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Roast Turkey and Orzo Soup

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BEING A “BACHELOR” OF SORTS in New York has its charms and conveniences; one of my favorites being having the opportunity to cook for a variety of guests. Many times these guests are remarkable women with beauty, class, intelligence and an appetite for a home-cooked meal. An added convenience of having one of these guests is that there is almost always a balance of food after we eat for my guest to take home, or at least for me to secure a meal for a later time and date.

But when I know I’m just cooking for one, it cuts down my ingredients portions by at least half, which means I usually will have half boxes of uncooked this and half bags of raw that are not just left, but left undone. Although inconvenient, storage-wise, this predicament also forces me to be creative on a whim to make good use of these yet unused ingredients, especially the perishables.

Case in point, the 2-day refrigerated little bit of roasted red pepper purée (roasted red pepper, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar in a blender) that topped the fresh mozzarella and fresh basil omelette I made a couple days ago (sorry, no pics or post. At the time thought the dish was too pedestrian—although quite tasty!—too post, and I didn’t want to wait for my dead camera battery to recharge), the half box of orzo I didn’t use when I made my Mustard Maple Butter-Glazed Pork Chops over Orzo in Light Parmesan Cream with Red Pepper Flakes and Tarragon, and some thickly sliced fresh roast turkey I used for yesterday’s Roast Turkey Sandwich with Supreme Sauce.

I stirred the last teaspoons of my red pepper purée into 3 quarts of water, added some salt, dried tarragon leaves, dried basil, chopped celery (left over from a two day previous order of buffalo), black pepper, a couple drops of hot sauce, and brought the whole thing to a boil. I then tossed in the last half box of dry orzo and left the liquid to keep boiling for about 8 minutes. I in the meantime large dice think slices of the leftover roast turkey and tossed into the soup pot, turning the heat down to medium and heating the turkey through for another 4 minutes.

It made for a nice, tasty, flavorful, and light but hearty alternative to chicken noodle soup, the kind with curative properties of all kinds, and looks as inviting in a cup-size version and topped off with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

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The aromatics of the soup were quite soothing too, while taking the chill out of my bones from the cool autumn air billowing through the open windows of my apartment and the ache out of my muscles from another unfortunate, but thankfully slight, hangover. Had the Yankees won the American League Championships last night, my hangover this morning would have surely been too extreme for me to even make this dish, much less enjoy it. The good news is that I now have enough of this soup leftover that I’ll be able to enjoy it Sunday morning should the Yankees win the Championship the Saturday night before….

Bun Apple Tea!

.kac.

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Roast Turkey and Orzo Soup

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