green beans, green onion, and all the turkey that is leftover from the 24 hour binge. (if there is none, then you may have overdone it….)
- Very finely dice celery, cauliflower, fresh basil.
- Once pot has boiled for 45 minutes, remove from heat and pull out/strain bones, saving every piece of meat for the soup. This can take some time, but it is the base of the entire soup.
- Bring pot to boil, add browned onions and green beans.
- After 10 more minutes of boiling, add celery, green onion, fresh basil and turkey.
- After 15 more minutes of boiling, add cauliflower, two teaspoons of salt, and two teaspoons of black pepper.
- Boil another 5 minutes, remove from heat and cool pot in sink of ice water (preferably)
ENJOY!
If you need boullion cubes, you added too much water. But go ahead and add them if needed. Freeze off a gallon so you don’t get sick of it after 4 days. Potatoes and carrots were reluctantly excluded from this recipe to keep it low carb, but if you want them, don’t add too many and dice them and add the carrot at the same time as the green beans, and the diced potatoes the same time as the green onion.
Don't skip the cauliflower if you don't normally like it, it really makes the soup good and consistant, and will not taste like cauliflower anyway. In fact, since there are so few ingredients, don't skip ANY OF THEM.
Tonight is Christmas Eve and we will dine on Stone crab and Spinach dip. Our neighbors will be over for drinks and a few rounds of darts. Christmas day Jesse is making a brisket with vege's. I will make a sweet potato casserole. Maybe one day we will have family here for our holiday festivities.
