Roasting a whole turkey for Thanksgiving dinner creates a festive, seasonal entree that, in the days after it’s enjoyed, can keep on giving. I’m, of course, talking about the leftover turkey meat you’ll often have from that dinner that can be prepared in many tasty ways.
Two popular options are to use it in a soup and a sandwich, the direction I took with today’s recipe.
The soup is chowder, which sounds odd since, seafood, such as clams, is what’s most often used in it. But cubes of roast turkey also perform well in this style of creamy, hearty soup that I also stocked with vegetables, including corn, potatoes and celery.
I’ve also given you the option to further enhance the soup by topping bowls of it with crispy, smoky, bits of bacon, just before serving it. Make a meal of the turkey chowder by serving it with slices of dense whole wheat bread.
My sandwich is a grilled one stuffed with sliced roast turkey, havarti cheese, cranberry sauce and a leafy green, which could be arugula, kale or rapini. As the sandwich cooks, the exterior of the bread turns golden and everything inside it heats up and their tastes deliciously meld together. You can make a casual meal by serving the sandwich with a dill pickle and some potato chips.
Turkey Chowder
In this recipe, cubes of leftover roast turkey replaces the seafood most often added to chowder. Any leftover soup, once cooled, will freeze well.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: about 25 minutes
Makes: five to six servings
3 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced (cut into 1/4-inch cubes)
1 medium celery rib, diced
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp dried sage leaves, or 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh sage (see Note 1)
3 3/4 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 1/2 cups cold, roast turkey, cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels (see Note 2)
1 cup yellow, red or white potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup half and half (10 per cent) cream or milk
• salt and ground white pepper, to taste
1 green onion, thinly sliced
3 strips bacon, diced, fried until crispy and drained well (optional)
Melt butter in a soup pot set over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about four to five minutes. Mix in flour, garlic and sage and cook and stir one to two minutes more.
While stirring constantly, slowly pour in one cup of stock. When mixture thickens, slowly stir in the rest of the stock. Mix in the turkey, corn and potatoes, bring chowder to a simmer, and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.
Mix in the cream (or milk) and heat through a few minutes. Season the chowder with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle chowder into bowls, sprinkle with green onion and bacon, if using, and serve.
Note 1: 1 large, or two small to medium, shucked cobs of corn should yield the amount of fresh corn kernels needed here. To cut the kernels off a cob, after shucking and thoroughly removing the silk from the corn, grab onto its stem end. Now set the tip of the cob in the centre of a wide, shallow bowl, and use a sharp paring knife, or a corn peeler/striper tool, to cut and slide the kernels off the cob and into the bowl.
Note 2: Dried sage leaves are sold in the bottled herb and spice aisle of supermarkets. It’s made from crumbled sage leaves; don’t confuse it with powder-like ground sage.
Grilled Turkey Sandwiches with Havarti and Cranberry
Hearty, hot sandwiches rich with roast turkey, tangy cheese, ruby-red cranberry sauce and earthy greens.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes: two servings
4 slices white, whole wheat or sourdough bread
• soft butter, to taste
2 to 3 Tbsp mayonnaise, or to taste
3 to 4 Tbsp cranberry sauce (divided)
3/4 to 1 cup loosely packed baby arugula or chopped kale or rapini or other leafy green (divided)
6 to 8 (depending on size) slices cold roasted turkey, or to taste
2 to 4 slices (depending on size) havarti cheese
Butter one side of each bread slice and set on a work surface, buttered side down. Spread mayonnaise on unbuttered sides of each bread slice. Divided and top two of the bread slices with half the cranberry sauce and half the arugula (or chopped kale or rapini or other leafy green). Now set on the turkey and cheese. Top the cheese with remaining cranberry sauce and arugula (or chopped kale or rapini or other leafy green). Now set on the other two slices of bread, buttered side up.
Gently press down on each sandwich to compact them and help them hold together better when cooked. Heat a cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Add the sandwiches, cover with a lid, and slowly grill for about five minutes per side, or until cheese is melted and the turkey heated through. Cut each sandwich in half, plate and serve.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
