Recipe Post: "Turkey" Noodle Soup

I'm going to be honest for a moment, here. There are some things that I really miss about eating meat that have not been successfully replicated or forgotten despite fake meats/substitutes/severe will-power. i.e. bacon. There are fake bacons, but none of them taste like bacon. I miss bacon. And salami, pepperoni, Italian sausage, Slim Jims...all the unhealthy ones, really. You get the idea.

Up until last Thursday, I also missed chicken noodle soup, which I had not had in about 10 years because there really aren't any good alternatives that I have found.

Luckily for me, when I am sick my brain tends to simplify things, and I realized there was a very easy solution to this: Make my own, with a really easy recipe. What better comfort food for being sick than chicken noodle soup?

I had left-over Quorn Turk'y in my fridge from the last time I made pot pie (which was only a few days before this recipe, because I did make that pot pie again...and still forgot to take pictures. That recipe, I swear. I just get so excited that my camera ceases to exist.). So this is really turkey noodle soup instead of chicken noodle soup. And the pasta I had was penne, so it's really more like turkey penne soup than turkey noodle soup. But it was close enough. Shh.

And it was delicious!

Let's get down to it:

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 10-20 minutes

Yields: 5-6 bowls

Ingredients:

6 cups bouillon
1/3-1/2 Quorn Turk'y Roast
2 cups penne pasta
1/4 cup onion
1/3 cup kale

Directions:

1. Boil the water to make your bouillon, if you're using bouillon cubes like me.

2. Dice your Quorn Turk'y into small cubes. (Mine were leftovers, so if you have to make your "turkey" fresh, add 45 mins to your cook time and follow the directions on the package!)

3. Add the bouillon cubes to your boiled water, mixing until it is totally combined.

4. Now for the pasta. Penne is my favorite, but any kind of pasta would work for this.

Add it into the bouillon and watch as you can't even tell that you ever added the pasta, because the bouillon is so dark.

(It was really kind of strange.)

5. After a couple of minutes, add your chopped onion. I have no picture of the chopping step because I was sick. (This is a great excuse and I will keep it forever.).

Chop your kale.

Such a pretty color!

Add the kale and the "turkey", too.

6. Bring back to a boil and continue cooking until the pasta is tender, a little longer than the recommended time on the pasta box. (Don't forget, we are making "chicken noodle soup", not straight pasta. It doesn't need to be al dente.)

And that's literally it! See? Easy peasy. And a great comfort food.

Get yourself a nice big serving. (That's hubby doing just that.)

Love it!

And don't forget to add a nice slice of multi-grain bread on the side for good measure.

And parmesan, too, if you're like Hubby. He adds parmesan to every kind of soup there is.

Enjoy!

Kitchen hacks for less time/money:

-Substitute packaged vegetable stock for bouillon cubes