Wild Rice Soups

Another soup that seems to have disappeared from the Panera Bread menu is the chicken wild rice soup. “Find a recipe for that”, said my friends. But, of course, I don’t want a soup with chicken in it, so here are two wonderful vegetarian wild rice soups. Wild rice is expensive, but it’s worth it. Trader Joe’s grocery stores sell a frozen wild mushroom mixture that would be perfect in this soup.

Mushroom -Wild Rice Soup

4 Cups Vegetable Broth
1 Cup    Dry Sherry
½ Cup   Water
3 Shallots—Finely Chopped
½ Cup   Mushrooms—Sliced
1 Cup   Wild Rice, rinsed well
Salt and Pepper—To Taste
½ Cup Light Cream
½ Cup Chervil, Or Parsley—Chopped
2 Teaspoons Fresh Thyme—Chopped
Pinch Dry Mustard
In a soup pot, pour the broth, sherry, and water and bring to a boil.  Add the shallots, mushrooms, wild rice, salt, and pepper.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Cover the pot and cook slowly for 35-40 minutes. Check to see that the rice is well cooked; if not, cook for another 5 minutes or so.  Check the seasoning also.  Add more broth if necessary. Add the cream, chervil, thyme and pinch of dry mustard.  Stir the soup thoroughly.  Cover the pot and simmer the soup for another 10 minutes.  Serve immediately.

This next recipe has yummy dried cranberries in it.

Cranberry Wild Rice Soup
4 tablespoons butter
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups hot vegetable broth
1 ½ cups cooked wild rice
½ cup dried cranberries
1 cup light cream
2 tablespoons dry sherry
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley for garnish or chervil if you can get it

Melt butter in Dutch oven or other heavy soup pot. Add onions, celery and carrot and sauté about 8 minutes. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Whisk in the hot vegetable broth. Heating the broth will help prevent lumps. Whisk steadily and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Add rice and cranberries and simmer another 15 minutes until cranberries are tender. Stir in sherry and cream and season to taste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving. If you have chervil that would be even better. Chervil is a Minnesota area kind of herb. When we lived in South Dakota we noticed that people used this herb a lot. It goes well with wild rice. It’s also very nice with carrots. I grow it every summer, but it bolts in our southern heat.

How to cook wild rice

Rinse in a sieve under running water. Bring 2 cups of water to boil with ½ cup rinsed wild rice and ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and simmer on low heat for 45 to 50 minutes until tender, but still chewy.