Wild rice and Mushroom Soup

November 16, 2014

It’s Fall and I’m loving soup. America’s Test Kitchen had an episode of a delicious wild rice and mushroom soup. Carla loves mushrooms and I had a recipe to make use of my homemade chicken stock. Have I gone on enough about making your own chicken stock? You can see my Cook’s Illustrated based post here or Dad Cook’s Dinner based, super-easy version here. We invited the Lees to come over and enjoy it with us.

This is an America’s Test Kitchen recipe so we have quite a few ingredients; but they all go together to make a sublime dish.

Wild rice and mushroom soup ingredients
Wild rice and mushroom soup ingredients
Wild rice and mushroom soup mis en place
Wild rice and mushroom soup mis en place

I had a bit of a time finding straight wild rice; most of the packages have some brown rice mixed in. The TV episode had a tasting test of wild rices; they are grown differently and processed much differently than normal rice so I knew I wanted straight up wild rice.  ATK recommends Bob’s Red Mill brand which is wonderful but I couldn’t find it at our local grocery store. And this is a local product so I was a little bummed out. But the brand I found was fine.

The first step is to boil some water infused with a bay leaf, a garlic clove and a sprig of thyme. Toss in the rice then move to a 375˚ oven for 35-50 minutes.

While the rice is cooking we brown the mushrooms and onion in some butter. Mmmmm; butter!

Melting butter to brown the mushrooms and onions for wild rice and mushroom soup.
Melting butter to brown the mushrooms and onions for wild rice and mushroom soup.
Mushrooms and onions browning in preparation for wild rice and mushroom soup.
Mushrooms and onions browning in preparation for wild rice and mushroom soup.

Karen and John came over and we enjoyed some appetizers while the soup simmered. When I’m taking pictures my cooking always takes longer than planned.

Carla and Karen hanging out waiting for dinner.
Carla and Karen hanging out waiting for dinner.
Simmering wild rice and chicken soup
Simmering wild rice and chicken soup

We had some French bread, a salad and some wine to round out our dinner.

Dinner is served: wild rice and chicken soup.
Dinner is served: wild rice and chicken soup.

This is a delicious dish that we will definitely make again; we rated it 4 stars on a 5 star scale. As a bonus, there is no red meat; the only non-vegetarian component is the chicken stock. Don’t let the home made chicken stock stop you from making this dish; it’s perfectly okay to buy store bought (don’t tell anyone I said that). Swanson’s low-sodium chicken stock is fine, or try “Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base”. This makes a nice rich broth; the jar yields 38 cups of broth and lasts for over a year in the refrigerator. It’s a great pantry item to keep on hand.

Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base.
Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base.

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