WILD RICE and MUSHROOM SOUP (pressure cooker version)
December 18, 2017
Isn’t this the time of year for soups? Belly warming, rich, flavourful soups. And to be honest, when it comes to galley prep, I’m lazy. That’s what’s so appealing about living with restrictions…both in what’s available and environment. No one expects fancy pants elaborate meals when all you have to work with is a boat cooler and a one-burner alcohol-sometimes-with-electricity-fueled stove. Some of the best and most memorable meals have been the ones that have been cooked in one pot and have included everything – veggies, proteins and some carbs.
This next recipe checked off all those boxes of simple, one pot, what I had on hand and complete in itself. All I added was some bread.
I’ve started keeping a good supply of dried mushrooms on hand because for one thing, I love mushrooms but the best thing is they store well, rehydrate quickly, added so much flavour to a dish and there have been times that Francois has thought they were big chunks of beef in an otherwise vegetarian dish. They also are great ground to a powder for adding to sauces and when you rehydrate them the resulting broth can easily replace some of the cooking liquid.
Other ingredients for this recipe that make it whatever-you-have-on-hand-ready is rice (brown and wild); carrots as with other root vegetables, keep well; evaporated milk; and leftover grilled chicken, which can be an optional ingredient but it’s what I had on hand. I hate wasting so throw in what you have, I say.
On to the recipe. What you will need for this is a pressure cooker or some form there of (Instant Pots are all the rage now). Mine is electric but there are also the stove top versions. With a little browning in the beginning the rest of the meal was added and 20 minutes later (of course about 10 minutes of waiting for the pressure to release naturally we were ready to ladle and dine.
This made four generous servings so yay for the lazy one, leftovers for another meal.
Recipe for my yummy rye bread here
Thanks to Half Baked Harvest for the inspiration
WILD RICE and MUSHROOM SOUP (pressure cooker)
Author: Galley Kat
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 cup dry wild rice/brown rice combination (I used ½ of each)
- 2 cups dried mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water for 30 minutes
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
- 6 carrots, chopped
- 4 cups chicken broth plus the broth from the rehydrated mushrooms if you wish.
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ cup grated parmesan, plus more for serving
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup chopped cooked chicken (optional)
- salt and pepper
- zest from 1 lemon
Instructions
- Heat oil in pressure cooker pot set on ‘brown’ mode.
- Saute onion and garlic until onion softens.
- Add carrots and saute for another couple of minutes.
- Stir in rice and brown for a minutes or two.
- Deglaze with white wine stirring to loosen any borwn bits.
- Add seasonings then broth.
- Lastly stir in milk and ½ cup of parmesan, seal and set cooking time to 20 minutes.
- Natural release pressure for 10 minutes then carefully quick release.
- Stir in cooked chicken it using, rebalance with salt and pepper and add lemon zest.
- Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with extra parmesan and pass the bread.
