Mushroom and wild rice soup

Last weekend, we went out walking - The Boy and I, and we decided ... okay, well, I decided that I wanted to stop at the fresh food markets. We went through and bought a whole heap of fresh fruit and vegetables. Among the stuff we bought were some amazing fresh mushrooms. The guy at the mushroom stall said that the mushrooms would keep up to 2 weeks refrigerated but we decided to use most of it the first night and made a lovely mushroom risotto. There was still plenty of mushrooms left, and The Boy said he wanted a mushroom and wild rice soup.

This weekend, we headed up to The House and brought the mushrooms with us and tonight I'm making mushroom and wild rice soup. The recipe which I found here, called for 1/2 a pound of mushrooms, so I bought another small package of fresh Swiss Brown mushrooms to add to the mix that I already had.

Here's the RECIPE I used for the soup, which I found on the interwebs. (However did we manage before Google?):

Ingredients: Makes about 6 servings

• 1 cup wild rice
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 celery stalks, diced
• 1 pound mushrooms, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 cheese rinds (optional)
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons rosemary
• 1 cup whole milk or cream
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons salt, divided

Instructions:

• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the wild rice and one teaspoon of salt, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 40-50 minutes, until the rice has burst open and tastes tender. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid to use as stock if desired.
• While the rice cooks, prepare the rest of the soup. Warm a teaspoon of oil in a dutch oven or stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and celery with a half teaspoon of salt, and cook until the onions have softened and turned translucent, 3-5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium and stir in the mushrooms and another half teaspoon of salt. Cook until the mushrooms have released all their liquid and turned dark brown, 15-20 minutes. Don't skimp on this step! This is where the soup gets its deep, rich flavor.
• Add the garlic and oregano, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir until the vegetables become sticky and there is no more visible dry flour. Increase the heat again to medium-high and pour in the wine. Stir and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Continue simmering until the wine has reduced and thickened a bit.
• Add the bay leaf, cheese rinds, and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Add the rosemary, milk, and wild rice. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes, until the soup has thickened to your liking. Stir in the cider vinegar. Taste and add more salt or vinegar to taste.
• Leftovers will keep refrigerated for up to a week.

I didn't have cider vinegar, so I used white wine vinegar instead, but other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe exactly ... except for the fact that I used maybe 5 cloves of garlic rather than the 2 it asked for.

I also used the water that boiled the rice for the soup rather than throwing it out.

Oh! and I didn't have any cheese rind, so I left that out and I also used chicken stock rather than vegetable stock since I didn't have any of that, so that is what I used instead.

... So maybe I should take back the bit where I say I pretty much followed the recipe exactly ... because ... um, I didn't. :-)

The soup turned out to be very rich and creamy. Simply delicious.

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