Hearty Parsnip Soup or What to do with left-over turkey

Strip your turkey and shred the meat. Set aside. If using the tasty drippings, remove and discard the fat from the turkey drippings, and combine the drippings with vegetable or other stock to make 4 cups broth; if not using drippings, use 4 cups of vegetable stock alone. Set aside. Zest 3 lemons. Set aside.

Peel the parsnips if they are not organic; if they are organic, just scrub them well. Lay them down on your cutting board, top and tail them, and split them lengthwise twice, so they lay in long quarters. Then slice across them to make chunks about 1/2 inch/1 cm long. Put the cut parsnips into your stock pot, and add the four cups of reserved broth. The broth should just cover the parsnips, if not, add enough purified water to cover them. Stir in 1/2 of the lemon zest. Bring to a boil, and cook until parsnips are soft, then set pot off heat.

Put on painters' gloves, the vinyl, latex, or nitrile type that contractors, medical workers, and the like use to protect their hands. Wearing long sleeves, place the egg beater into the hot soup, and gently turn the handle, making sure to go slowly as as to limit splashing. Beat the soup until all chunks are broken down. Alternatively, you could use a hand-held electric mixer at low speed, OR use the very safest but slowest and most tedious method, the one most similar recipes call for, which is to let the parsnips cool, and then liquify them with the broth in a food processor or blender, OR just mash cooled parsnips in the broth thoroughly with a vegetable masher. Once parsnips are liquified, return them in the stock pot to the heat.

Add shittakes, almond milk, the remaining lemon zest, and the shredded turkey, and bring to a brisk boil. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. Remove from heat. Soup will be thick and hearty. Ladle into bowls, and serve it up. Garnish bowls of soup with a generous sprinkle of nutmeg (optional).

Alternatives: Although shittakes provide many superior health benefits, any mushroom variety will work. Chicken can be used in place of turkey. To create a vegetarian soup, prepare without meat or drippings, but add 2 cups cooked and pureed chickpeas. Any non-dairy, unsweetened milk will work, especially oat or cashew milk, as oats and cashews are similarly alkalinizing. Caution: Avoid soy and rice milk. Soy is very acidifying and often allergenic. Rice is acidifying, and white rice has a high glycemic index.

Recipe is dairy-free, gluten free, low glycemic, chemical-free if all organic ingredients are used, alkalinizing, salt-free, and suitable for vegetarians if modified as suggested. Note: the more meat used, the soup will be increasingly less alkalinizing.

6 to 12 servings, depending on bowl size.