This is a prime example. It's simple, it's filling and it used up left over turkey and some other odds and ends I had in the pantry and freezer.
Yes, I know it's only Thanksgiving now and I'm talking about leftover turkey, but since I'm not doing Thanksgiving at home this year, I cooked some turkey early, and this used up the last of it.
This stretched my leftovers into several more meals. Almost like free food. What else can a gal ask for?
This would work just as well with chicken. As for the spinach, other frozen vegetables would be great, too. I almost reached for peas, but decided the spinach would be more interesting just this one time.
And if you want something a little lighter than a bowl of noodles, there's an easy way around that - just add enough water to turn this into soup. There's enough concentrated stock here to make that work. You might want to add a pinch of salt, though.
Turkey Noodle Nonsense
1 onion, diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
6 not-huge carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 bag egg noodles (about 6 ounces)
1 quart turkey stock
Salt, as needed
2 cups cooked turkey, diced or shredded
2 cups frozen spinach
Lemon juice (optional)
Melt the butter in a large pan (I used a large saucier) and add the onion, potato, and carrots. Cook, stirring as needed, until the vegetables begin to soften.
Add the noodles and cook, stirring as needed, until the noodles are lightly toasted. Depending on the shape of the noodles, you might not get all the surfaces toasted. That doesn't matter.
Add the turkey stock and cook, stirring as needed, until the noodles and vegetables are cooked through. If you need more liquid, add water, as needed. The goal is to have some liquid without this being soupy.
Taste for seasoning when the liquid is about halfway absorbed. Whether you need salt or not is going to depend on how salty the stock was. And that depends on how salty the turkey was. Add salt, if needed.
When the noodles are fully cooked, add the turkey and spinach, and continue cooking, stirring, until the turkey and spinach are warmed through.
Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, if desired. I like lemon with spinach so lemon made perfect sense to me.
