Creamy Turkey & Wild Rice Soup | Perfect Use for Leftover Turkey
This turkey & wild rice soup is the perfect use for leftover turkey. It's creamy, comforting, and very delicious.
Course Dinner, Lunch, Soup
Cuisine American
Keyword Comfort Food, Soup, Turkey
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 45 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Ingredients
½tbspolive oil
½cuponiondiced small, ~1/2 medium onion
½cupcarrotdiced small, ~1 medium carrot
1/4cupshallotminced, ~1/2 medium shallot
1tsppoultry seasoning
1cup wild rice blend
5cupsturkey stockhomemade or boxed
1/4headcauliflowerchopped small, ~3 cups
4tbspbutter
4tbspflour
1cupwhole milk
½cuphalf & half
3cupscooked turkeychopped into bite sized pieces
kosher saltto taste
black pepperto taste
Instructions
Place a medium Dutch oven or soup pot (with at least a 6 quart capacity) on the stove over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and let heat for a couple of minutes. Then add the onion, carrot, and shallot to the pot. Add a hefty pinch of salt. Sauté for about 5 minutes until the vegetables start to soften and the onion turns translucent.
Add the poultry seasoning and wild rice blend. Cook for about a minute allowing all of the rice to get coated with the oil in the pan. Then add the turkey stock and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat so that the soup slows to a simmer and cover. Cook for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes, add the cauliflower and another hefty pinch of salt. Cook for another 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender and the rice is cooked through.
While the soup is simmering, place a small frying pan or sauce pan on the stove over medium heat. Add the butter and let it melt. Once the butter is just melted, add the flour. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let this cool while the cauliflower and rice is finishing cooking in the soup.
Once the cauliflower and rice is cooked through, whisk the milk into the roux so it's well blended and smooth. Stir the roux & milk mixture into the soup. Let the soup come back to a boil, stirring frequently until the soup is thickened.
Finish the soup by adding the chopped, cooked turkey and half and half. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.
Notes
Poultry seasoning is an easy, quick herb blend to use here, but if you don't have it, a combination of dried thyme, sage, and rosemary would work to replace the spice blend. Just make sure the herbs are ground fine.
I like this Royal Blend Texmati Wild Rice, but anything similar should work. Look for a blend that has about a 45-minute cooking time.
You can definitely replace the turkey with cooked chicken and the turkey stock with chicken stock.
Try this recipe with any vegetable you like. I like the way that cauliflower soaks up the broth, but I think broccoli, peas, or green beans (or a combination of these vegetables) would also be great. Some spinach stirred in towards the end of cooking would also be delicious.