Call of the Wild Rice Soup

Included In Cookbook:

Ingredients

1 cup

Wild Rice (uncooked)

3 cups

Water

1 teaspoon

Salt

2 tablespoons

Grapeseed Oil

1 tablespoon

Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Stick

White Onions (diced)

4 cloves

Garlic (finely chopped)

1 pound

Shitake Mushrooms ( stems removed and discarded, caps wiped clean and sliced)

5 stalks

Celery (thinly sliced)

Carrots (large, diced)

Fennel Bulbs (small)

2 1⁄2 quarts

Vegetable Stock (or more as needed)

Salt & Pepper (to taste)

1 ounce

Dried Porcini Mushrooms ( reconstituted according to package directions, soaking water reserved)

3 sprigs

Thyme

1⁄2 cup

Flat Leaf Parsley (chopped)

Bay Leaf

1 package

Chestnuts (5-ounce, whole roasted and peeled, halved)

Description

What's yummier than Shiitake and Porcini Mushrooms? The nutty flavor of the wild rice and woodsy taste of the mushrooms are the star ingredients in this satisfying vegetable soup. Everyone wants Diane to make this for them when they’re sick. Then again, everyone also wants it when they are well. Eat, enjoy and be healthy.

Prepare in advance:

2 ½ quarts Roasted Vegetable Stock, (see Soup section) or other vegetable stock

Summary

Yield	Servings

Instructions

Thoroughly clean the wild rice by rinsing it three times with three changes of hot tap water.
Put the rice in a medium-size pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until rice is al dente, approximately 15 minutes. When done, set aside until step 3.
In a soup pot, heat the grapeseed oil and Earth Balance. Sauté the onions and garlic until soft. Add the shiitake mushrooms and continue cooking for approximately 5 minutes.
Add the celery, carrots, and fennel, stirring well to combine with the other ingredients. Cook for several minutes, then add the stock, salt and pepper, porcini mushrooms with their soaking liquid, the herbs, chestnuts, cooked wild rice, and any remaining water in the rice pot.
Simmer the soup for 20 minutes until the rice is tender. Remove and discard the bay leaf and thyme sprigs.

Notes

Cooking times assume that you are using the hand-harvested, grayish-green true wild rice. Jet black rice labeled as “wild” is cultivated for commercial production; it’s less flavorful and takes at least twice as long to cook as hand-harvested rice.
Refrigerates well.
Freezes well.