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A meal can be daunting when planning a party, especially one around the holidays. Often I overthink a menu and try to make it overly impressive and memorable. The more I entertain, I realize good food, no matter how complicated, is memorable. Guests will always remember a fun evening with good, homemade food.
To keep my stress level under control this season, I’m switching up my Christmas party and making a slow cooker soup! What could be easier than dumping the ingredients together, turning it on, and walking away? This turkey soup has festive smoky flavors, cozy sweet potatoes, and brights pops of kale!
Watch how to make this slow cooker turkey soup
Slow Cooker Turkey, Sweet Potato & Kale Soup
What could be better than making an entire soup right in the slow cooker? This slow cooker turkey, sweet potato, and kale soup is pretty much a set it and forget it kind of soup, complete with a cranberry sauce to wake it all up! Perfect for the holidays!
Ingredients
For the soup
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 2 jalapeños, diced
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 lb sweet potatoes
- 1 ½ – 2 lb boneless turkey breast
- 1 ham hock
- 1 sprigs sage
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 6 cups turkey/chicken/vegetable stock
- 4 cups chopped lacinato kale
For the cranberry sauce
- 8 oz fresh (or frozen) cranberries
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1 tbsp lime zest
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
For the soup
- In a 7-quart slow cooker, layer the onion, celery, carrots, jalapeños, and garlic.
- Add the salt and pepper.
- Scrub and dry the sweet potatoes. Chop into ½-inch to 1-inch sized pieces and add to the cooker.
- Place the turkey breast and ham hock on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Using kitchen twine, bundle the sage, rosemary, and thyme. Nestle into the cooker.
- Pour in the stock. If it does not come up to the meat, add water as needed.
- Cook on high 4-6 hours. If cooking longer, make sure to add the sweet potatoes midway through cooking to retain texture.
- While the soup is cooking, prepare the cranberry sauce (see instructions below).
- Once cooked, remove the meat (including the ham hock) from the cooker and set aside.
- Remove stems from kale and roughly chop. Add to the soup and stir, allowing the kale to wilt slightly. Shred or cube the turkey. Add the prepared meat back to the soup and let everything warm through.
For the cranberry sauce
- Bring all the ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Turn down to a simmer and continue to stir, ensuring the sauce isn't sticking. Simmer until thickened and the cranberries have begun to burst, 15-20 minutes.
- Keep warm until serving.
Nutrition
Serving: 1servingCalories: 461kcalCarbohydrates: 71.5gProtein: 33gFat: 5.8gSaturated Fat: 1.3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1.9gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 88.1mgSodium: 834.3mgPotassium: 1175.4mgFiber: 6.8gSugar: 43gVitamin A: 998.6IUVitamin C: 32mgCalcium: 89.7mgIron: 2.1mg
Can’t wait to try this! I’ll be veganizing it by using vegetable broth, a can of white beans in place of the turkey and a little bit of liquid smoke in place of the ham hock. Sounds delish! Thanks for sharing it.
thanks for the recipe – it was spectacular with some of the turkey stock leftover from Thanksgiving. It’s going into the permanent rotation. I’m going to have to double the five stars for the mystical 10 Star rating!!
This is a delicious, hearty and healthy soup! I definitely will make this one again especially after a holiday with turkey and ham bone leftovers.
Absolutley delicious soup. I wouldn’t have thought of these combinations, but my family loved it. I added spinach instead of kale as we don’t care for kale. Everything was blended just perfectly in this recipe and shames my traditional chicken soup. This was excellent, especially adding the smoked ham hock for extra flavor. You’re an excellent cook Kaleb! Thank you for a new favorite soup recipe! Oh yeah, used chicken – which didn’t hurt the flavor at all. I doubled the recipe and will do this again and again.
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I want to make this. What side dish would you suggest that might go with this. Salad?
Delicious combination of flavors! I added a giant bay leaf to my bouquet garni, and used an immersion blender on the veg before I added the kale and the meat back to the pot. SO GOOD!
Wahoo glad you loved the soup as much as I do!
Just made this soup it was sooo good my family loved it!