The Best Leftover Turkey Soup

November tomorrow. The month of gratitude and turkey and the specific anxiety of a woman who is six weeks from the biggest moment of her life. I keep a list on my phone of everything I need to do before graduation: finish clinical documentation, complete community health project, submit board exam materials, buy shoes for the ceremony (I cannot walk across a stage in my Waffle House sneakers; I will not), and figure out what comes after. The "what comes after" is the big one. The one I haven't let myself think about too hard because thinking about it makes it real and real is terrifying.

What comes after is a job. A real job. A dental hygienist position at a practice somewhere in Nashville that will pay me more than I've ever made in my life and let me use the skills I spent two years building and give my kids the childhood I didn't have. That's what comes after. And I need to start looking.

I updated my resume this week. I've never had a real resume. I had a one-page work history that said "Waffle House, 2010-present" and that was it. Now I have a resume that says: Nashville State Community College, Associate of Applied Science in Dental Hygiene, GPA: 3.83, Dean's List, Peer Tutor. It says: 150+ clinical hours, periodontal assessment, radiography, patient education. It says: Sarah Mitchell is qualified. Sarah Mitchell can do this. I printed it out and put it on the fridge. The fridge museum grows.

Chloe had her first kindergarten parent-teacher conference. Mrs. Kim said Chloe is reading at a second-to-third-grade level, she's a natural leader (code for "bossy," which she gets from me, which I got from Lorraine, which Lorraine got from Earline — bossiness is our inheritance), and she's "very social" (code for "talks a lot," same inheritance). I sat in the tiny kindergarten chair and felt like a giant — physically, because the chair was eighteen inches off the ground, and emotionally, because my daughter is thriving and that is the only metric that matters.

I made a turkey and stuffing casserole this week — a Thanksgiving preview. Ground turkey, Stove Top stuffing, cream of mushroom soup, green beans, baked until bubbly. It's Thanksgiving in a 9x13 pan. It tastes like November. It tastes like the month before everything changes. Forty-six days.

I made my turkey and stuffing casserole as a Thanksgiving preview — a way of holding the good parts of November close before the harder parts of November asked too much of me. And every time I make something like that, something warm and bubbly and finished in one pan, I think about the days after Thanksgiving too, when the table is quieter and the bird is picked clean and you need one more thing to carry you through. This turkey soup is that thing. It’s what I make when I want the holiday to last a little longer — simple enough for a Tuesday night, meaningful enough for the week that counts.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil or unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
Salt and black pepper to taste
6 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth
3 cups cooked turkey, shredded or chopped (light and dark meat)
1 cup egg noodles or small pasta (or 1/2 cup long-grain white rice)
1 cup frozen peas or green beans, thawed
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (brightens the broth — don’t skip it)

Instructions

Build the base. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes until softened and the onion is translucent.
Bloom the aromatics. Add the garlic, thyme, sage, and rosemary. Stir and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Season with a generous pinch of salt and several cracks of black pepper.
Add broth and simmer. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavors come together.
Add turkey and noodles. Stir in the shredded turkey and egg noodles (or rice). Simmer for another 8 to 10 minutes, until the noodles are tender. If using rice, simmer 15 to 18 minutes.
Finish with greens and brightness. Stir in the peas or green beans and cook 2 minutes until warmed through. Remove from heat, stir in the apple cider vinegar and fresh parsley. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and serve with crusty bread or crackers. Soup keeps in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and freezes well for up to 3 months.

Nutrition (per serving)

The Best Leftover Turkey Soup — A November Bowl for the Month Before Everything Changes