Hearty Turkey Soup with Parsley Dumplings

This soup is awesome! Pure comfort food. I made this using the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. I pressed a few (4 or 5) large cloves of garlic while making the broth. I omitted the rutabega, added 5 small potatoes,added some fresh basil I had on hand for another recipe, and added a bit of salt. The flour/milk mixture makes a nice creamy broth. I do not have a food processor, therefore I used another recipe I had for the dumplings. Will definately be making this recipe again and again! Thanks Christine...

I have made this several times and I think it is delicious --the dumplings are great. I've tried it with and without the rutabaga and now believe it does not matter whether it is there. Fresh parsley is a must. The salt for the broth needs to be reduced -- start by reducing it to half of what the recipe calls for and add according to your taste. I frequently add fresh or canned corn, garlic. I also like to add small noodles about 10 minutes before it is done, and frozen peas a minute or two before serving. This soup is comfort food, no doubt about it. If you are worried it might be to bland for you, I'd 1 1/2 x the onion for extra flavor...I have made this several times, sometimes using chicken instead of turkey. It is very good.

Great recipe. Family loved it. For the dumplings, I "cheated" and cut refrigerated biscuits dough in small pices and just dropped them in the broth. Turned out great!!!

Incredibly delicious soup Christine! I cheated and made the dumplings with Bisquik and added a few more seasonings. Perfect dinner on this windy and very rainy night. Thanks so much!

Yum. My darling husband, (some like to refer to him as "Mr. Clean" because he's so tidy) was being helpful by cleaning up and threw out the turkey carcus. I did however cut the recipe in 1/2 & used the leg & wings that were left and it turned out fine. I ran out of time so I didn't get to add the dumplings but I did add the parsley along with some Barilla Pipette pasta (somewhat like a macaroni noodle, a "new shape"). Very tasty, Thanks Christine!

This was easy and delicious! My husband, who is not a turkey soup fan, loved this dish. The soup was thicker than a broth and full of vegetables and meat. The dumplings turned out perfectly tender and puffy. The trick to perfect dumplings is to NOT lift the lid on the simmering dumplings once cooking starts. This one is a keeper for us.

I had to cook the soup for quite a bit longer than the recipie recommended to get the dumplings cooked. After this, the soup and the dumplings were quite good. I also found that after allowing the mixture to thicken in the refrigerator overnight, it made a most delicious stew for dinner the next evening.

I have made this recipe for several years on the day after Thanksgiving. The only variation I have made is by substituting the rutabagas with potatoes. My family always looks forward to this soup and I highly recommend it.

Great soup for leftover turkey. I didn't make the dumplings and omitted the rutabaga (whatever that is??) I used more bouillon probably 6 cubes or so. Came out really great!!Freezes great too!

I've been making turkey soup for 40 years and until today I would have said mine was better. Not anymore! This was fantastic, it made me think of my childhood and mum's chicken and dumplings. Don't change a thing it is great soup just as it is. Thanks Christine for teaching an old bird new tricks.

This soup has great flavor and is a great way to use those turkey leftovers. I omitted the rutabaga and the dumplings but still enjoyed it immensley.

I didn't make the dumplings (or use a rutabaga), but the soup was great! I'm generally not a big fan of turkey or chicken soup, but this was very flavorful - definitely add the thickening. I added some cooked barley to the soup. And, if you have leftover stuffing, put a scoop of that into your bowl before you add the soup - really good!

This is the best tasting turkey soup I have ever had! It is somewhat time consuming to make, but well worth it! I have gotten raves from everyone who has tried it. I have not attempted the dumplings yet - I have added barley instead. This is quick becomming one of my favorite meals to make! Thanks for the recipe!

The whole family LOVEs this recipe! I am always looking for healthy and tasty meals. This one is great.

TERRIFIC soup -- i added in some leftover pasta instead of the dumplings

Time consuming but worth it! Dumplings are the gummy kind.(If you are used to Bisquick like I am) I did not have fresh parsley so I substituted for the dried type but it was still good. Don;t know if it lives up to the name hearty.. but then again I left out the rutabaga...Maybe some potatoes in it... That would make it hearty. I had two bowls and I'm still hungry

This soup was delicious!!!! I made it as is with the exception of using half a rutabaga because I never ate one before. They're delicious. My husband didn't like the rutabaga but he's like a child...I think his tooth touched it and then he declared that he didn't like it. He did like the soup (doesn't like dumplings either, but that's okay). I put in fine egg noodles but DH thought it needed bigger noodles...I disagree but that's not important. Anyway, great soup and fattening but I'll just make it once a year after Thanksgiving. Thanks for the recipe!!

Excellent! Did not make the dumplings. I added fine egg noodles to it instead. Everyone loved it. Even my fussy toddler.

This was the best recipe for turkey soup I have ever come across, it was just delicous. I followed the directions exactly with exception to the addition of potatoes and I removed the rutabaga. I did make the parsley dumplings but both DH and I didn't really care for them, they are very gummy and heavy in texture and there isn't a lot of flavour. I don't believe I will ever use another turkey soup recipe, but I will likely not make the dumplings again. **EDIT** I just wanted to add that this soup is even better the next day and the dumplings, while still a little on the heavy side, taste MUCH better!

Very Good! I used a whole cut up chicken instead of a turkey carcass and it worked great! Next time I will add spices to the dumplings. In my opinion they are a little bland. I think I will add celery salt next time. The rest of the recipe is great! Add spices to the broth to taste.

I used just chopped turkey from T-day,(about 1.5 cups) not the carcass. But first I sauteed the sliced carrots/celery w/ a cpl heaping spoonfulls of garlic in evoo and a splash of chix stock. After about 30 mins I added the rest of the can of stock, about 4 cups of water and a chicken bouillion cube, tbls of thyme, splash of white wine and a can of diced potatoes (about $.50) instead of cooking and dicing potatoes. Toward the end I added the fridg biscuit dough torn up, and a cpl tbls of fresh flat leaf parsley. It was a tad bland so I put in a cpl shakes of regular ole seasoned salt/pepper then a tad of tabasco. We all loved it including the kids... another way to uniquely use leftover T-day turkey!! Thanks (Oh yea.. who has rutabaga?? :)

This is a delicious recipe. I don't know why everyone skips the rutabaga. They're so sweet and delicous, a nice taste that falls between carrot and potato. I cooked my dumplings the standard way, 10 minutes uncovered and then 10 minutes covered. That's the best, for a light fluffy dumpling, cooked all the way through. The 12 minutes recommended here doesn't work.

loved this.made tonight with leftover turkey, was awesome! Skipped the dumpling and put a handful of leftover stuffing in bottom of soup bowl (cold) and let the hot broth and soup absorb into the bread cubes, soooooooo good! skipped the rutabega and didn't have carcass so just put my meat in with 3 boullion cubes. It was gone quickly by our family. Thanks for the great recipe!

Was looking for a basic turkey soup for the leftover carcass from thanksgiving and found it!! The soup was GREAT!

This soup turned out great. I already had turkey stock so I skipped to the second part. I only had wheat bread & used that instead of white bread for the dumplings - they turned out GREAT! It was my husband's favorite part. The dumplings do need to cook a bit longer(depending on the size)- I'll plan for that next time. Overall a great recipe.

I make my own bread - whole wheat multigrain type - and was concerned that it wouldn't work with the dumplings. But I used it anyway and the dumplings turned out great! I think the flax seeds even added a little texture and color to them. The soup was time consuming but worth the effort.

This was a great recipe. My family loved it. I replace the white bread with leftover stuffing. It was so good.

this recipe is the best. it's the "simmmer on the stove for hours type!! I really enjoyed it

One of my favorite turkey recipes! I don't use the rutabaga, however - and it still turns out delicious!

This soup was sooooo good. I too used potatoes instead of rutabaga and egg noodles instead of the dumplings. Be careful not to let it simmer too long like I did, otherwise the noodles will suck up all of the liquid. Even with the reduced amount of soup, it turned out great!

I just tried the dumplings in this recipe... they were ok. I'm still searching for a better recipe... too chewy. The flavor was good though.

This recipe was fantastic. I did not have a rutabaga in the house, so I used 2 small potatoes with great results. Also did not have fresh parsley, but the dumplings were still great. I highly recommend this recipe!

The soup was delicious. I thought that the dumplings were heavy, but that they had a good flavor. I had cooked the chicken carcass without any veggies and it was in the frig before I found this recipe. After skimming the fat off, I heated the broth and added the carrots, celery, onion and spices. I did not strain the veggies out. Then, I followed the recipe exactly except I did add more flour because the amount of flour didn't do much to thicken the soup. Next time I'll try a different dumpling recipe.

Hmmm..I was really excited about this recipe, but I can only give it 3 stars. For starters, you need a bigger stock pot than 4 qts! I don't really understand the need to mix milk and the flour together to mix into soup. It didn't thicken the soup, in my opinion just clouded it! I think it had a bit too much pepper, and I messed up the dumplings. They were too doughy! However, I could still taste some goodness through it all. I will try this again...and maybe make a few changes.

This is amazing, even my weirdo friends who hates vegetables & most everything else LOVED it. I'm way more excited about this soup made from leftovers, than the turkey from the day before!

Yummy even without the dumplings.

This soup was great - the best, most flavourful use of a turkey carcass after Thanksgiving! Now... the dumplings in this recipe were a disaster- which could have been something I did - they turned out like doorstops! I had to scoop them out and throw em away, but the soup made up for it..! Stick to easy bisquick dumplings with this recipe.

good use of turkey carcass

I'm giving it only 4 stars because I followed the directions exactly and the dumplings came out too mushy. It could of been my mistake, but I think it may just be the recipe.

I made this soup last week. The soup was great!I don't know what I did to the dumplings but they didn't turn out or look good so I made another type dumpling and they were great. I will definitely make this again.

Thanks so much for sharing this! It was really good. Froze very well too!

This is very good... you must make sure to skim off as much fat as possible or else the soup will turn out extremely greasy. The dumplings were great. I added cornmeal and cooked them for ten minutes covered and then ten minutes uncovered. I substitued the cube of chicken bouillon with a can of chicken broth. Overall a very yummy soup. I'll use this recipe for every leftover turkey! Thanks for sharing.

the dumplings were hard and rubbery. But the soup itself was fantastic. I need to find a good dumpling recipe

It would be 5 stars with some egg noodles. I will try that next time. But we found it delicious! just the way it is now. Thanks.

I had homemade turkey stock made from my Thanksgiving turkey, so I used that and started at step 2. This is a very hearty and satisfying soup. I loved the parsley dumplings - they added an old-fashioned touch and were the perfect complement to the soup. Delicious!

Fantastic! I followed to the letter except that I omitted the flour and milk to thicken stock. The parsley dumplings were quite appealing in flavor and appearance.

I made a chicken noodle soup out of this instead, but I just added the parsley dumplings to my soup. Splendid!

What a fantastic recipe.My family loved it and I have very picky children. I didn't try the dumplings and I substituted the rutabaga for potato. We used a free range fresh turkey and there was no fat or greasey texture like with some soups. It was awesome!

Turned out great. I have made it twice, once with rutabaga and once with butternut squash of course the butternut gives it a sweeter taste but still great. I also added a 1/2tsp more salt to dumplins

My review is only for the dumplings. While they tasted okay, when I dropped them by tablespoons into my hot liquids, they fell apart. I got them to hold together by pressing them together with my hands like meatballs. I don't think I'll be trying this recipe again anytime soon.

I don't know why this is rated at almost 5 stars. It was okay. Nothing spectacular. Pretty plain. I won't make it again. It turned out the way it is supposed to, just didn't care for it.

This was time consuming, but, one of the best soup recipes I've got. It is definitely worth the time. I skipped the dumplings (from the previous reviews - just made toast to dip in it instead), added mushrooms & a can of corn as I like a few more veges in my soup. Well done & a double thumbs up from our house! :)

this was ok,I liked the texture of the dumplings though the whole soup was very bland needs alot more flaver

pretty good. I made bread dumplings after I tried the ones in the recipe, thank goodness. They were just gross. I'd make it again.

i did make a few changes with the spices (using what i had in the house) i didn't use the thyme, bay leaf. I added parsley to the broth, some garlic and onion powder, a good bit of pepper, salt and some season salt. I didn't make the dumplings and used homemade egg noodles from this site (grandma's egg noodles 2) It was a pretty good tasting soup, It made up for the turkey being disaster. the flour/milk mix didn't do much to thicken the soup even with all the xtra flour from the noodles but still and awesome comforting soup. The next day is OMG good like alot of the other reviewers stated it turned into a stew. The was probably the first soup that we ate all of and was trying to fight for the leftovers and was genuinely sad when it was all gone. I'm going to be making it again for tomorrow's dinner. I can't wait!

There were NO leftovers with 3 teenage boys. This was delicious! I think the next time I will try making the dumplings with leftover dressing instead of bread, just as an experiment. I will definately make this again. Thanks for the recipe!

This is a very good and easy recipe. Family really liked it!

This is almost exactly the way I have made soup for 25+ years. If you simmer the carcass and veggies long enough, with a little sea salt, no boullion cubes are needed for flavour. I have never thickened my broth with milk/flour but decided to give it a try. I had thick lumps of flour in my broth, so I ended up pouring it through a sieve. Like many others I used potatoes instead of rutabaga and egg noodles instead of dumplings.

The soup base turned out great. I need to work on making dumplings!

Whenever I make stock, I insert a metal colander into the water and and put my bones, skin, bay leaf and anything else I will need to fish out later. I cook all the veggies at the same time placing them underneath in the to keep section. Saves time and all that straining business.

I didn't have the 1 & 1/2 lbs. of cooked turkey and used whatever I could pick off of the bone. Hubby loves meaty meals, but didn't complain one bit. He loved it. Dumplings are a nice change with the fresh parsley.

I made this soup yesterday and it turned out fantastic. I'm not crazy about dumpling's, so I used homemade pasta instead. The noodles just absorb the flavor of the soup compared to store bought noodles. Very time consuming recipe, but worth every minute.

I added barley, potatoes and omitted the turnip. I used Seasoning Salt instead of regular salt. Wow, the best we have ever made.

Loved this recipe. Will use every year with leftover thanksgiving turkey. I ommited the rutabaga. These were absolutely the best dumplings ever.

cookobird20 excellent soup. didn't get far enough to make the dumplings. soup was so good we drank it all up. didn't even get far enough to strain the stock, just picked the turkey off the bones, got rid of them and never got any further. great recipe

I made this last night. After straining stock, added fresh onions and celery along with the carrots. Didn't have rutabaga, so used peas instead. For the dumplings, don't have a food processor, so chopped up bread and parsley on my bread board. Picked out the big pieces of bread and added to dry ingredients. Then made as per directions. They turned out really good. In fact, this soup, though rather labor intensive, is absolutely wonderful!! Am adding to the list of soups my husband will eat (he won't eat many-lol). He even said not to change a thing. Great soup!!!!

Good soup but a little bland. I used the Rosemary Roasted Turkey recipe to roast my turkey. I think this soup would work well as an appetizer, or possibly in combo with a sandwich.

This soup does not taste like it was made from leftovers. It is reminiscent of chicken & dumplings that my mother makes. I did make a few changes: 2 chicken bouillon cubes, 1 tsp. dried basil instead of bay leaf (didn't have one), no rutabaga (didn't have any), and I made my dumplings from Bisquick mix (2 cups Bisquick & dried parsley mixed with enough milk to form a moist dough). Also, I had already thrown my turkey carcass away so I used my 1 1/2 pounds of cooked turkey in the original stock and then picked it out and reserved it for the end. Even with my changes, it still turned out delicious and full of flavor.

I made this as per the instructions, however, I only had wheat bread...but the dumplings still turned out really good. I may add more to the soup next time, as I felt it needed more seasoning, but overall a good hearty recipe

Our Thanksgiving turkey was a little overcooked this year so I thought this recipe would be perfect to bring a little moisture to the meat. I used 8 cups of organic chicken broth (msg free!) instead of the bouillon and reduced the water to 4 cups. I added a little extra celery & onion to the broth while it was cooking. My local grocery was out of rutabaga so I substituted 2 golden potatoes. 12 min. was perfect for the dumplings.. thou I imagine it would depend on how big you make them. Mine were a little smaller than a golf ball but grew to twice that big in the pot. I also threw in a half cup of wild rice to the mix which was wonderful, but make sure to add more water or broth to the pot if you do.

The soup was good, but didn't like the dumplings due to a too gummy texture caused by the bread. I will find another dumpling recipe and use this recipe for the soup. I also think wide egg noodles would be excellent in it instead for the time being.

I followed the directions as is, and I can't begin to tell you how fabulous this soup is! My husband and I loved this soup, especially the dumplings! My only complaint is that it's more time consuming than I would like and I told my husband before he ate it to enjoy it because I doubt if I would be making it again. Well, he's already talking about me making it again after I cook the other turkey I have in the freezer. Thank you Christine for this great recipe! It's the best!

This was soooo delicious. Definitely worth the work. Too bad I only roast a turkey once a year, it's almost worth it to cook one just so you can make the soup! Don't skip the dumplings, they are a close second to the delectably complex broth for the best part of the soup. Just make sure to keep the dumplings small, otherwise they are a little doughy in the middle. I skimmed the fat from the broth. Loved it!

I make turkey more often during the year just so I can make this soup!

Nice soup. Good use of the leftovers! The family liked it. I think I was wanting more of a stew so I will probably change it up a little next time. Used bisquick dumplings, 10 min uncovered, 10 minutes covered and they were perfect!

Great recipe. When making the broth, I added garlic cloves in addition to the other seasonings. I did not thicken the broth when finishing the soup, we like more liquid soups. I used parsnips instead of rutabaga - it gives the soup a nice sweetness. The dumplings were good and turned out fine. My husband and I enjoyed very much. Thank you for sharing.

Wonderful! I used leftover deep-fried turkey which was perfect for this since it was a bit tough from being fried and needed to be softened. I skipped the rutabaga. My dumplings may have been a bit runny. They didn't hold up real great, but that was fine because it made a very creamy soup that way. I can't imagine why I would ever do anything else with my leftover turkey after trying this recipe!

Really yummy!! Will cook the dumplings longer next time and follow another reviewer's suggestion for cooking 10 minutes without cover and 10 with cover. Didn't have rutabaga but substituted leftover boiled potatoes instead. Will try rutabaga next time.

Followed directions minus dumplings. Sad to say that this was not flavorful at all (after hours of work) and the flavor it had was dominated by thyme.

Just made this with leftovers, did not alter recipe...REALLY good.

My husband made this soup the day after Thanksgiving and it was absolutely delicious. He did not make the dumplings, choosing to add egg noodles toward the end of cooking instead. He also added one large potato, cubed. That and the rutabega seemed to add a wonderful depth of flavor and a silky texture. Otherwise, he followed the recipe exactly. I can't wait to cook another turkey just so we can enjoy this soup again!

The very best turkey soup I've ever had. Everyone loved it! Will be making this one again and again.

Great recipe for a snowy day. I did not include the rutabaga (didn't have any), but the soup came out great anyway. The real reason for the five stars is the parsley dumplings. Everyone was fighting over who got the last ones!

The flavor of this soup was excellent! The dumplings were light and delicious, my whole family loved this. The only thing I might try next time is to add a cup of cream at the end to make it more of a cream of turkey tyoe soup.

Very good flavor but I didn't cook the dumplings right, so they were a bit doughy. Otherwise a great soup that I will make again!

This is really, really, good, flavorful soup. It was fine without the rutabaga. I ate the last of the leftovers today, am sad to see it all gone!

This soup was excellent! It took some time because I wanted to let the stock cool to get the fat off. It was very good. I used a different method to make the dumplings because I don't have a food processor. My husband loved this soup!

This soup was wonderful! We refridgerated the dumpling dough and just made them when we reheated the soup, so they wouldn't get soggy. The dumplings were better the second day. This recipie is definately a keeper

I usd this recipe to use up some turkey stock and a rutabaga that i had on hand. It make a good turkey soup. didn't make the dumplings as written in the recipe.

Loved the recipe.I made it in a crock pot & turned out great.My hubby is not open to trying new foods so I didn't tell him it had rutabaga until he finished!His reply, make this again! The fragrance while cooking was a bit on the strong side but the end result was worth it!

First time, my dumplings came out mushy, but I think I overmixed them — second time was better! Delicious.

Very hearty ! I used two boxes chicken stock instead and chopped turkey meat from leftovers. I also improvised with store bought biscuits. It was the easiest and best tasting soup I've ever made. I just placed the biscuits on top of the already completed soup and allowed them to boil on top for 10 minutes. They were dry in the middle like a biscuit and gooey goodness like a dumpling on the outside. Will defiantly make this again soon!!

This was great. I did make my own dumplings and added peas instead of parsnip. Turned out excellent.

The soup was good, but the parsley dumplings were not very tasty. I was actually a little disappointed!

Followed recipe and evert hinges turned out great. Just had to cook dumpling for an extra 5 minutes because they were a little bigger than tbsp. Thanks for the recipe...

I left out the rutabaga, used some concentrated chicken broth, and added parsley to the dumplings. Loved it & my friends I shared it with loved it also.

Great recipe! I've used leftover rotisserie chicken as well and the whole family loves it. I did saute' all the veggies first in olive oil. My family is picky about celery especially, so I wanted to make sure it was well cooked. Overall great recipe!

Best turkey soup ever. I used the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and well as the turkey stock and wow.

I make this a little different everytime depending what is on hand and this recipe has never failed to get rave reviews at my house.