With the arrival of winter weather — including the first snowfall of the season — also comes the arrival of soup season. With how delicious and warming they are, soups match perfectly with the colder temperatures. And what better way to use the garlic from my roasted garlic recipe than in this pureed potato roasted garlic and sage soup?

Now, I’ve slurped my fair share of liquid lunches, but let me tell you, this isn’t just a soup; it’s a creamy embrace in a bowl. You’ve got your potatoes, buttery and comforting, your garlic, roasted to sweet nuttiness, and your sage, with its aromatic depth.

It’s like the three musketeers of flavor decided to have a pool party and you’re invited.

So grab your bowls and a ladle and dive into this witty bowl of culinary genius. Your taste buds can thank me later.

Ingredients for Garlic and Sage Soup

To get started, we’ll need to gather our ingredients. The veggies, the liquids, and the seasonings. These will fully combine together when we blend the soup, but not before we get them cooked.

Veggies

Onion, garlic, and potatoes. These hearty veggies, especially the potatoes, make up the bulk of the non-liquid ingredients used here.

The garlic is roasted beforehand. The onions are sauteed in butter with some of the seasonings. The potatoes are peeled, cubed, and cooked in the soup until soft and blendable. I recommend using a yellow onion and large Yukon gold potatoes. But feel free to substitute other varieties if they’re what you have on hand.

Liquids

It’s a bit hard to make soup without any liquid. Though I’m sure there’s some recipe out there that does, that’s not for us today. And we’ll be doing liquids in two batches – one pre- and some post-blending.

Pre-blending we’ll be using stock. A good stock is a rich, comforting base that elevates everything else. And it isn’t actually that difficult to make your own chicken stock. If you’re going the vegetarian route, though, a vegetable stock will do the trick just as well.

Post-blending is all about adding creaminess. Literally, with some heavy cream and milk. These help add a smooth, luxurious texture that’ll have your taste buds doing the tango. We add these and cook on low heat to keep them from curdling. Just enough to get things cohesive.

Seasonings

Now comes the exciting part – infusing our roasted garlic and sage soup with layers of irresistible flavor.

• Sage: First up is sage, the maestro of this herbal symphony. Its aromatic notes bring a delightful earthiness to the soup. As the sage melds with the creamy base, it creates a harmonious balance that elevates each spoonful.
• Thyme: Enter thyme, another herbal virtuoso that contributes a fragrant undertone to our soup. Its subtle presence adds complexity to the other ingredients for a nuanced flavor profile.
• Bay: Now, let’s introduce bay leaves—the unsung heroes of many savory dishes. These unassuming leaves bring a subtle yet distinct depth to the soup, enhancing its overall taste.
• Salt and Pepper: The basic seasonings that enhance the flavor of almost anything.

The Garlic and Sage of it All

Let’s face it, there’s nothing quite like the aroma of roasted garlic wafting through the kitchen. A good soup is like a warm hug – especially in the winter. And when you pair that with sage leaves sizzling in butter, you’re in for a treat. So buckle up, because we’re about to take your senses on a culinary joyride with the dynamic duo of garlic and sage.

Roasted Garlic Flavor

This is where the recipe all started for me. I made a lot of roasted garlic when preparing my roasted garlic recipe. Roasting garlic changes it from pungent to sweet, sharp to mellow. It helps to coax out their deepest, richest essences.

Raw, it’s bold, assertive, and a little bit punchy, but give it some time in the oven and it softens

So, don’t rush this step. Let those cloves roast until they’re golden, caramelized, and tender so you can spread them like butter. Make the roasted garlic before making this recipe. It takes a little bit of time, but not a ton of effort on your own part – most of it is sitting in the oven.

Sage Leaves in Butter

Adding in the buttery sage comes from another recipe on the site – one of the most popular. My brown butter sage sauce inspired this addition. I highly recommend trying out that simple recipe if you haven’t before.

But back to this roasted garlic and sage soup, make sure to use fresh sage leaves.

I envisioned creating a brown butter sage sauce as the base, but it turned out a little different since I also included the onion when sauteeing the sage and it added enough moisture that it didn’t really brown the same way. But still added a ton of flavor.

Prepping the Potatoes

Potatoes are amazing. They’re versatile, they’re forgiving, and if you treat them just right, they can truly shine as the star of the show.

But to get them ready for showtime we’ll be peeling the potatoes. I think that leaving the peel on would lead to a grittier final soup. But if you want to give it a try, just be sure to scrub them well.

After peeling the potatoes, give them a little rinse in water.

Now start dicing the potatoes into about 1/2-inch cubes.

You don’t need to be exact but try to get similarly sized pieces. This will help them cook evenly in the next stage. So that all the pieces will be finished cooking when it comes time to blend. You’ll also be dicing up the onion before we start in on making the soup itself.

Making the Garlic and Sage Soup

With all of the ingredients prepped, it is time to finally start making the soup.

Brown Butter and Sage

Begin by melting the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the sage leaves and onion to begin sauteing. Stir it consistently to make sure it cooks evenly. The onion is cooked when it is mostly translucent – probably 3 to 5 minutes.

Add in the roasted garlic cloves and dried thyme. Stir it around and cook it for another minute or two to let the thyme bloom. Then add in the chopped potatoes, chicken or vegetable stock, and bay leaves.

Simmering

Turn the heat up to medium-high to let the soup warm up, stirring occasionally. Once it begins to bubble, turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

The goal of the simmering is to fully cook the potatoes and to meld and extract all of the flavors. So, keep stirring occasionally as it simmers so that nothing sticks or burns to the bottom of the pot. Then, as it gets close to the 30 minutes, start testing the potatoes with a fork to tell if they’re cooked. The fork should easily pierce the potato without much force or resistance.

Remember to try and test the largest piece you can find.

Blend Until Smooth

With the potatoes cooked, we’re ready to puree this soup to a smooth texture. Turn off the heat.

I recommend using an immersion blender, but a regular blender could be used as well. An immersion blender will make it so we can just blend it up in the pot. The regular blender will likely take batches and require a lot of transferring back and forth. So, not preferred in my book.

Blend on high until smooth. Not just no big chunks, but smooth. If you think it’s close then just sample it with a spoon and see how the texture feels. Mine took a fair bit of time blending and moving around the pot to make sure it was fully smooth. If you really wanted to, you could strain it with a very fine mesh strainer to get it as smooth as possible.

Finishing the Soup

After blending the soup, we’ll be adding in some special ingredients to make sure it’s velvety smooth.

Add Milk and Cream and Warm on Low

Gently pour in the heavy cream and milk. Stir thoroughly to make sure everything is well combined.

Suddenly everything feels a bit more luxurious.

After adding the cream and milk, we’ll warm it up a little to make sure the soup is fully cohesive. But we need to be careful because the cream could curdle if heated too hot too fast. So just heat it on low for about five minutes. It shouldn’t have lost too much heat while blending it off the heat, so this shouldn’t take too long.

Taste and Adjust

Always always always taste your food before thinking it is finished. There’s usually at least something that could be done to change or adjust and make sure it is perfect.

Have a small taste of the soup and think of both the flavor and the texture.

Does it need a little more salt or a little more cream? Maybe it is a little thick – add a little more stock or water. Once you’ve nailed it down, you’re ready to serve it up.

Serving the Soup

Let’s chat about what to pair with our herby concoction. A soup can be a side or a main dish – it all depends on how much of it you serve and what you serve on the side. Remember, it’s not just about flavor; we eat with our eyes too!

What to Serve with Garlic and Sage Soup

Soup and bread are like peas in a pod – a true match made in heaven. Use some bread to dip in the soup or sop up every last drop when you’ve finished the bowl. A crusty loaf of bread. Freshly baked sourdough, with all its tangy glory. Pure bliss.

Take the bread idea a step further and make yourself a grilled cheese to have for dipping. I know they’re typically paired with tomato soup, but trust me they work with other soups as well.

And for those who crave a bit of crunch, a side of roasted veggies wouldn’t go amiss. Think golden-brown parsnips or glazed carrots, their edges caramelized to perfection.

Or try a salad like any of the following:

• Apple Cider Fall Harvest Salad
• Sesame Soy Chopped Salad
• Apple Walnut Spring Mix Salad
• Homemade Caesar Salad

Garnish the Roasted Garlic and Sage Soup

Garnish is mostly for show. But remember that the eyes are how you first take in the food, so it can really affect how we enjoy it. To garnish the soup, ladle it into the bowls that you’ll be serving. Then try any of the following:

A drizzle – Try drizzling a small bit of olive oil or heavy cream on top of the soup. Get fancy and give it a little swirl while you drizzle. Pour them down close to the top of the soup so that there isn’t much force and it stays on the surface. The drizzle helps to break up the monotony of color that soups can sometimes suffer from.

A dollop – Top it off with a little bit of sour cream or a dollop of prepared aioli (just make sure that the flavor pairs well with the potatoes, roasted garlic, and sage). Gently place a spoonful atop the soup for a fun presentation.

A sprinkling – Finally, sprinkle some chopped or whole fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, or bacon on top. Whole herbs will be for show and removed or eaten around. Try it with sage, parsley, or chives. And everything is enhanced with parmesan and bacon so… give that a spin if you want. You could even have garlic and sage soup with croutons on top for a nice crunchy texture.

Now, remember, while it’s easy to get carried away with the garnish, keep it classy. You don’t want to overshadow the star of the show – the soup itself. I hope you enjoy the soup and let it warm your home this winter!

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try out this roasted garlic and sage soup! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Pureed Potato Roasted Garlic and Sage Soup

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: Soups, SidesDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

45

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

Savor the velvety blend of pureed potatoes, aromatic roasted garlic, and earthy sage in this comforting soup recipe that’s perfect for any cozy winter night!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds large Yukon gold potatoes

• 3 tablespoons salted butter

• 20 sage leaves

• 1 yellow onion

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• 10 cloves roasted garlic

• 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

• 2 dried bay leaves

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

• Peel and dice the potatoes, and finely chop the onion.
• In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat, add in the sage and chopped onion, and cook about 5 minutes until the butter takes on a golden hue, and the onion becomes translucent – stir frequently
• Stir in the thyme and roasted garlic, cooking for 2 minutes allowing their fragrances to meld with the sautéed mixture.
• Pour in the chicken stock, potatoes, and bay leaves, turning the heat to medium-high until it begins to bubble
• Cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for approximately 30 minutes until the potatoes are fork-tender, stirring occasionally to ensure even cooking
• Turn off the heat when the potatoes are cooked through
• Using a stick blender, blend the soup until smooth – alternatively, pour it into a blender and blend it in batches
• Add cream and milk to soup in the pot and return to very low heat for 5 minutes until heated through, stirring occasionally

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The post Pureed Potato Roasted Garlic and Sage Soup appeared first on Do You Roux?.

I’m not gonna lie, it is kind of an involved recipe to make your own ravioli at home. But when you can get this delicious cheese and pear ravioli filling as a result… mmmmmmm is it worth it.

It’s been blazing hot outside, but mother nature finally decided to blow in some cool weather and rain. So it is beginning to feel like fall outside. And what better way to celebrate than trying to come up with a delicious meal to eat?

This creamy two-cheese ravioli is loaded with tangy gorgonzola and slightly sweet ricotta. Combined with the pears and herbs, it’s sure to be a hit however you serve it. The secret to the filling is just a quick cook all together until the pears are just soft.

So, if you’re up for a little bit of a kitchen adventure, then walk through this pear ravioli recipe with me.

Making the Cheese and Pear Filling

To try and get that fall flavor, I wanted to use ingredients that would be freshest at this time. So I got some sage and thyme from the garden and then bought some pears, shallots, gorgonzola, and ricotta from the store.

Melt the small amount of butter in a pan. I know, it should totally be more butter than this for sauteeing something. But, we don’t want too much liquid in the filling. It is just much easier to work with the drier the final result is. So please use a little constraint. I know it is difficult.

With the butter melted and the pan hot, add in the shallots

Once the cheese sauce has finished cooking, you’ll want to add in the shredded mozzarella. Once the cheese has melted, you can remove the pan from the stove. Now, you’ll be ready to fill the raviolis.

For this part of the process, you will need to take a piece of fresh pastry. This is because you will be using it to cover each of your filled ravioli. You will then lay down a strip of the cheese and pear filling. Next, you will fold the top half of the pastry over the bottom half.

Homemade Dough and Other Options

I love homemade pasta. There is nothing like the taste of fresh noodles made from scratch. And you can totally use your own homemade dough to make this ravioli. Just check out my recipe for homemade pasta if you want to give it a try – you’ll need two batches of that recipe to make this ravioli.

I typically make my own pasta dough in a KitchenAid stand mixer, let it rest in the fridge for the required time, and then roll it out using the KitchenAid pasta roller attachment. It makes things a whole lot faster when making pasta. But there are tools and methods to make it all by hand if that’s your jam.

Plus, there are other options if you don’t want to or have the time to make pasta dough.

Most stores do not carry fresh pasta dough. However, they frequently carry refrigerated or frozen wonton wrappers. And those are almost the perfect size for making this ( or any other) pear ravioli at home. Instead of using a ravioli maker or a pastry wheel, just lay the single sheets out and place the filling in the center. Lightly wet the edges, place a second wrapper on top, and then crimp the edges with a fork.

You can also use a single wonton wrapper with filling in the center, folded in half on itself and pressed together for smaller pasta.

How to Fill the Pear Ravioli

I tried making the ravioli two different ways, both using homemade pasta. The first was by using this ravioli maker and press.

First off, if you are using this, make sure to use olive oil to grease the form before you put any pasta into it. Otherwise, it will be a nightmare to get the pasta out, and you may ruin some or all of the ravioli in the process. Definitely not speaking from experience here…

Roll the pasta out flat and cut out two sheets that will fit the ravioli maker. A little overhang on all sides is a good thing. Add one of the sheets to the ravioli maker. Then press down with the bumpy plastic thing into the holes to indent the pasta sheet.

Now, spoon the filling into each indent – making sure not to overfill. It was like 1/2 to 3/4 of a tablespoon. Too much filling means it’ll be more likely to burst open when trying to cook it. With all of the pasta filled, place the second sheet of pasta on top and make sure it all lines up.

Then use a rolling pin to smoothly roll the top pasta sheet down into the form. This will both seal and cut the pasta. And then you should be able to turn it over and give it a whack or two to make the pasta fall out.

Rolling and Cutting Homemade Ravioli

The second method for ravioli making takes a little more judgment on your part. Without a set form, you are the one guessing the right spacing and making sure everything lines up well. But, there are no chances of the pasta sticking to a form and tearing apart when trying to push it out. So there’s that.

To make this dish, you need to roll out the dough into thin sheets. Make sure it is pretty thin, otherwise, the final ravioli will be quite thick since we stack two sheets together to make the pasta.

Get two mostly similar-sized sheets and lay them out on your work surface. On one of the pasta sheets, place 1/2 to 3/4 a tablespoon of pear and cheese filling about 1/2 an inch apart from each other.

Once all of the filling you can fit on a sheet is placed, wet the areas between all of the filling. Now place the second pasta sheet on top of the one with the filling. Press down all of the areas where the pasta touches together. Then use a pastry wheel, bench scraper, pizza wheel, or whatever you’d like to cut the ravioli apart from each other.

Cooking and Serving the Pear Ravioli

So, now that you have a bunch of ravioli cut out, it is time to cook it up. Luckily, the cooking happens rather quickly. Just get a large pot of salted water boiling over high heat.

For cooking fresh ravioli, it is best to do it in batches. This helps prevent overcrowding and makes it less likely that any of your precious ravioli will burst while cooking. I like to use a spider strainer to pull them out when they have finished and still keep the boiling water ready for the next batch. A mesh strainer or possibly a slotted spoon could also work.

The pasta will cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. So be ready to pull them out when they’re cooked through.

For serving your ravioli, try the following:

• Brown Butter Sage Sauce (the most popular recipe on the site to date)
• Creamy White Wine Sauce
• Butter and Walnut Sauce
• Crispy Fried Ravioli with Marinara Sauce

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try making homemade pear ravioli! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Creamy Two Cheese Pear Ravioli

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: Appetizers, EntreesDifficulty: Hard

Servings

5

servings

Prep time

1

hour 

Cooking time

15

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Flavorful fall ravioli filled with pears, two kinds of cheese, and some fragrant sage and thyme. Should make about 50 filled ravioli.

Ingredients

• 3 bosc pears

• 1 small shallot

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

• 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh sage

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese

• 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese

• 100 wonton wrappers or 8 fresh pasta sheets (double the linked recipe)

• Small bowl of water

Directions

• Peel and cut the pear into 1/4-inch pieces, and mince the shallot
• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add the pears, shallot, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes while stirring until the pears just get soft
• Add the gorgonzola and ricotta cheese to the pan and stir until melted, about 3 minutes
• Remove the pear mixture from the heat, transfer it to a bowl, and place it in the fridge to chill at least 20 minutes
• While the pear filling is chilling, get out your pasta sheets or wonton wrappers and place them out on a lightly floured work surface with the small bowl of water nearby – if you are using a ravioli maker then have that ready to go at this step, spread a bit of olive oil so the pasta won’t stick, place a pasta sheet on top, and press down to make indents for filling
• When the filling has chilled, remove it from the fridge and get out a small spoon to use when filling the ravioli
• Start spooning about 1/2 a tablespoon of filling either in the divots that the ravioli maker has made, onto the individual wonton sheets, or spaced about 1/2 inch apart from each other on the sheets of pasta
• Wet your fingers in the small bowl of water and then run them along the edges of the pasta or wonton wrappers, rewetting as necessary, until all outlines of ravioli are damp
• Cover the pasta sheets with a second sheet of pasta and cover the wonton wrappers with another wrapper, then press everything together to seal the wet edges
• For the wonton wrappers, use a fork to press down the edges for a better seal, use a rolling pin on top of the ravioli maker and then push the ravioli out when finished, and for the pasta sheets use a pastry wheel or knife to cut out the individual ravioli
• Repeat the process until all of the ravioli have been filled but, while working on the last batch of ravioli, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and then finish filling the rest of the ravioli
• In batches, add around 9 ravioli to the boiling water and cook until ravioli begin to float, about 3 minutes then use a spider strainer or slotted spoon to remove the pasta to a plate
• Repeat until all ravioli have been cooked, and then serve with any desired finishes

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The post Delicious Creamy Two Cheese Pear Ravioli Recipe appeared first on Do You Roux?.

Butternut squash season is in full swing. So what better time to make a fall-themed recipe that features this fun gourd? Grab a big old spoon and scoop yourself some of this roasted butternut squash soup.

A while back I bought a whole batch of Williams Sonoma e-cookbooks. One of their series is the 365 recipe series where they have one recipe for every day of the year related to the general book topic. In their Soup of the Day book of the 365 series, the October 22nd recipe caught my attention.

It was a pretty basic squash soup recipe. It seemed like a good starting point. But I wanted a little bit more than what their recipe showed.

So, I souped up this recipe and added a little more complexity to the dish. More herbs, more flavor. And some notes on garnishing the soup to really bring it to its full potential.

Making a Pureed Soup

Start off by roasting the squash alongside some other aromatics like garlic and onion. Then saute a bunch of herbs and spices in butter. The aromas wafting through your house will be mouthwatering.

Combine everything from the roasting pan with the sauteed herbs and spices. Then pour in some stock and bring it to a boil. Let everything simmer together for a bit. We want everything to be fully cooked so that it will blend up easier in the next step.

When everything has had time to cook together, it is time to puree.

For the smoothest soup possible, I recommend using a very powerful blender. Though I admittedly own 3 different blenders, I used the Vitamix to tackle this soup. In my experience, most stick blenders will not have enough power to make a super smooth soup. Also, make sure to blend your soup in batches so that you don’t overload the blender and create a mess.

Top and Serve Butternut Squash Soup

Though this soup is delicious all on its own, you can take it to the next level with some toppings.

After serving the soup into individual bowls, drizzle a little brown butter sage sauce or heavy whipping cream over the top. Or do like I did and add both into the same bowl.

Then add some shaved parmesan and toasted walnuts to the top of the soup. And if you’d like, gently place a few small sage leaves or sprigs of thyme on top for a fresh look.

To serve alongside your tasty soup, try making a simple grilled cheese sandwich with a sourdough loaf and some sharp cheddar cheese. Or serve it with some homemade rolls.

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try out this roasted butternut squash soup! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Silky Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: SoupsDifficulty: Intermediate

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

20

minutes

This silky smooth roasted butternut squash soup features one of fall’s favorite gourds and a lot of herbs and spices to taste the season in a bowl

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash (2.5 to 3 lbs)

• 1 large carrot

• 1 small white onion

• 8 cloves garlic

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 2 stalks celery

• 1 spring fresh rosemary (1 teaspoon minced)

• 3 sage leaves

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

• 4 tablespoons salted butter

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 3 to 4 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock

• For garnish: heavy whipping cream, brown butter sage sauce, toasted walnuts, shaved parmesan

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C)
• Peel and cube the squash into 1/2-inch pieces, chop the carrot into 1-inch sections, chop the onion to 1/2-inch pieces, and peel the garlic
• Spread the squash, carrot, onion, and garlic onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put it in the center rack of the oven
• Roast for about 30 minutes until the squash is fork-tender
• While the squash is roasting, chop the celery, rosemary, sage, thyme, and ginger
• When the squash has finished roasting, melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat
• Add the celery, rosemary, sage, thyme, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg to the butter and saute for 3 to 5 minutes until the celery begins to soften
• Add the roasted squash, carrot, onion, and garlic to the pot along with the vegetable stock
• Turn the heat to medium-high, bringing the pot to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium and let it simmer for 10 minutes
• Blend the soup in batches in a blender on high power until completely smooth
• Return the blended soup to the pot over medium heat until it begins to simmer, stirring occasionally
• Serve the soup in bowls and garnish as desired

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The post Silky Smooth Roasted Butternut Squash Soup appeared first on Do You Roux?.

Thanksgiving is a time for f-words: family, friends, and food. And nothing is more synonymous with Thanksgiving than turkey. So cook a flavorful bird with this sage roasted turkey recipe.

Turkey can be a pretty divisive meat. Maybe it’s just me, but it doesn’t seem like turkey is a common meal. Except maybe as deli meat for sandwiches. Because turkeys are so much larger, chicken tends to rule the roost if poultry is on the menu.

So sometimes it can seem a little intimidating to tackle turkey. Especially on the big day. Both because of lack of experience and the big expectations that can accompany it.

Relax.

As long as you have a plan (such as this recipe here), you will be able to take on turkey with confidence. It takes a few simple steps and a basic food thermometer to make sure you get things right. You’ve got this.

All About the Temperature

It begins with prepping the turkey. You can brine the turkey if you’d like but it is not necessary. It can add extra flavor and fill the turkey with moisture. You can also try dry-brining (maybe with a mixture of salt, pepper, dried sage, and citrus zest). But the turkey can be cooked perfectly without brining. And a brine sometimes takes too much forethought…

The biggest complaint about turkey is that it can be dry. So while a brine may help, it really all comes down to cooking it to the right temperature.

You need an instant-read thermometer. This holds true for cooking almost any meat really. This inexpensive food thermometer is the one I use and I love it. You can even buy leave-in thermometers with either long cords or high-tech that will let you see the temperature while it is still in the oven. These are most commonly used when smoking meats outdoors. But a regular instant-read thermometer works perfectly.

Use this guide from Serious Eats on how to check your turkey temp.

Do not rely on the little pop-up ‘done indicators’ that come set inside the turkey sometimes. They typically let the turkey come to way too high a temperature and will lead to a bad, dry experience. Don’t do it. Promise me.

To cook the turkey you can use a roasting pan designed for the purpose. But if you aren’t roasting things much, then it may be overkill to have a pan just for the purpose. In my case, I just decided to put a cooling rack inside a baking sheet and rest the turkey on that.

Worked like a charm.

Making Sure the Turkey Isn’t Dry

1. Use a food thermometer to cook to the proper temperature
2. Have a roasting pan type setup where the turkey can cook on a rack while the juices drip to a pan below
3. Don’t stuff the turkey, it’ll just slow down cooking and make it more prone to an uneven cook
4. Baste the turkey every 30 minutes with the juices from the pan while cooking
5. Let the turkey rest at least 30 minutes before cutting into it

Serving Sage Roasted Turkey

For this recipe, I call for using some brown butter sage sauce to baste the turkey at one point. I think it just adds to the sage flavor of the turkey, plus it gave me another excuse to make my brown butter sage sauce recipe that is the most popular on the site.

For some traditional Thanksgiving sides, pair your sage roasted turkey with any of the following:

• Homestyle Mashed Potatoes
• Simple Turkey Gravy
• Mom’s Dinner Rolls
• Honey and Ginger Glazed Carrots
• Family Thanksgiving Punch

One of the greatest parts of Thanksgiving is all of the leftovers. From turkey noodle soup to turkey sandwiches to turkey pot pie, there are tons of ways to use leftover turkey.

You can also make turkey stock from the bones after removing all the roasted meat. I typically loosely follow my chicken stock recipe while accounting for the fact that a turkey is much larger than the chicken bones I normally use.

Whatever you decide to do with your turkey, rest assured that this sage roasted turkey recipe will make sure it is delicious.

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try out this sage roasted turkey! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Thanksgiving Sage Roasted Turkey

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: DinnerDifficulty: Intermediate

Servings

10-12

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

30

minutes

Resting Time

30

minutes

Total time

3

hours 

30

minutes

Juicy turkey, sage and thyme, golden-brown skin. Everything about this sage roasted turkey makes it a perfect recipe for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

• 15 to 18-pound turkey, defrosted

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons minced sage, about 20 leaves

• 2 teaspoons minced thyme

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• 8 to 10 sage leaves

• 2 to 3 small sprigs thyme

• 4 cups turkey or chicken stock, divided

• 1/3 cup prepared brown butter sage sauce, or melted butter

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C)
• Combine the butter, garlic, minced sage, minced thyme, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and mix it together until thoroughly combined
• Place the turkey on the rack over the roasting pan and pat the turkey dry with paper towels – this will help keep the butter from just sliding around in the next step
• Gently pull the skin away from the turkey breast and slather about 1/3 of the mixed butter under the skin and on top of the breast
• Use the remaining butter to cover the skin of the turkey, including the drumsticks, wings, and breasts
• Add the sage leaves, thyme sprigs, and turkey or chicken stock to the bottom of the roasting pan
• Place the turkey on the center rack in the oven and cook for 1 hour, basting every 30 minutes with the juices from the roasting pan
• After the second baste an hour into the cook, turn the oven heat down to 350°F (175°C) and rotate the turkey 180° so the other side of the turkey faces the back of the oven
• Continue cooking, basting every 30 mins and cook to an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C) in the breast and 170°F (77°C) in the thigh, about 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours of total cooking time
• On the third baste, 1 and 1/2 hours into the cook, pour the brown butter sage sauce over the turkey instead of basting with juices from the pan
• While the turkey cooks, add more turkey or chicken stock into the bottom of the roasting pan if too much has evaporated while cooking
• When the turkey reaches the right temperature, remove it from the oven and let it rest about 30 minutes before slicing

Notes

• Loosely tent foil over parts of the turkey if the skin is browning too much

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The post Thanksgiving Sage Roasted Turkey Recipe appeared first on Do You Roux?.

This sauce is simple, yet delicious. It seems fancy but is easy to make. And only two ingredients make up a brown butter sage sauce.

I mean, my website editor tells me that butter is one of my most used recipe tags. With good reason. Because what dish isn’t better with butter?

You’ll end up with a buttery, nutty sauce with hints of sage and beautifully crunchy fried sage leaves that add so much to a dish. Use more sage leaves for even more flavor.

Typically I love growing sage at home and using fresh-cut sage from the garden in this recipe. But, this first gardening season after moving has been a bit of a learning curve and our sage is a bit scraggly at the moment. So I went to the store for some sage.

You can usually find fresh herbs in a refrigerated section of the produce area of your grocery store. Or try to find some at a local farmer’s market!

Once you have your sage leaves washed and cut from the stem you are ready to make this sauce.

What is Brown Butter?

Brown butter is not a specific type of butter that you must buy from the store. It is just butter that has been browned on the stovetop.

Or rather, butter cooked on the stovetop long enough that the milk solids start browning.

First, melt the butter in a pan. I prefer a wide, shallow pan that makes it easy to stir and gives a large surface area for the butter to be in direct pan contact.

Note that you can make a sauce of just brown butter. But it does take well to the introduction of an herb or two. In our case, some fresh sage leaves. These fresh herbs leach a lot of flavor out into the butter and will cook up crispy to add a delightful crunch to any meal.

After the butter is melted (or almost melted if you just can’t wait, like me), Toss the sage leaves into the butter and give it a good stir. Make sure all of the leaves are coated with butter. The more they are covered, the more of that sage flavor will seep into the sauce.

Now keep stirring and carefully watching the sauce. Though it is a very simple recipe, it can be easy to burn.

Butter likes to be tricky and look like it isn’t really doing much until all of the sudden it is very brown and, if you aren’t careful, burnt. After adding the sage leaves and stirring, the butter will start to foam up.

Do not worry, this is normal.

Just keep stirring and make sure to peek under the foam as you stir around to see what the color is underneath. You are looking for browned butter solids that will collect at the bottom of the pan. They will start to form as you cook it but will be much lighter at first. Look for a light- to medium-brown color.

Mine might be a little bit dark in the photos. But I kind of like it that way…

But you don’t have to rely on sight alone. Smell the sauce as it cooks. You will start to get a distinctly nutty aroma from the butter. Plus, the sage leaves should be fully fried and crisp. When you match the color and aroma, it is time to pull that off the heat. You have a brown butter sage sauce.

It can be helpful to pour the sauce from the pan into a serving bowl when done to ensure no residual heat from the pan burns your finished sauce. Even with the heat off, it may be in danger.

Using Brown Butter Sage Sauce

The first thing you must know when making and using brown butter sage sauce is that it is not meant for fully coating your food like many other pasta sauces. Unlike my tomato cream sauce, you don’t want to douse your whole bowl of pasta with this sauce.

This sauce should be used as a drizzle and with a lighter touch. You don’t want to overwhelm things. It should be a complementary flavor to your main dish. Too much brown butter sauce will also feel really oily and unpleasant.

Pair this with any of the following:

• Homemade pasta – The fresh, silky texture of homemade pasta will pair well with the robust flavor that brown butter sage sauce brings to the table.
• Gnocchi and shaved parmesan – I mean, shaved parmesan just makes things seem fancy, so why not add brown butter sage sauce for the height of fanciness. Also, the nutty flavor and crunchy leaves just work with what is essentially potato pasta.
• Butternut squash ravioli – Cook the ravioli, drain it, and then add it to the pan after the butter has melted (the same time you add the sage). This will give a sort of pan-fry to the ravioli. In the sauce. It is so good. You can also just drizzle the sauce over the top of drained ravioli, but why do that when you can fry it.
• Sausage and pasta – The flavor of sage complements sausage very well, so it just makes sense.
• Sage Roasted Turkey – A turkey recipe worthy of Thanksgiving that is flavored with sage and thyme where I use some brown butter sage sauce to baste the turkey during part of the cook

Trust me, you want some of those crunchy sage leaves.

Easy Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: SauceDifficulty: Easy

Servings

5

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Total time

15

minutes

Buttery and nutty, this brown butter sage sauce hits with sage flavor and texture in its beautifully crunchy fried sage leaves

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter

• 1/4 cup packed sage leaves (15 to 20 medium-sized leaves)

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Directions

• Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium to medium-low heat
• When the butter is melted, add in the sage leaves and black pepper and stir to combine
• Continue stirring as the butter browns, a light brown within about 5 minutes and darker and darker from there
• Pull the sauce off the heat at the desired doneness, but before it has burned

Notes

• If you use unsalted butter, then make sure to add salt to taste

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Well, I recently made buttermilk biscuits, so you might have seen this coming. But you can’t really learn how to make biscuits without also learning how to make sausage gravy.

Because they just go hand in hand so perfectly.

Crunchy, layered biscuits smothered in creamy gravy with sausage spiced to perfection.

Unfortunately, my wife enjoys neither sausage nor gravy. I don’t know why. Cause they are delicious – both separately and together in sausage gravy. Plus she loves basically anything to do with breakfast food. So…

So I don’t tend to make this very often. But it is one of the first things that I really learned how to make. When I was first out on my own

It is simple, flavorful comfort food at its best.

Using a Roux!

I always get excited when I get the chance to feature a roux for the site. It just feels right.

And this gravy is built with a modified roux of sorts. My very first post on the site was a deeper dive into how to make a roux. But in general, it is a mixture of fats and flour that helps to thicken a sauce.

So for this gravy, we will cook the sausage in a pan, use the fat from cooking and add a little bit of butter to combine with the flour to make a roux. The cooked pork will be included in the roux, and will probably soak up all of the butter and flour. As seen in the photo above.

But it will release everything back into the gravy when the milk and cream are added.

When making this, know that you can sub out the heavy cream for a cup of milk instead. It will just be a little less creamy in the final result. Also, you can add in some red pepper flakes or another kind of ground pepper (like chipotle) to add a bit more spice if you are into that like me.

Sausage Gravy for Breakfast

In my mind, breakfast foods are for breakfast or brunch. My wife disagrees and thinks they’re fine for having basically any time of day. It seems to me like she almost prefers to have them for dinner. I don’t get it.

So for me, sausage gravy is a distinctly breakfast item that pairs well with other breakfast foods.

Recipes to pair with this one:

• Buttermilk biscuits and gravy
• Tater tots smothered in sausage gravy
• Breakfast enchiladas?! (shoutout to Cooking with K, I have to try these)
• Over-easy eggs with gravy

I mean, just look at the main recipe card photo below. Sausage gravy smothering flaky biscuits. Mmmmmmmmm. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I guess enough said.

Try it and you’ll be hooked.

Homestyle Sausage Gravy

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: Breakfast, BrunchDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Total time

25

minutes

Meet the perfect southern breakfast comfort food sauce that is creamy and full of spices and flavor – sausage gravy

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground pork sausage

• 2 cloves minced garlic

• 2 teaspoons ground sage

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1/3 cup flour

• 2 cups milk

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• (optional) 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions

• Combine the sausage, garlic, sage, paprika, salt, and pepper in a large frying pan
• Cook on medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes until the sausage is fully cooked, stirring and breaking up the sausage into smaller pieces while it is cooking
• Add the butter to the pan and let it melt
• Sprinkle the flour over the sausage and stir it together, cooking for 2 to 3 minutes
• Pour in the milk and cream and stir to combine with the sausage, also add in red pepper if using
• Let the mixture come to a simmer so that it starts to thicken, stirring occasionally until it comes to the desired consistency, about 5 to 10 minutes – note that the sauce will thicken as it cools once it is served

Notes

• The gravy will thicken as it cools after you serve it, so do not over-thicken it in the pan
• If the gravy is too thick, stir in a half cup of milk

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Throw a bunch of ingredients in a big pot with some water and let it simmer for a while. Now you have chicken stock.

It is almost that easy. A little prep work and some small effort once it has finished simmering is all it really takes. The magic mostly happens by letting the pot sit there undisturbed, doing its own thing for at least a couple of hours. As it simmers it will spread a mouth-watering aroma through the house.

Thousands of recipes use chicken stock. And you can definitely use store-bought stock to make delicious meals. But the extra effort of making your own stock gives you more depth of flavor for your final dish and more control of exactly how it will taste. It is especially important to make your own stock when it is a featured ingredient – like for broth-based soups. A simple chicken noodle soup is elevated to the next level when using homemade stock.

I tend to make stock whenever I have made a recipe that leaves me with bones from the meat. And when I make it, I make a huge vat of it. Then I will keep some of that in the fridge for use in the next week, and freeze the rest for use over the next few months whenever I want to bust out the reserves.

Chicken Stock or Broth?

Some people like to get into the nitty-gritty differences of chicken stock vs chicken broth. But that’s not what I’m all about.

In my opinion, you can use stock and broth interchangeably. Boiling meat, fish, or vegetables with some aromatics and seasonings is the same method for both. Generally, stock is made with more bones and cartilage while broth includes more meat. Broth is also typically cooked for a shorter period of time.

Eh, whatever. They’re the same. I typically include whatever leftover bones and meat I have on hand and cook for as long as my time will allow. In my opinion, longer tends to be better as you give more time for flavors to develop and for collagen to seep from the bones. But if I don’t have time for that, then a much shorter stay in the pot still gets the job done.

What Goes Into Stock?

Don’t take this recipe as set in stone. It is more of a jumping-off point for whatever you want to include in your stock. Mix and match what seems best to you, while making sure to think of what will work with the flavors of your planned final dish. You want everything to be working together.

Do not add salt to the stock. Since this is not a final dish, you don’t want to salt it yet. Save that for once you have cooked everything and then add salt to taste. You won’t risk having too much salt if you wait to add it.

• Chicken – Use bones, skin, meat, and drippings from chicken as the base flavor for the stock. My go-to is using the picked-over carcass from two Costco rotisserie chickens. For a deeper and richer flavor, throw it all on a baking sheet in the oven and roast it at 350°F (175°C) until golden-brown.
• Aromatics – These are vegetables, herbs, and spices that add aroma and flavor to your dish.
  • Vegetables – Most stocks call for garlic, onions, carrots, and celery. But feel free to experiment and try other options. Leeks, asparagus, mushrooms, peas, bell peppers, spinach, tomatoes.
  • Herbs – I generally like to use sage, rosemary, parsley, and thyme because they tend to be fairly neutral and can pair well with a whole lot of dishes. You can try adding any other herbs, just don’t go overboard because using too much in relation to the other ingredients can lend bitterness to stock.
  • Spices – Typically, I add bay leaves and peppercorn (pepper before being ground up) to stock. Ginger, cardamom, and coriander could be fun to experiment with. And you could consider using dried chiles if you are wanting a dish with some spiciness to it.
• Water – Good old plain water, nothing complicated here.

How to Make Chicken Stock

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: SoupsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

15

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

Total time

2

hours 

15

minutes

Long-simmered chicken stock for full flavored soups and sauces

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 pounds chicken bones, meat, and skin (2 rotisserie chicken carcasses)

• 4 large carrots

• 5 celery stalks

• 1 large onion

• 10 peppercorns

• 4 sprigs thyme

• 2 sprigs sage

• 4 sprigs parsley

• 2 sprigs rosemary

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

• 20 to 30 cups water

Directions

• Cut the ends off of the onion and then cut it into quarters
• Slice the carrots and celery into 3 to 4 inch pieces
• Add all ingredients except water to a very large stock pot
• Add enough water to cover everything
• Place the stock pot on high heat until you see bubbles starting to form and immediately turn the heat to low
• Cover with a lid and simmer on low for 2 to 8 hours (the longer you can, the better)
• Remove and discard the bones and vegetables using a slotted spoon or tongs
• Line a mesh strainer with cheesecloth and strain the stock to remove anything remaining in the liquid
• Use the stock or cool it down in an ice-water bath and store it in the fridge or freezer

Notes

• Tie up your herbs with kitchen twine so that it is easier to remove at the end before straining
• Store extra broth in quart-sized plastic deli containers in either the fridge for about a week or in the freezer for up to 4 months

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