Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cream of Turkey and Wild Rice Soup


Even though we hosted 10 people for Friendsgiving, and divvied up the leftovers, we still had a lot of leftover turkey! I was actually happy about this because I love my dad's turkey recipe. I had also been craving some soup, so I figured that it would go perfectly in a creamy wild rice soup!!

Fun factoid that I learned this semester in my food science class: Wild rice is not actually rice. It's not a grain either. It's a seed of a reed-like water plant and contains twice the protein and has more B vitamins than regular rice.

This soup far surpassed my expectations and was so good! If only I had leftover turkey year-round to make it!! I guess I'll have to use chicken until the next time we have a reason to make a large turkey!

Cream of Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
Adapted from Eating Well

Makes: Approx. 4 servings
Prep time: 35 minutes

Ingredients
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup quick-cooking or instant wild rice
3 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey (12 oz)
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, celery, carrots, and shallots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add flour, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add broth and bring to a boil. Add rice and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until the rice is tender, 5-7 minutes (unless you are using conventional wild rice, which will take 40-50 minutes to cook. Check the directions on the package). Stir in turkey (or chicken), sour cream, and parsley and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more.

Serve and enjoy!