French Turkey Soup with Beans & Greens

Fresh and light, French Turkey Soup with Beans and Greens is delicately flavored with herbes de Provence. It’s perfect to counteract those holiday indulgences.

Is it just me that took it a tad too far during the end of the holidays? I started out okay and held in there for awhile but by the end it was eat or be eaten around here.

This is a great soup to lighten up and kick some more regular eating habits back into gear. It’s hearty but light since it’s broth based. It’s a complete meal with protein, healthy carbs and plenty of veggies.

And it’s not your regular old soup because it features an herb blend you might not be familiar with; herbes d’Provence. In English that would be herbs from Provence. That used to be a general term for an herb blend common to the south of France but of course it became commercialized and now you can buy it as a premade blend of dried herbs.

Herbes de Provence usually contains savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and oregano. Sometimes other herbs are included. In North America lavender is usually included although it’s not used in classic southern French cooking at all. Weird.

Penzey’s blend includes: rosemary, cracked fennel, thyme, savory, basil, French tarragon, dill weed, Turkish oregano, lavender, chervil and marjoram whereas Morton & Bassett’s has chervil, basil, rosemary, tarragon, garlic, lavender, marjoram, savory, thyme and parsley. Certainly make up your own if you have a lot of the individual herbs. I like to leave the lavender out, but that’s just my preference. It certainly is distinct if you include it.

As usual with my recipes feel free to use any kind of bean and any kind of lean poultry. This is great to use some leftover turkey diced up or ground turkey is on sale everywhere right now.

Enjoy lightening up a little and no worries this isn’t turning into a diet site. After all, Super Bowl cometh…

For another light soup try Egg Drop Soup, it’s super quick or for something a little richer Italian Wedding Soup is delicious.

French Turkey Soup with Beans & Greens

Chef Shelley

Most of the herbs in herbes de Provence are strong so start with 1 teaspoon and then add more if you want to.

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Prep Time 2 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 17 mins

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• ½ pound ground turkey or chicken or diced/shredded precooked turkey or chicken
• 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
• 1 15 oz can Navy or cannellini beans
• 2 quarts chicken broth/stock
• 1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes petite diced tomatoes, or diced tomatoes with garlic and basil
• 6 oz bag baby spinach

Instructions

 

• If using ground turkey/chicken, heat a teaspoon of oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat and sauté turkey until barely cooked through. Then add remaining ingredients except for spinach and simmer 10 minutes.
• If using precooked turkey/chicken, add all ingredients except for spinach and simmer 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat, stir in spinach and let sit until wilted about 2 minutes.