Recipe Drop: Turkey Scotch Broth
One of the most useful cooking skills you can develop isn’t mastering new recipes every week. It’s learning how to turn what you already have into something intentional, nourishing, and worth looking forward to.
This Turkey Scotch Broth is a great example of that kind of cooking.
At its core, it’s a leftovers recipe. Not in the sad, reheated sense, but in the traditional, practical way that real home cooking has worked for generations. When you roast a whole turkey, whether for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any other reason, you’re left with an opportunity. A carcass, a bit of meat, and the chance to turn one meal into several more without much extra effort.
What makes this soup particularly useful is how well it fits into normal, everyday eating. It’s hearty enough to feel like a proper meal, light enough to not leave you sluggish, and balanced without having to force it into a “healthy recipe” box. Lean protein from the turkey and broth, fibre and slow-burning carbs from the barley, and a generous amount of vegetables all come together in a way that feels obvious once you’ve done it a few times.
I’ve also added a companion recipe for The Everyday Stock: An Instant Pot Method for Real Cooking. You can absolutely make this soup with good store-bought broth, but learning to turn leftover bones into a clean, flavourful stock is one of those foundational kitchen skills that pays off again and again. It makes soups like this better, and it gives you a reliable starting point for a lot of other meals.
This is also the kind of recipe that builds confidence in the kitchen. There’s no fussy technique, no fragile timing, and no need to be precious about exact quantities. It’s forgiving, scalable, and improves as it sits. Make a big pot, eat it over a few days, or freeze portions for later. It works just as well for a quiet winter evening as it does for stocking your freezer with reliable meals you’ll actually want to eat.
I also like this soup because it serves as a template. Once you understand the structure, stock, grain, vegetables, protein, you can adapt it year-round. Swap turkey for chicken. Use beef or lamb and simmer it directly in the pot. Change up the vegetables depending on the season. That kind of flexibility is what makes cooking sustainable over the long term, not chasing novelty for its own sake.
You’ll find the full recipe for Turkey Scotch Broth here, along with notes on how I make it and how you can adapt it to suit your own kitchen.