Turkey Noodle Soup

It's 5 weeks to the day. 5 WEEKS!! Where has 2014 gone? I'd swear Christmas gets earlier every year. I'm not prepared at all. This time last year we had the cake and pudding made and a few big batches of sausage rolls in the freezer for the inevitable surprise visitors. This year I'm going with an even more DIY Christmas. I have the ham (a 4KG chunk of leg) curing at the bottom of the fridge and our turkey will come from Ali's cousin Jo-Ann at Cairns Farm in Bellewstown. The starter will be a paté made from the liver of the lamb I bought from the same farm while Ali will be on dessert duty, always a good move!

 Before I get into some Christmas recipes here's another great way to use up some leftover turkey. It's unbelievably quick and stupidly delicious, it's Turkey Noodle Soup! This is a nice way to use up some leftover breast meat as it won't dry out too much and become stringy in such a short cooking time. If you only have leg meat then even better, it will give the soup a deeper flavour. You really can't beat homemade turkey stock here but if you didn't bother making some (who would be bothered on Christmas day?) then a good chicken stock will work well.

Serves 4 as a starter or 2-3 as a main.

900ml Turkey Stock

2 Carrots (chopped into matchsticks)

1/2 thumb sized piece of Ginger (chopped into matchsticks)

1 clove of Garlic (finely sliced)

120g Whole Wheat Noodles

200g Cooked Turkey (torn into chunks)

1 Red Chilli (finely sliced)

4 Spring Onions (finely sliced)

Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

1. Bring the stock up to the boil and add the carrots, ginger and garlic. Simmer for 3-4 minutes before adding the noodles, turkey and chilli. Continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until the noodles are tender. Add the spring onions, season to taste and serve.

I told you it was quick!