Christmas turkey minestrone
Serves: 4, or 2 with leftover
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Stuart West
Christmas turkey minestrone
Put your leftover roast turkey to good use in this festive twist on the classic Italian soup. It’s packed with macaroni, smoked bacon, carrots and parsnips for winter-warming bowl food.
Serves: 4, or 2 with leftover
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
288Kcal
Fat
10gr
Saturates
3gr
Carbs
26gr
Sugars
10gr
Fibre
6gr
Protein
22gr
Salt
2.2gr
Abigail Spooner
Abi is our Head of Food. She loves the precision and creativity of baking, turning fridge odds-and-ends into a weeknight pasta, and is always bookmarking new restaurants to try. She's happiest hosting friends around a table overflowing with food (and insisting everyone has seconds) or planning holidays around what to eat.
Abigail Spooner
Abi is our Head of Food. She loves the precision and creativity of baking, turning fridge odds-and-ends into a weeknight pasta, and is always bookmarking new restaurants to try. She's happiest hosting friends around a table overflowing with food (and insisting everyone has seconds) or planning holidays around what to eat.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 80g smoked bacon, chopped
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium carrot, finely diced
- 1 medium parsnip, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 800ml chicken stock (made using 1½ stock cubes)
- 75g macaroni
- 200g leftover roast turkey (or chicken), shredded
- 75g shredded kale
Step by step
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the bacon until crisp and golden; around 5 minutes over a medium heat. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add the onion, carrot and parsnip to the fat that’s remaining in the pan and cook the veg over a medium-low heat for 5 minutes, until softened. Stir in the garlic for a further minute.
- Tip in the tinned tomatoes and pour in the stock. Bring up to a simmer and then add the macaroni, stirring regularly. Simmer for 6-8 minutes, until the pasta is just tender.
- Stir in the cooked bacon, turkey or chicken and kale for a final 2 minutes, or until everything is piping hot.
- Ladle the soup into bowls to serve.
