Cream of Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

I woke up with a migraine yesterday. I have to say that after this odd three-week hiatus (unheard of if you’re me), I particularly resented this one. It was just there. No usual phantom warning, flecks of light, odd pain elsewhere. There. Pounding at my eyelids and making it impossible for me to feel like dragging myself out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:45 in the morning, even though it had to happen.

I think the fact that I’d been oddly migraine-free for about three weeks really made me bitter with this one. How dare my body trick me into believing that some sort of normalcy could be obtained. The weekly, two-day migraines a thing of the past. On a good day, juggling four kids and a more than full-time workload all from home at the same time under the same roof isn’t easy. It is at the very opposite end of that spectrum, teetering on the edge of insanity some days. Most days? More days than I’d personally like to admit to at the moment.

But it is these days that I truly enjoy things like a fridge and freezer full of heat-and-eat goodness. Casseroles, enchiladas, lasagnas, pasta dishes and, of course, soup. It keeps us far away from the drive-thru and warm and cozy in my little house that could use a good scrub down after a week like this last. Any takers? I’ll bake you a plate or two full of Christmas cookies.

Smallish-sized pieces of celery, onion and carrot.

Slice a few mushrooms. Again with the mini ports. They’re pretty. They speak to me, so I buy them. Don’t act like vegetables don’t speak to you. (Let’s pretend I didn’t just mention insanity up there.)

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large stockpot. We’re going to sauté the vegetables.

Kind of. This is a lot of vegetables. Keep the heat a bit above medium and continue stirring.

We’re looking for the onions to lose their fog and become translucent.

And when they get that way, toss in a bit of garlic and give it a stir.

For kicks, I’m adding in some wine. Look for something dry like a dry vermouth or even a Trader Joe’s special Three-Buck Chuck. (YES, 3 whole dollars now!) If you aren’t a wine drinker…I suppose you could use cooking wine. I won’t tell. Because we’re the ones in control of the salt, we’ll just adjust at the end.

Now, stir in a cup of flour.

And keep stirring and cooking for a good three minutes to make sure it starts to cook down. It will start to look a bit like paste on the vegetables.

Then we’re going to add the wild rice and…

…the turkey stock, or chicken or vegetable. Because I made my own turkey stock, I know that I didn’t add any additional salt to it. If using a store-bought variety, look for a low sodium or no sodium added variety. Better to control it yourself at the end and adjust with real salt, not MSG and get it the way you like it.

Notice the black husk on the wild rice. All closed and covered up. We want to let those babies out of their buttoned-up exteriors. Pop a lid on the stockpot and let it simmer over a medium-low heat for a good 45 minutes.

And when you come back, the wild rice should be showing a bit of leg…or we want them to be tender on the inside. The inside that has now been exposed.

Now it’s time to stir in your precooked turkey or chicken. This happens to be leftover roast turkey, but you could easily toss in a bit of grilled chicken or skip the meat altogether if you’re not into eating it. I didn’t for 7 years. I can relate.

Whichever it is, just chop it up into smallish-pieces and stir it in.

Let it simmer for a few minutes to heat up the meat pieces and get the heat of the broth back up.

Finally, dump in the cream. The answer is yes. I do have a thing for cream soups. I like a few others as well, but you have to wait for those until I get my fill of this first.

Once you add in the cream, let it simmer for a while over very low heat.

And you can serve yourself a bowl, dish others up, put it in containers and stick them in the fridge for lunch or the freezer for emergency migraine meals. Creamy, warm, delicious. It reminds me of being younger, of discovering soup in bread bowls and quickly realizing that this is the only soup that did it for me in a sourdough bread bowl. There could be no other.