In true lodge fashion, nothing goes to waste; especially after turkey night. Portions can be hard to predict when you’re cooking for a full dining room, and there are always leftovers. At home, during a holiday meal, nobody minds eating turkey for days. Instead of dragging the leftovers on for days, I created what I’ve dubbed leftover turkey dinner soup.

I started cooking professionally at sixteen in a small family restaurant, the kind of place where you learn fast: keep your head down during a rush, make every ingredient count, and feed people with intention. A few years later, I found myself in the kitchen at Wilderness North — a whole different universe. Instead of the clatter of plates and the hum of highway traffic, there were floatplanes buzzing in, loons calling at dusk, and guests arriving hungry after a day on the water.

Cooking out there comes with its own rules. You can’t “pop out” for missing ingredients. You can’t run low on gravy. And turkey leftovers aren’t optional ,they’re guaranteed. What you can do is get creative, stretch flavours, improvise, and turn odds and ends into something so good your guests assume it was planned.

Which brings me to my confession, cue gasp: after all these years, I don’t actually like turkey anymore. I’ve roasted, carved, basted, and served more birds than I could ever count (including many in the July heat). But I’ll never get tired of what those leftovers become. Because this is where lodge cooking shines — where a bit of ingenuity turns scraps into something truly satisfying.

It’s what I affectionately call bush cooking.

Bush cooking isn’t fancy, but it’s resourceful. It’s making do, but making it beautiful. It’s knowing that a pot of leftover turkey soup can taste like comfort, care, and creativity all at once.

Sometimes, after the dining room quiets and the lodge settles into its nighttime rhythm, I’ll break down the turkey and get a stock going right away. Other times, I simply toss the bones in a bag and tuck them into the fridge or freezer for later. Either way, I always start the same way: with cold water. Cold water pulls out the collagen and flavour slowly, creating that rich, velvety broth that makes a leftover soup feel like something you meant to put on the menu.

Because that’s the heart of bush cooking — turning what you have on hand into something worth remembering.

Wilderness North-Style Leftover Turkey Dinner Soup

Ingredients

• 1–2 tbsp butter or oil

• 1 medium onion, diced

• 3 stalks of celery, finely diced

• 2–3 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 bay leaves

• Leftover turkey, chopped or shredded

• Leftover brown sugar–glazed carrot & turnip mix (with dill, brown sugar and butter)

• Leftover mashed potatoes

• Leftover gravy

• 6 cups chicken/turkey broth (or enough to reach desired thickness)

• Salt & pepper to taste

• Optional: thyme or a little poultry seasoning

• Optional: fresh dill to finish

Instructions

1. Start the base

In a large pot, heat butter/oil over medium. Add diced onion and sauté until soft and lightly golden, ~5 minutes.
Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.

2. Add the leftovers

Stir in:

• Turkey

• Carrot–turnip mix

• A few scoops of mashed potatoes

• A good ladle or two of leftover gravy

Let everything warm and melt together.

3. Add broth & simmer

Pour in broth until it reaches a soup consistency you like.
Simmer 15–20 minutes so all the flavours meld.
Taste — the veggies will release sweetness, so balance with salt and pepper.

4. Adjust texture

• Too thick? Add more broth.

• Too thin? Add another spoon of mashed potatoes or gravy.

5. Finish

A little fresh dill at the end ties in the flavour of the carrot–turnip mix beautifully.