Souplantation's Creamy Herbed Turkey Soup

Found this recipe on the Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes blog. This makes a BIG pot of soup! Update: After making this a few times, we made some changes. We skip step one, omitting those vegetables. We only use one cup on onions in step two, and halve the butter, flour and all remaining ingredients. Also, I do not puree the soup as stated in step three. This still makes more soup than the three of us can eat in one meal, plus it's a lot less prep work. I've also used half and half or milk in place of the heavy cream with very little difference in the taste.

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 8  cups water
• 1 1⁄2 cups carrots, 1/4-inch diced
• 1 1⁄2 cups celery, 1/4-inch diced
• 1⁄2 lb butter or 1⁄2 lb margarine
• 2  tablespoons  minced garlic
• 2  cups yellow onions, 1/4-inch diced
• 1  cup celery, 1/4-inch diced
• 1  cup carrot, 1/4-inch diced
• 1 1⁄2 cups white flour
• 8  cups water
• 5  tablespoons  turkey base
• 6  cups water
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1⁄4 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1  teaspoon dried sage
• 1  teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2  cups heavy cream
• 1⁄2 cup  chopped Italian parsley
• 1⁄3 cup  diced dried cranberries
• 1  lb  cooked turkey breast, cut into bite size pieces

Directions

1. Heat 8 cups water to a boil. Cook the 1 1/2 cups carrots and 1 1/2 cups celery for 8 minutes until soft. Strain and cool in cold water. You will add these to the finished soup.
2. In a pot, melt the 1/2 pound butter. Add the 2 tablespoons garlic, 2 cups onion, 1 cup carrot & 1 cup celery. Sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups flour and continue to cook for 5 minutes on low-medium heat.
3. Add the 8 cups water and 5 tablespoons turkey base. Blend with a hand held mixer until smooth.
4. Add 6 cups water, salt, pepper, sage, marjoram, rosemary and thyme. Heat to 190 degrees or a low simmer. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat until thickened.
5. Add cream, parsley, turkey meat, cranberries, cooked carrots and celery. Stir to combine. Cook on medium heat for 2 minutes.
6. At Souplantation/ Sweet Tomatoes, this is served with stuffing - I just use "instant" stuffing. Tasty business!