Holiday Leftovers

healthy eating

My family is not always a fan of leftovers. I, however, tend to love planning for leftovers! But what if you could have your leftovers and yet make it so different that the family feels like you are having a whole new meal? It is possible with a leftovers soup! There really isn't anything profound about the ingredients in Leftovers Soup, which is why I think of it as a formula rather than a recipe.

The Leftovers Soup Ingredients:

A tasty, nourishing soup begins with quality bone broth. You can use carton bone broth or any broth you have on hand for "Leftovers Soup".

Shredded Protein

From your cooked meat leftovers, measure roughly 1/2 cup for each child and 3/4 Cup for each adult in your family. If you still have protein leftover, measure the same amount again and place in glassware and put in the freezer for standby protein for a quick meal later this week or month. Dice up the meat for the Leftovers Soup.

Vegetables

Pull out any random vegetables you have in your crisper. You definitely need onions, celery and garlic. Some other options that are in season: mushrooms, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, diced/cubed squash, carrots and beets. If you have any leftover whole vegetables from a meal, pull those out too. Decide which raw vegetables your kids will enjoy eating in the soup. So for us this means celery, potatoes and a handful of mushrooms. Peel and dice those vegetables and place them on one side of your stoneware baking sheet  with some melted fat and a sprinkling of salt. Decide which vegetables your children really won't eat. This probably includes squash, mushrooms and turnips if your kids are like mine. Peel and dice those vegetables and place them with onions and a whole head of garlic on the other side of the baking sheet. Toss with a little oil and place the sheet in the oven on 350 for about 45 minutes or until everything is soft.

Flavor Boost

While the vegetables are roast, start a pot with your bone broth on the stove. Add in a few bay leaves, fresh herbs leftover from the week or some dried herbs including Thyme, Sage, Rosemary or Parsley. Drop in a few peppercorns and some salt. I don't get the base really hot just yet because the vegetables will take a while but I do want the flavors to meld. Cover the pot and let it simmer on the lowest setting while roasting the vegetables.

Putting it All Together

Remove the cooked vegetables from the oven. Place the cooked garlic into the freezer in a small dish to cool. With a ladle, remove the bay leaf and peppercorns from the simmering broth. Drop in the "less desirable" vegetables from your roasting sheet. Retrieve your garlic and squeeze out the soft, cooked cloves. Place the cooked, leftover vegetables into the pot too. Pull out the immersion blender and blend all of these vegetables in your broth.

Take the "more desirable" vegetables from the roasting pan and place in the broth mixture with the shredded meat. Cook 5-10 minutes until everything is heated through. You can drop in kale or other greens towards the end as well if your family likes those. If you are out of broth but have a lot of roasted veggies to use up, we recommend a quality broth product like this one.

Serving

Soup is not always my kids' favorite meal; however, I never have any trouble getting them to finish off the Leftovers Soup. The flavor is amazing! You can serve the soup as it is or you can go through one added step for the pickiest of eaters. I ladle soup into a strainer over a bowl so that my middle child gets straight broth. I then use tongs to pull meat out of the soup and put that in her bowl. Sometimes, if she's feeling adventurous, I will add a few vegetables with a ladle. You can use the strainer method for pulling the vegetables and shredded meat out of the soup and serving them separated on a plate too! This makes for less dried out leftover meat and keeps the kid who hates their food touching happy!

Leftovers Soup

A simple formula for using up leftovers. The basic formula is for a family of 4 (it feeds my family of 5 with kids aged 3, 6, and 8).

1.5 C of bone broth for every serving
1 onion
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1 head of garlic
Additional vegetables from the crisper
Fresh herbs
2-3 Bay leaf
1/4-3/4 C of shredded, leftover protein per serving
Sea salt
Pepper
Optional peppercorns
Leftover vegetables

  1. Dice onions, carrots, celery and additional fresh vegetables. Arrange the vegetables on the baking sheet. Be sure to place the vegetables you plan to blend on one side and the ones you plan to keep whole on the other. Place the head of garlic on the baking pan as well. Roast at 350 for about 45 min or until vegetables are fork tender.
  2. While roasting, place a pot on the stove with the measured broth, fresh herbs, dried herbs, salt and peppercorns if you wish. Place a lid on the pot and allow it to simmer on the lowest setting once it begins to boil.
  3. Measure 1/2 C of shredded protein for each child and 3/4 C for each adult. I eyeball it and toss in about 4 C of shredded protein for my family. This usually gives me another bit of leftover Leftovers Soup. Freeze the extra protein and set aside the measured protein.
  4. Once roasted vegetables are complete, remove them from the oven. Carefully place the head of garlic in the freezer to cool briefly. Retrieve the bay leaf, peppercorns and any other whole herbs you don't want to blend into the soup. Carefully scoop up the vegetables you plan to puree and add them to the stock pot. Remove the head of garlic from the freezer and squeeze the cloves out of the peel and into the pot. Use an immersion blender and blend until smooth. You can also do this in small batches in the counter blender if you wish.
  5. Place the shredded protein and reserved vegetables into the broth mixture and turn up the heat slightly. The soup is ready to serve when it is all heated through.

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