Venison, or No Venison? That is the question?

Well the first of two major eating holiday’s is gone, but not forgotten.  I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

There is still some turkey left in my house, how about you?  We tend to buy WAY too much turkey, then we can enjoy lots after Thanksgiving.  In my house there is just my husband, my 4 animals and me….yet we still bought a 15 pound turkey….WOO HOO!

Just a little extra something to share, I am so excited!  Look what I found today!!!!  New pretty dishes for all the lovely food I share with you, love the vibrant colors!!!

A few weeks back I made a hearty soup, and included venison meatballs.  I was thinking the other day, why couldn’t you use turkey leftovers for your protein in the soup?  The soup reminded me of an Italian wedding soup recipe, which includes beef meatballs, usually orzo, spinach, sometimes vegetables, and chicken broth.  For the soup I made,  I used a new ingredient I found at Trader Joe’s:

One main problem with the cool ingredient….Don’t put the whole bag in for the soup….YEAH bad choice.  I had a very thick soup, more like a concentrate.  Which then I had to take a small amount and make a completely new pot of soup.  SOOOOOOO…let’s share how this really should be made..

First I chopped up some vegetables, I used carrots, mushrooms, celery, and my special ingredient Broccoli Raab, or also called Rappini.

Isn’t Rappini beautiful?

I did put the Rappini in with all the ingredients and let it cook the full time.  It has a stronger flavor, and when I cooked it, it helped mellow the flavor.

Once you have the vegetables, stock, harvest blend, onions, garlic, and herbs all together in crock pot, let it sit for about 6 hours or more.

While this was cooking, I decided to include venison meatballs to the dish.  Have you ever had venison?  I grew up eating venison, I never really had much beef.  My daddy is a hunter, and loves turkey hunting, and deer hunting. I don’t go hunting with my dad technically, I usually go and watch, and take pics.  Remember I am a animal lover!

Venison is very lean like Elk.  The flavor is like beef to me, and can be used in anything.

Now other people may tell you venison has a different flavor, I just don’t know any different.  All I can do is say try it someday, or try it with this meatball recipe.

Here are the ingredients I used to make the meatballs:

The meat needs to still be very moist, who wants dry meatballs right?

I only had to bake them for about 15-20 minutes.  Venison is better when medium, not well done.

I was so excited to enjoy them, because I love venison THAT MUCH!!!

Here is the recipe for “Hearty Vegetable Soup with Venison Meatballs”

1/3 of a cup of Harvest Grains Blend

4 carrots sliced

3 stalks celery sliced

1 pound of mushrooms sliced

1/2 bunch of Broccoli Raab (Rappini) chopped

About 6 cups of stock, may need more later

1 medium onion diced

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

You really can add any herb you like to this, plus salt and pepper to taste.

I tend to migrate to the woodsy flavor herbs.  For this soup I used rosemary and thyme, about 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of each.

Mix all ingredients in crock pot

Venison Meatballs:

Lawry Salt and pepper

Garlic powder

Italian seasoning

1 large egg

About 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk (I was told by an Italian chef to include milk for the moisture.)

About 1/4 cup bread crumbs, add slowly you don’t want the meat dry, keep it still moist.  A little can truly go a long way with bread crumbs.

Put the oven at 350 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes, I did spray the pan too, just in case the meatballs stuck to the pan.

The soup turned out wonderful, and we topped it with Parmesan cheese….because cheese makes everything better.

I hope you enjoy, and try something new like venison!

Have you had venison or elk before?

Until next time, Come on in, Have a seat,

Hugs, Terra