the “kitchen conundrum” – the case of the leftover turkey

So here it is… my first kitchen conundrum blog. I have been thinking a lot about what I want this to entail… and I’ve narrowed it down to pretty much anything in the kitchen. As much as I wanted to, i just couldn’t narrow it down any further. There is just too many things that go on in a kitchen. Some days it might be a yummy dessert recipe that i stumbled upon, or a quick easy meal for the busy on-the-go family, or maybe just a new amazing kitchen gadget that I discovered. Whatever the topic may be, I hope you find my little side blog “the kitchen conundrum” a fun and useful site to read.

Ok… now for the real topic. I have this yummy soup recipe that I got from a friend I met in New Zealand. Her name is Eliza and she made this Chicken Spinach Enchilada soup for about 8 of us. I thought it tasted delicious so I asked for the recipe (which I will share at the end of this post). I’ve made it twice now. The first time was a 3-4 months ago. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon lunch on a chilly day… and it wasn’t hard to make or time consuming! Double bonus!!!
The second time I made it… today (Tuesday), I changed it up a bit. I was going through my parents refrigerator after the holidays and noticed a ton of leftover turkey. We’d already had turkey sandwiches and made “turkey” spaghetti instead of chicken spaghetti… so our options we beginning to dwindle. But, I HATE to waste food, so I was up for the challenge. I immediately thought of this Chicken Spinach Enchilada Soup recipe. I decided I would just substitute the turkey for the chicken. Yeah, the turkey might be a bit stringy, but I figured it would still taste great while getting rid of the turkey.
I only needed a couple things at the grocery store – which meant I was using up a lot of things in the kitchen (which I LOVE to do)! The recipe does call for one box of frozen block spinach thawed and the juice squeezed out. Well, I found one box of spinach in the freezer, but since I needed to double the recipe i needed more. I didn’t have time to thaw another box of spinach so I just bought a bag of fresh spinach. I started getting everything out to begin cooking, when my mother told me she had quite a bit of frozen turkey broth from when she cooked some of the leftover turkey awhile ago. Uhhh, brilliant! Using up even more things in the freezer! So my simple soup recipe that i was going to make with only substituting the chicken, was getting further and further away from the original recipe. Thank goodness I love to experiment because I had no idea how this would turn out. And on a quick side note… don’t be afraid to change recipes up a bit. I (on multiple occasions) have taken out a spice that I’m not too fond of and replaced it with one i prefer… or just added some more veggies, or different veggies. That’s half the fun of cooking!

So, now I was using turkey instead of chicken, real turkey stock instead of chicken stock, one box of block frozen spinach and a bag of fresh spinach, frozen onion intend of a fresh one, and added a bit of garlic – which wasn’t in the recipe. And the cooking began. I will admit, I am a bit of a health nut… this meaning, when possible i use the healthier alternative. For example: fresh ingredients instead of frozen or canned, lower or non fat items instead of full fat, and possible lower sodium. While I was heating up the turkey stock, I could tell it was a tad fattier than I would usually make, but for the sake of cleaning out the freezer… it was worth the sacrifice (and it would obviously taste better).

Here’s some more pics of the final product… what i will just rename as Turkey Spinach Enchilada Soup. It is served with tortilla chips and cheese and with all the changes I made to the recipe, it still tasted amazing.

Try it out for yourself! And don’t be afraid to substitute different ingredients. It won’t always be good (said from experience) but a lot of times it’s still just as delicious… and a lot of fun.

The original Chicken Spinach Enchilada Soup recipe:  from Eliza
Place cooked chicken breast cut up in skillet
throw in some onion
once sauteed, add can of cream of chicken soup and
2 cups of chicken broth and
a block of frozen spinach thawed and juice squeezed out.
1/2 tsp cumin and chili powder
bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minute.
serve with tortilla chips and cheese

(this recipe probably serves 3-4 people)

by:  Andre’a Feldhaus… wanna be master chef