The first year I hosted Thanksgiving, I made broth with the turkey bones, so I could make turkey soup over the winter. I chose the Turkey Orzo Soup with Kale and Chickpeas (paywalled) because it was referenced in the method I followed for the stock. It is delicious and I look forward to it every year. The last couple of years I’ve served it with the Ligurian Focaccia, fresh out of the oven, and it makes for an extremely cozy meal.

This comes together in a flash because so much of the prep is done ahead of time, at least if your past self prepped and froze the stock and turkey meat. What I like about this soup is that you get a lovely, savory turkey flavor, and with each bite you can get a nice mix of chickpeas, orzo, turkey, and/or kale. It’s hearty but also light.

The only change I make to it is to add more kale, typically double. I find that the size of a bundle of kale can vary a lot, but for the grocery store tuscan kale I had this year, I weighed it out and was a little more than half the bundle. Oh, and I put in more spices than called for, probably closer to a teaspoon of each.

There are two things that make this special. One is the homemade stock, and the other is that it’s turkey soup, which I only make once a year. So if this post made you sad that you don’t have turkey stock in your freezer, I think this would be a great soup if you made it with homemade chicken stock.