I have a confession: I didn't make this soup the Day After Thanksgiving. I stashed the leftovers from my Christmas turkey in the freezer...and forgot about them. I was googling around for a recipe idea when I stumbled across the idea of mashed potato dumplings. That's when I remembered the frozen turkey bones in my freezer, and the leftover mashed potatoes from Sunday dinner. I loaded up my Instant Pot with frozen turkey bones and I was off to the races.
This is why I beg people to save the bones from roast birds. Leftover turkey, roast chicken, whatever you’ve got - it makes a fantastic pressure cooker broth. After you have broth, the world is your…soup? Yes, the world is your soup.
Where was I? Oh, yes, mashed potato dumplings. I couldn’t pass up using leftover mashed potatoes in turkey soup, or calling it Day-After-Thanksgiving soup. (If I could work stuffing and cranberries in somehow, I would. But that seems a bit too far.) The potato takes the place of the milk, butter, and some of the flour in a traditional dumpling recipe. I don’t know why I haven’t run across potato dumplings before - they’re big in Germany. (And I mean that literally - they look like the size of baseballs.)
Here is my ode to Thanksgiving leftover soup, Instant Pot Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Soup with Mashed Potato Dumplings. Or, couple-of-months-after-Thanksgiving in my case. Enjoy!
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Instant Pot Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Soup with Mashed Potato Dumplings
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 10 cups of soup 1x
Description
Instant Pot Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Soup with Mashed Potato Dumplings. A pressure cooked soup to use up leftover turkey bones and mashed potatoes.
Ingredients
Turkey Bones Broth (Makes about 4 quarts of broth)
- Carcass from 1 roasted turkey, with clinging meat on bones (From a 12- to 14- pound turkey)
- 1 medium onion, peeled and halved
- 1 stalk celery, broken into pieces
- 1 carrot, scrubbed
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 quarts of water (or to cover, or to the max fill line of the PC)
Turkey Soup
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 quarts of Turkey Bones Broth
- 2 cups of shredded leftover turkey meat (about 1 turkey breast)
- 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Dumplings
- 1 cup mashed potatoes
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon minced parsley
Instructions
- Pressure cook the broth for 1 hour with a natural pressure release: Break up the turkey carcass so it fits below the max fill line on your Instant Pot – ⅔rds of the way up the pot. Add the onion, celery, carrot, bay leaves, and salt to the pot, then add water to cover by 1 inch, or to the max fill line. (About 3 quarts of water) Pressure cook on high pressure for 60 minutes in an electric pressure cooker (“Pressure Cook” or “Manual” mode in an Instant Pot), or for 50 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. Let the pressure come down naturally, at least 30 minutes. (It takes a long time for all that water to cool off. If you’re in a hurry, let the pressure come down naturally for 20 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.) Scoop the bones and vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon and discard. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer and discard the solids. Reserve 2 quarts of broth for the soup, and refrigerate or freeze the rest for another use. (I portion it into 2 and 4 cup containers, and freeze for up to 3 months.)
- Mix the dumpling batter: In a medium bowl, mix the mashed potatoes, flour, egg, salt, and minced parsley until it makes a smooth dough with the texture of play dough.
- Sauté the aromatics: Wipe out the pressure cooker pot. Melt the butter in the pot over medium-high heat (sauté mode set to high in my Instant Pot). Add the onion, celery, and carrot, and then sprinkle with the thyme, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Sauté until the aromatics soften, about 5 minutes.
- Simmer the dumplings: Add the turkey broth to the pot, turn the heat to high (sauté mode set to high in my Instant Pot). Cover the pot, and bring the broth to a boil. Stir in the shredded turkey, 1½ teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Turn the heat down to medium (sauté mode set to “medium” in my Instant Pot) and scoop ping pong ball sized pieces of dumpling dough into the simmering soup. Simmer until the dumplings are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Frozen bones: Don’t want to make soup the day after Thanksgiving? You can freeze the turkey bones for up to six months. (I break up the carcass some and put it in zip-top freezer bags.) Cook the broth straight from frozen - pop the bones in the pot and go. They’ll thaw out in the long cooking time.
Make ahead broth: Want to make this a weeknight soup? Make the broth ahead of time, and freeze it in 2-cup or 1-quart containers. Thaw the containers in the microwave while you mix the batter and sauté the aromatics.
Store-bought broth: Ugh, it pains me to say this when I know you have a pressure cooker in the house, and the pressure cooker makes such fantastic broth, but…if you have to, you can buy 2 quarts of store-bought chicken broth and use it instead of making your own. (But, really, make your own. It’s so much better than store-bought.)
Tools
6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
2-quart containers (for leftover broth)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts
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Instant Pot Potato Soup Recipe (Quick and Easy)
Instant Pot Meatball Soup
My other Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Recipes
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Elizabeth Nielson
This was very tasty. I'm not a huge dumpling fan, but I decided to give this a try just for kicks. With mashed potatoes, the dumplings tasted a lot like gnocchi or even spaetzle (though I know the latter doesn't contain mashed potatoes). They were hardier than normal dumplings. It was all really good. I'll definitely make this again!
(side note, I'm glad I doubled this. There are 6 of us in the family, and as a one-dish meal (we just had some cut up cucumbers on the side), this only gave us a small bowl of leftovers. Or maybe it was so good that we overate!)
Sarah
Made this today and it came out great! Thank you so much.