Turkey & Tofu Pho, Chicken Sweet Potato Curry, Goat Shawarma, Herb Sauces, Matcha Cookies & More!

There’s lots of delicious December meals and treats in here, but all would be great with some adjustments for January meal prep. We’ve got some turkey pho topped with fried tofu (would be great with beef or chicken instead!), versatile herb sauces to top eggs, salads, sandwiches, rice bowls and more, a chicken sweet potato and kale curry, goat shawarma with rice and a slew of colorful veggies, plus whole wheat cinnamon rolls and matcha white chocolate cookies.

Turkey Broth Pho with Fried Tofu

It was chilly and rainy the first week of December and turkey pho was perfection.

The broth involved three different pressure cooks! Before Friendsgiving, where I spatchcocked two small turkeys, I cooked with backbone and necks from both birds with carrots, bay leaves and peppercorns, along with sea salt and a splash of vinegar for rich stock to use for gravy and cornbread dressing.

But I did have some leftover after all that. I then made another batch of broth to have enough for soup with the cooked turkey bones and chicken feet. I wanted that to be a pretty long cook to extract all the collagen from the bones and feet, so then I did another round of cooking it with charred onions, garlic and ginger, plus more bay leaves, peppercorns, fennel seed, cinnamon sticks and star anise. I also added a little brown sugar and fish sauce to round it out and finished it with tons of lime juice.

There wasn’t enough meat left on the turkey bones to have enough protein per serving, so I also fried some tofu cubes to add to the top!

And this wasn’t super traditional, but I also amped up the veggies with carrots, broccolini and Napa cabbage. There isn’t any Thai basil this time of year, but we topped with fresh sliced jalapeños from my garden, plus cilantro and scallions. And hoisin sauce and chili crisp!

Chicken Sweet Potato Kale Yellow Curry

We started hatching chicks from our breeding flock and from hatching eggs we brought in from another farm in the late spring. We were able to sell a lot of young roosters from the first few hatches, but that demand dried up a little, so we now are getting to the point of processing roosters for our own freezer.

There is a big difference in body shape and growth rate of egg laying breeds and broiler chickens. Egg laying breeds are not double breasted and take 3-4 times as long to get to the size of broiler chickens at processing weight. That means they walk and fly around for that much longer and their meat is less tender.

But the meat is also far pinker from more heme development and the fat way more yellow from additional weeks and months eating grass and bugs!

When slow cooked and handled correctly, the meat is super delicious.

The breasts are still fairly tender, they just have some tendons and silver skin that can be tougher. So breast meat works super well sliced and trimmed up in soups and curries.

This was a quick weeknight curry with store bought yellow curry paste. I started by sautéing onions in coconut oil and then adding in minced garlic and ginger and the curry paste. Then I deglazed with fish sauce and added in a little brown sugar, the cubed sweet potatoes, bone broth and coconut milk.

Meanwhile, I seared the chicken pieces in a cast iron pan and eventually added those into the soup. When the sweet potatoes were soft, I added in curly kale and adjusted with more brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and rice vinegar. We had it with leftover black rice (from the goat shawarma below) and topped with toasted garlic chips.

Meal Prep Sauces: Cilantro Parsley Vinaigrette & Dill Scallion Almond Cashew Sauce

River Queen’s cool season herbs seem to last forever in the fridge. It’s crazy! But even so, with their generous bunches, I try to stay ahead of any going bad by preserving them even longer in sauces that can be used for all kinds of dishes, sandwiches and salads throughout the week.

First up here I made a take on a cilantro vinaigrette with both cilantro and parsley, plus the green parts of scallions, garlic chives, coriander seed, garlic salt, lemon juice and olive oil. I scrambled it into eggs, topped breakfast burritos with it, and used it as a salad dressing. It was especially good with steamed beets!

Then I didn’t even both to clean out the blender before doing a version of Homemade Bitchin sauce I’m always making, this time sort of a green goddess take with more garlic chives and scallions and parsley, plus plenty of dill. The rest of the sauce is almonds, cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and water. It came out creamy and perfect and was delicious with the goat shawarma, scrambled egg bowls and salad dressing.

Goat Shawarma with Black Rice, Colorful Veggies & Dill Sauce

This goat shawarma in the oven was so tasty and perfect for meal prep for the week!

I took two packs of our goat stew/kebab meat and cut them into even smaller pieces, then did a quick marinade with yogurt, fresh garlic, paprika, plus fennel, coriander and cumin seed smashed in a mortar and pestle with fresh oregano. I cooked it at 400 degrees until the juices were clear and starting to evaporate and there were plenty of brown bits.

Meanwhile I steamed a bunch of extra large red beats in the Instant Pot, then plunged into ice water and peeled and sliced. Often I marinate them to eat solo or top salads, but since we already had the cilantro vinaigrette, I just stored them without a marinade and added the vinaigrette throughout the week.

I also roasted some Napa cabbage on a sheet tray in the oven and did a loose take on the Alon Shaya whole roasted cauliflower method, where you blanch the cauliflower first in flavorful liquid and then just finish it at a high heat in the oven.

With some steamed black rice, it all came together in a pretty colorful spread — the goat, roasted and steamed veggies, cilantro vinaigrette and green goddess dill sauce, all topped with goat feta!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

This was a practice round for Christmas, but then for various reasons, I didn’t end up making the Christmas cinnamon rolls! (A farm staffer gave us some fresh sourdough cinnamon rolls his mom made that we had on Christmas Eve and I had lots of pastries and breakfast sandwiches in the freezer from Levee Bakery that reheated beautifully).

I was also motivated to make them because we had leftover lemon cream cheese icing from Blaire’s birthday cake.

In any case, I used a high percentage of whole wheat flour in these and they were delicious, but a little more dense and less fluffy than I’d like. Next time, I’ll use all Barton Springs pastry flour and All Purpose flour and see if we can get them a little more fat and fluffy!

Matcha White Chocolate Cookies

I love a matcha baked good. And I was cleaning out the top cabinets of my baking area and realized I had white chocolate chips, which I don’t use all that much. But they’re perfect with matcha and so I decided to do a quick half batch of these matcha cookies.

They use brown butter and brown sugar, so they got nice and chewer versus too fluffy.

And while they were very tasty, the best part is that they inspired me for the perfect cake to make for Madison’s birthday! And that’s coming to the next blog, stay tuned!