Wednesday, I made a big pot of soup and had Phoebe and Nancy over for dinner and cards. It’s definitely getting to be soup weather – and we do like soup around here.

Soups are generally something I just sorta make with whatever’s in the house – even though I have so many soup recipes it’s ridiculous. Wednesday’s soup started off as one of those recipes.

It was an Italian Wild Rice Soup from Eating Well magazine.

Naturally, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but it was a great foundation.

I had planned to make an Alaskan Cod something-or-other for dinner last night, and Victor suggested poaching it in some of the leftover soup! An excellent idea!

 

It was the original 20-minute-start-to-finish-meal. And it was really really good!

I simply heated the soup is a large skillet, placed the fish in, covered the skillet, and let it poach for about 10 minutes. The fish cooked to perfection. it was light, flaky, and had great flavor. I added a bit of Italian hot sauce and enjoyed every bite.

Here’s the soup the following day – nice and thick, hearty and flavorful!

Italian Wild Rice Soup

adapted from Eating Well Magazine

  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 3 qts beef broth
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes
  • 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 leek sliced
  • 1 fennel buld, chopped
  • 3/4 cup wild rice
  • 1/2 cup wild rice blend
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp Italian seasoning, crushed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
  • S&P to taste
  • 1.2 tsp – or more crushed red pepper
  • 1 (9 ounce) package fresh spinach, chopped
  • 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large dutch oven or soup pot, cook pork over medium heat until no longer pink.

Add onion and fennel and cook until onion is wilted. Stir in garlic.

Add tomato paste and cook a bit to remove the raw tomato flavor.

Add broth, tomatoes, rice, and seasonings. Bring to a boil.

Add rice, reduce heat, and simmer until rice is tender – about 45 minutes.

When soup is ready, stir in spinach or other tender greens of your choice.

Serve topped with cheese.

The original recipe was a crock pot recipe – something I do not own. I reworked it for stovetop.