Chunky Turkey Vegetable Soup
This turkey vegetable soup is packed with vegetables, beans, and pasta. Flavored with both fresh and dried fennel, it's so hearty and full of delicious flavors. You'll want to eat it all week!
I've been making this soup for a few years, and it's honestly one of my favorite winter meals. It's packed with flavor from fennel and a mix of vegetables. And it's so hearty and satisfying from the pasta and beans.
I often end up tweaking it a bit each time I make it, based on the ingredients I have on hand. But that's the beauty of soup. It's such a versatile meal that's so easy to can make your own.
The star of this soup is the fennel. DON'T tweak that whatever you do! If you're not sure what fennel is, or what it looks like, it's similar in flavor to anise (used in anisette liquor or some Italian cookies), and it looks like a giant onion bulb with green stems that have wispy green fronds at the ends. It's the bulb that you chop or slice up very thin for the flavor.
Don't be afraid. Fennel has a delicious, fresh flavor, and to me, it just tastes like Italian sausage. Probably because it's one of the primary spices used to flavor Italian sausage.
This soup calls for both a fennel bulb and some ground seeds. If you think that's too much of a good thing, start with the bulb, and taste it before you add the fennel seeds. But when it comes to fennel, I say the more the better.
I make this soup very often, and I always savor every delicious bite. It's just a little bit spicy, and the pasta, beans, and chunks of ground turkey are so hearty and filling, in a really good and healthy way.
Recipe
Chunky Italian Turkey Fennel Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey breast
- 3 medium carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 medium fennel bulb
- 2-3 large leaves of kale
- 4 cups low sodium tomato juice
- 4 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 1 15-ounce can dark red kidney beans, rinsed
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground fennel seed
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper more or less to taste
- 1 cup small pasta shells (uncooked)
- ¼ cup packed fresh basil leaves chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt or to taste
- shredded Parmesan cheese optional garnish
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a stock pot over medium heat, and add the turkey breast. Stir to break up the turkey into small pieces, and cook until the turkey is no longer pink.
- While the turkey is cooking, place the carrots, onions, garlic, fennel bulb, and kale in batches into a food processor, and pulse until they are chopped into small, bite-size pieces.
- Add the chopped vegetables to the stock pot with the turkey and cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
- Add the tomato juice, chicken stock, kidney beans, fennel seed, and crushed red pepper to the pot.
- Bring the soup to a boil, and add the pasta. Reduce the heat, cover and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the pasta is al dente.
- Stir in the chopped basil. Taste and season with salt as needed. Serve with passed Parmesan cheese if desired.
- Any leftover soup can be stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. The soup may thicken up after refrigerated, so if it's too thick, add a cup of water or chicken stock to the desired consistency.
Notes
Nutrition
Do you ever cook with fennel? What do you make?
Eat well!