Sunday afternoon I prepared our 15lb turkey I had just bought the day before from a local farmer at the farmers market. I buy a turkey every year, no matter if we are celebrating Thanksgiving at home or not. That's because this is the only time of year I can buy my free-range, organic, heirloom turkey from the farmer who provides us with the majority of our meat. I have been buying our meat from Farm On Wheels for probably 5 years now, and continue to love what they have to offer. Their beef is from grass-fed cows, their chickens really do run outside and get to eat worms and other grub and are never fed soy, plus they have pork, goose and duck to choose from too. If you live in the Twin Cities area you can check out Farm On Wheels at the year-round St. Paul Farmers market.
We are heading to four families' home this year, so I won't need our turkey. Normally I'd freeze the beautiful bird, but it looked like it was going to taste so good that we decided to go ahead and make it and freeze the cooked meat instead of the whole uncooked bird. I used an adaption of an Alton Brown recipe on Food Network, which turned out excellent. I did change the brine just a bit and lowered my cooking temperature for the second part to 325°F, taking into consideration that this heirloom bread of turkey was going to be leaner than the standard turkeys at the grocery store.
It only made natural sense to go ahead and make my family's favorite soup on Monday night. With snow on the ground and the 50 degree days gone for the moment, a warm bowl of soup was perfect for a healthy, filling dinner. I have about 12 more pounds of cooked turkey now in my deep freeze and I think I can safely say that this soup will be gracing our evening table quite a bit this winter.
2. Toss in wild rice and cook for a couple of minutes before adding broth/stock and dried thyme.
3. Heat mixture to a steady simmer, cover with a lid and allow to cook for about 45 minutes or until wild rice is soft.
4. Once rice is soft, stir in turkey and cream then bring soup back to a simmer. In a small bowl stir together arrowroot and water. Add to soup, stirring until soup begins to thicken. While soup is thickening go ahead and season with the optional lemon juice, salt and pepper.
5. As soon as the soup has thickened, which should only take a couple of minutes, remove it from the heat and serve. Enjoy!
We are heading to four families' home this year, so I won't need our turkey. Normally I'd freeze the beautiful bird, but it looked like it was going to taste so good that we decided to go ahead and make it and freeze the cooked meat instead of the whole uncooked bird. I used an adaption of an Alton Brown recipe on Food Network, which turned out excellent. I did change the brine just a bit and lowered my cooking temperature for the second part to 325°F, taking into consideration that this heirloom bread of turkey was going to be leaner than the standard turkeys at the grocery store.
It only made natural sense to go ahead and make my family's favorite soup on Monday night. With snow on the ground and the 50 degree days gone for the moment, a warm bowl of soup was perfect for a healthy, filling dinner. I have about 12 more pounds of cooked turkey now in my deep freeze and I think I can safely say that this soup will be gracing our evening table quite a bit this winter.
Note on the lemon juice and arrowroot in this recipe.
In this soup I add, when I have it, the juice of one lemon. This makes the soup a little brighter which can be a nice contrast to the cream. Normally lemon will make milk curdle, but I haven't had a problem with that in this soup. I also use arrowroot for the thickener, instead of flour. If you wanted to add flour instead you can, but you would want to do it differently. How I'd add flour is by making a roux. First melt 4 tbsp. of butter in a small frying pan. Add 1/4 cup flour (or up to 1/2 cup if you want a very thick soup, although you may want to add more butter) and cook the flour and butter for a couple of minutes over medium heat stirring constantly. You don't want the butter/flour to brown at all. You want to be getting rid of the raw flour taste. Then thin the roux with a couple tablespoons of broth from your soup. Add it to the soup at the same time you'd add the arrowroot. Arrowroot has a very different nature than flour. You want to be careful to not overcook it or it will actually lose its thickening capability. It adds very little flavor and no color, even though it's white. I don't make this soup extremely thick and creamy. If you like a really creamy soup, double the arrowroot and water.
What You'll Need
~serves 4-6
3 tbsp. organic butter
1 medium red onion, diced
1 cup diced organic carrots (about 2 whole carrots)
1 cup diced organic celery (about 3 celery stalks)
1/2 cup cracked or 3/4 cup whole wild rice
5 cups homemade turkey or chicken broth/stock
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
3 cups chopped cooked turkey
2 cups organic cream
2 tbsp. arrowroot
1/4 cup water
Juice from one lemon (optional)
Unrefined sea salt
Fresh Cracked Pepper
Getting Started
1. Melt butter and cook onion, carrots and celery for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.2. Toss in wild rice and cook for a couple of minutes before adding broth/stock and dried thyme.
3. Heat mixture to a steady simmer, cover with a lid and allow to cook for about 45 minutes or until wild rice is soft.
4. Once rice is soft, stir in turkey and cream then bring soup back to a simmer. In a small bowl stir together arrowroot and water. Add to soup, stirring until soup begins to thicken. While soup is thickening go ahead and season with the optional lemon juice, salt and pepper.
5. As soon as the soup has thickened, which should only take a couple of minutes, remove it from the heat and serve. Enjoy!
What a beautiful and hearty soup. Thank you for sharing yet another soul-satisfying recipe. I'm just about to pull out a loaf of banana bread and sit down to a cup of tea. I hope you are having a lovely evening too!
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