Spring Vegetable Soup with Turkey and Rice

Original recipe from Eating Well magazine. The picture looked so fresh and full of veggies and I was craving something healthier this week. This is a great recipe because you can throw in any veggies you have that you’re trying to use up and it has a great flavor from the parmesan cheese rind. It did end up melting pretty much all of it. The original recipe calls for you to wrap the bay leaves, fennel, thyme, peppercorns and orange zest in cheesecloth but I didn’t have any so I just threw it in and fished it out at the end. I added ground cooked turkey and rice last minute to make it more filling.

Soup

4 quarts water

2 stalks fennel plus 1/2 cup diced fennel bulb, divided

2 bay leaves

1 tsp thyme dry or fresh

1/2 tsp ground black peppercorns

1 3-inch piece orange zest

8 oz parmesan cheese rinds (if paper on exterior make sure you take off)

1 cup diced tomato (I used sugar bomb tomatoes but you could use any)

1/2 cup diced leek (white park, discard green stems)

1 15 oz can white beans (I used white kidney)

6 cups chopped kale, spinach, escarole or combination

1/2 tsp kosher sat

Add in/optional

Sauteed turkey

Cooked rice

What to Do

Prepare soup: Bring water to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add fennel stalks, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns, orange zest, and parmesan rinds. Adjust heat to maintain simmer, partially cover and cook for 30 mins.

Stir in diced fennel, tomato, carrot, green beans, leak, white beans and crushed red pepper. Partially cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes.

When done cooking, remove parm rinds and fennel and orange rind. Stir in kale or other greens, cooked turkey, and rice, season with salt and pepper.