Turkey and Orzo Soup with Spinach
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  One of my favorite ways to use up leftover turkey is to make a batch of soup, and this time I made some turkey and orzo soup with spinach.  I make a broth from the turkey carcass that has simmered for several hours and use leftover roasted turkey meat along with veggies, fresh spinach, and orzo in this soup. This soup turned out so comforting, delicious, and flavorful, and paired nicely with freshly baked bread and my house salad.
Turkey and Orzo Soup with Spinach
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 8 cups of turkey stock or chicken broth
- 2 cups of roasted turkey breast, diced
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
- ¾ cup of orzo
- 2 cups of baby spinach, chopped
How to Make Turkey and Orzo Soup with Spinach
Make the turkey stock if possible.
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Â Add the onion, carrot, and celery; stir often for 2 minutes.
Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
Add the turkey stock or chicken broth and leftover turkey, then season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste (if needed).
Cover with a lid and let the soup simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the orzo and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the spinach right before serving. Â Taste and re-season if needed. Â Enjoy.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ yellow onion diced
- 3 carrots diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 8 cups of turkey stock or chicken broth
- 2 cups of roasted turkey breast diced
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
- ¾ cup of orzo
- 2 cups of baby spinach chopped
Instructions
- Make the turkey stock if possible.
- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Â Add the onion, carrot, and celery; stir often for 2 minutes. Â
- Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
- Add the turkey stock or chicken broth and leftover turkey, then season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste (if needed). Â
- Cover with a lid and let the soup simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the orzo and simmer for 15 minutes. Â
- Add the spinach right before serving. Â Taste and re-season if needed. Â Enjoy.
We had a wonderful thanksgiving, and of course we have tons of turkey leftover so I am most definitely giving this a try! Plus, the weather is cooling down here so this here is the perfect way to warm up 🙂
Have book marked this, yum yum. Have a good weekend Diane
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
Looks delicious Pam, especially with the green and orange colors.
Nothing is better for a cold than a bowl of hot soup. This one sounds delicious.
What a great soup! I made our batch today with wild rice and the mire poix … the house smells so good! Wish I’d seen your version first, as I love spinach and the veg together in a broth! Oh well… there’s always Christmas ! Wink!
This is such a great use of leftover turkey! I love how you turned it into something so good for you!
This looks great Pam….definitely very hearty for this time of year!
I love orzo, and I actually snagged some leftovers from my inlaws so I might need to give this a try!!
A warming and tasty dinner for me!
i can’t think of a better fate for a turkey carcass. 🙂
Pined it!
Oh this sounds very good. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
Yum, sounds delicious. I love using the leftover turkey carcass to make soup.
Soups often look boring to me but not this one. You bring out something appetizing to the eyes with your use of color in this one but I also know it will taste great with the flavors you use. Plus I love how orzo’s texture is.
Pulled my frozen turkey carcass out of the freezer and am making this soup on this gray, hopefully rainy day. Will be using kale instead of spinach. Thanks for thr prompting.
I dont write comments, but had to on this soup! This is by far the BEST turkey soup we have ever made! The variations I made were: had to double everything used the carcass of 20 lb turkey. I minced onion, garlic & celery with leaves in mini chopper and used leftover cooked carrots from Christmas dinner which I left sliced large. Tossed in 8 small chicken boullion cubes & omitted salt. Added a few dashes of poultry seasoning and lots of freshly ground pepper. The orzo and spinach made it fabulous. Family rating was 10+ and will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you!
Hi,
The total time says 5 hours, but the recipe time says to simmer 30-40min & after adding orzo simmer another 15 minutes.
Am I missing something or is this recipe around 45-55min to make?
Rain,
If you look through the recipe, the broth preparation takes four hours (if you want a rich flavored broth). If you skip that step then the recipe would only take an hour.
Pam