Another Christmas gift! The Best of Wild Rice Recipes is written by Beatrice Ojakangas. She had a cooking show on PBS for a while that I really enjoyed. PBS Saturday mornings has a great line up of cooking shows.
I chose the Chicken and Wild Rice Soup recipe because it still feels like soup weather. I substituted a couple of the ingredients- 2% Evaporated milk for the light cream, butter flavored olive oil for the butter to saute the vegetables and turkey broth for the chicken broth. I substituted the chicken broth because at the time turkey stock/broth was in my freezer (I like to make my own poultry and vegetable stock!). I ended up adding two tablespoons of butter at the end because it needed a little boost of flavor. I made a couple mistakes that maybe took away from the end product. The first one was the chicken. I did not have any cooked chicken on hand so I decided to cut up some chicken thighs and brown them in the pan before sauteing the veggies. It had worked really well in another soup recipe and it would have worked in this one, but I did not have enough chicken. I used 4 chicken thighs but it did not equal 2 cups of cooked chicken- much less. The other error was blending the soup. I put all of the soup into the blender when the directions actually said to blend the vegetables. This may have been why the soup did not thicken well. However, I still liked the soup very much and added it to my Favorite’s Binder. Here is the adaption of the recipe:
Chicken, Wild Rice Broccoli Soup
8 Servings
2/3 c raw wild rice
2 ½ c water
2 T butter flavored olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, chopped
2 lbs. broccoli, chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
7 c of water (I would use 6 cups for thicker soup)
2 c chicken or turkey broth/stock
3 T flour
2 c 2% Evaporated milk
1 lb. chicken, cut in bite size pieces
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cook rice: wash wild rice in three changes of hot tap water, drain. In saucepan, heat rice, salt and 2 1/2 cups water to boiling. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer 30-45 minutes until tender. Drain.
Soup: In soup pot, heat oil until shimmers and add chicken. Brown chicken on all sides and then place in a bowl lightly covered to keep warm. Return heat to pan. Add onions, mushrooms, and salt & pepper sautéing about 5 minutes or until vegetables are soft and mushrooms have released water. Add broccoli, carrots, chicken or turkey broth and water. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender about 15-20 minutes. Turn vegetables into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Add the flour and evaporated milk; blend until smooth. Return to pot and add chicken along with any of the accumulated juices. Heat to barely a simmer and stir occasionally until thickened. Add the wild rice. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot.
Minnesota Food Lover 