Okay, I don’t know about you, but I am about sick of turkey leftovers.  Yes, Thanksgiving dinner was great…like four days ago.  But now, I want something new and different.  Something that in no way tastes like Thanksgiving dinner.  Something like

Turkey Black Bean Soup

Ah…this recipe takes me back.  The first article I ever wrote for BIAO Magazine was a Black Friday special that used Thanksgiving leftovers for a quick, healthy meal you could fix after a long day of Black Friday shopping.  With that being said, this is not a revisiting of that recipe.  It is a reimagining!  I am tooking the same basic concept and using more spices and peppers for a Mexican-inspired flavor since, at this point, I do not want to eat anything that even vaguely reminds me of Turkey Day leftovers.

With that being said, if you have some leftover mashed potatoes, we’ll be using them as an optional thing little extra for the bowl!

Making Turkey Black Bean Soup

This dish is really easy and can use up as much or as little of that leftover turkey as you want.  Don’t overdo the leftover turkey since there are two more recipes I’ll be sharing (ha ha)!  Still,  in all seriousness you want the black beans to stand on their own and not have this turn into a turkey casserole.

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, finely diced
• 1 stalk of celery, sliced
• 1 poblano, diced
• 3 cans black beans
• 2-3 cups stock
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
• 1/2 cup cream (you can omit if you would like)
• Left over turkey

In a soup pot  over medium-high heat, add the onions.  Let them cook a 2 minutes and then add the red pepper, celery, and poblano.  Cook until all of the vegetables are soft.

Open the cans of black beans.  If you are worried about salt, wash away the liquid the beans came in.  If not, there’s good flavor in there!  Add the beans to the pot and pour in the stock so the beans are almost covered. 

Add the cumin and ancho powder.

You may need to lower the heat to medium to keep the beans from burning, but at this point, all you need to do is stir occassionally until the beans start to open.  This will cause the broth to thicken.  The thicker it becomes, the more you need to stir!

Once the soup has reached the desired thickness, add the cream and the turkey.  Continue to stir until the turkey is warm.

Serve with left over rolls or in bowls lined with mashed potatoes.  Enjoy!