Turkey Lasagna Soup

When I first made this for my husband he actually looked at me like I was nuts.   I kept telling him to give it a chance, it’ll be really good.   Well, his eyes light up now when I even mention this soup.

Start off with 1 medium yellow onion.  (My husband has this opinion that bigger is better, so even though I say medium, he buys the biggest onion he can find, so I’m only using half).  You can chop this up as finely or coursely as you wish, I puree as I have an aversion to seeing vegetables in my food (ok, I’m a picky eater.  I know I need the vegetables but I don’t want to see them.  I’m getting better, but not quite there yet).   Sauté the onion until soften and caramelized.

Toss in your ground turkey (or ground beef, I won’t be mad I swear), and cook until browned. (Now if you’re super smart like me, it’s at this point you realize you’ve used your ground turkey that you had in the fridge to make chilli cheese dogs for your sons on the weekend and forgot to buy more.   So now I must quickly run to the store to get more.)  

Now, I do this step in a nonstick frying pan, but you can easily do this in your soup pot f you want.   

Once the ground turkey is cooked and has those lovely little brown bits, I toss this into my soup pot, yeah I know I could have saved a dish, but I’m complicated like that (oh, and my husband does the dishes so, there is a reason to my madness).  

Next up add in the other ingredients (crushed tomatoes, beef stock, tomato paste, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper).   Stir this all together, cover your pot and simmer over medium low heat for a couple of hours.   (You can even toss all this into a slow cooker if you want).  

About 35 to 40 minutes before we eat, I break up my lasagna noodles (6 to 8).  I cook these off separately, in a pot of salted water (did I mention my amazing husband does the dishes?) for 12 minutes, and then I put the cooked noodles into the soup and let everything heat up properly and let the noodles finish cooking all the way through.

Lastly, add in 1/2 to 2/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  

Ladle this into your soup bowls and top with a sprinkling of cheese.   If you want that crispy browned cheese that you normally have with lasagna, place your soup bowls under the broiler for a couple minutes until the cheese is bubbly and brown.  

Enjoy!   This stuff is so amazing.   And definitely a lot less time consuming that actual lasagna.

Turkey Lasagna Soup

1 medium yellow onion, chopped or puréed

1 lbs. ground turkey

1 lrg. Can crushed tomatoes 

2 containers beef broth (or chicken broth)

2 tsp. Tomato paste

1 tsp. Oregano

1 tsp. Parsley

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

4 to 6 lasagna noodles broken up into small pieces

1/2 to 2/3 cup grated Parmesan 

Extra cheese (mozzarella or cheddar) to sprinkle on top.

1. Sauté onions in a bit of olive oil until caramelized.
2. Add turkey to onions and continue cooking until turkey is cooked and browned slightly.
3. Place turkey into soup pot, add in crushed tomatoes, beef broth, tomato paste, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper.
4. Cover pot and simmer for a couple of hours.
5. Break up 6 to 8 lasagna noodles.  Boil in salted water for 12 minutes.
6. Add the noodles to the soup to finish cooking, about 20 to 30 minutes.
7. Just before serving add in the grated Parmesan cheese, stir to combine.
8. Serve with a sprinkling of cheese on top.