Turkey and Bean with Bacon Soup

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October 6, 2016

It’s never too early in the fall season to start thinking about hearty soups (or about tasty recipes for leftover Thanksgiving turkey, YUM!). When the temperatures fall I’m dusting off the soup pot and filling it with wholesome vegetables, meats and seasonings. For me there’s nothing more comforting than a warm bowl of savory soup.

Check out the video link near the end of this post of my recent visit to KTVB’s Noon at News where I demonstrated how to make this tasty soup.

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This soup is no exception. It’s a tomato based soup loaded with mild Great Northern beans, crispy bacon, diced turkey (or chicken if you don’t happen to have turkey), celery, carrots, onion and simple seasonings including bay leaves, salt and pepper.

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Soups are nutritional jackpots. All the nutrients are contained in the pot; nothing escapes and in some cases nutrient content is concentrated with simmering like when you add handfuls of spinach or kale to soup and it wilts to a much smaller volume. Or when tomatoes are cooked and reduced in soups, the nutrient content increases. There are so many wonderful health bonuses to soup making.

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campbells-bean-with-bacon-soup-ingredients I pulled up the ingredient label for Campbell’s popular Bean with Bacon soup. The list of added preservatives, thickeners and flavorings like MSG caught me off guard. Making this soup yourself is so much healthier since you know exactly what’s in it. And although the flavor of this soup is a lot like the canned version, the added diced turkey makes it much higher in protein and better suited to serve as your main meal.