Leftover Turkey, Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

Here it is a few days after Thanksgiving and you're wondering what to do with some of that leftover turkey, other than sandwiches, of course. This is a soup that will be a great change from the usual turkey casseroles. If you can find some, use Baby Bella and brown mushrooms in the soup for even more flavor.

Slashfood is having a contest called Lovely Leftovers Day where they are asking food bloggers to show what they made with their leftover turkey. I guess I'm entering my soup, because it tasted incredible, even though I was not totally satisfied with the photo. I've decided it's really hard to get good photos of soup. I still have a lot to learn about food photography, but I'm pretty good at soup making!

Leftover Turkey, Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup
(about 6 servings, recipe created by Kalyn)

2-3 cups diced leftover turkey
6 cups chicken stock (or 4 cans chicken broth)
1 tsp. dried thyme or 2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 onion, diced small
1/2 cup diced celery
2 T butter, divided
Vege-Sal or salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
8 oz. sliced white or brown mushrooms
8 oz. sliced Baby Bella or shitake mushrooms (not dried shitakes)
2 cups water
1 T Better Than Bouillon Mushroom Base (optional but recommended)
1 T soy sauce (or more if you do not have the mushroom base)
3 T flour
1 cup cooked wild rice or wild/brown rice mix
1 cup half and half or cream

Put stock or broth in soup pot with turkey and thyme and heat to low simmer. Melt 1/2 T butter in small frying pan and saute onion and celery 3-5 minutes. Add to soup pot with water, mushroom base, and soy sauce and simmer 15 minutes.

While soup simmers, saute mushrooms about 5 minutes in 1/2 T of butter. Add mushrooms to soup and simmer 15-20 minutes more. In same pan that mushrooms and veggies were cooked in, melt remaining 1 T butter. Wisk in flour and cook 2 minutes. One cup at a time, wisk 2 cups of soup liquid into the flour mixture and heat until mixture starts to thicken. Pour thickened mixture back into soup pot and stir to distribute.

Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper to taste. If mixture seems too thin, cook down for a few minutes. When soup has reached desired thickness, add wild rice and cook 2-3 minutes. Add half and half or cream, stir in and heat thoroughly but do not boil. Serve hot.

This recipe would be a "once in a while" treat for South Beach Dieters due to the butter, cream, and white flour. If you wanted to make it more South Beach Diet friendly, you could replace those ingredients with olive oil, milk, and whole wheat flour.

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