Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

A few more shots of ABR in Ironwood, Michigan.  Datsa lotta wood.

I forgot to bring my coffee cup out to the ski-in cabin the first night so I made it in a jar in the morning.  The heavy cream went in first and the coffee on top—a beautiful little melding point.  Note the wood stove in the background.

While we’re at the remote cabins at ABR we use a small insulated bag for the ‘refrigerated’ items like cream, cheese, butter, etc. which we set outside for an hour or two then bring back in.  It wouldn’t pass health code, but it works.  Last night when skied back from the sauna we brought in the bag and heard little scratching noises.  Thinking a mouse had jumped into the bag, Scott took the bag outside and opened the lid.  As we both watched, an adorable flying squirrel stuck his nose out of the bag, then leapt/flew out of the bag with incredible grace!

FLYING SQUIRRELS!?!  Who knew.

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The soup was made at the home-base cabin then frozen for the trek to the ski-in cabin.  Fortunately it’s been well below freezing so all of our supplies have stayed frozen solid while we’ve been in the remote cabin.  We had this for lunch today—a great meal after skiing 15 kilometers.

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Musician Mike McAbee often ate our soups in the deli, and one day told me he imagined in the back of the kitchen we had two giant roulette wheels: one with names of geographic locations and one with types of soup.  “Minnesota” was the winner for this particular spin, and “Wild Rice Soup” came up for the second wheel’s spin… so there you have the Naming of a Soup.

A snow-bath is a great way to chill a pot of soup!

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Saute for a few minutes in a soup pot:

Oil

1/2 cup Carrots, diced

1 cup Celery, diced

1 small Onion, diced

1 small Leek, diced

1/3 cup Wild Rice

Add:

3 cups Chicken Stock

2 cups Water (or use all stock)

2 cups Tubors, diced (Rutabagas, Potatoes, Celeriac, Groundnuts, Turnips, Jerusalem Artichokes…whatever you have)

1 cup cooked Chicken or Turkey

1 teaspoons Rosemary, dried or 1 Tablespoons fresh

1 teaspoons Sage, dried or 1 Tablespoons fresh

1 teaspoons Tarragon, dried

1 teaspoons Real Salt

Pepper to taste

Simmer until Wild Rice is soft.

Turn off heat and add:

1 Apple, diced

1 cup Kale, diced

1 teaspoon fresh Garlic, minced or 1/2 teaspoon Granulated Garlic

1/2 cup Parsley, chopped

1 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast

The wild rice will continue to expand, you may need to add more liquid. 

Taste and adjust.

A few post-dinner notes before bed.