Duck Soup with Wild Rice and Mushrooms
This hearty and delicious soup is a great way of using up the leftover meat and carcass from a roast duck, or a chicken or turkey. Even a leftover store- bought rotisserie chicken will work.
If you haven’t made homemade stock or broth before, don’t be intimidated by the idea. Nothing could be easier!
The broth or stock can be made ahead. If you extra, it can be frozen and thawed for use in other soups, risotto, or gravies and sauces.
The Homemade Broth
First step is to remove and set aside any leftover meat from the duck carcass. Once that is done the carcass is ready for the stock pot.
Making the broth or stock doesn’t take much active time; basically, you just pop the carcass in the stock pot along with the vegetables and seasonings, cover with water and let simmer away.
The long simmer results in a delicious broth with an incredible depth of flavour. The dried porcini mushrooms add a nice earthiness to the broth, which pairs beautifully with the wild rice and cremini mushrooms in the soup.
The Soup
Once the broth is ready, the soup is a breeze to pull together, with just a bit of prep work d to get the vegetables ready.
The ingredients are added to the broth in two stages; the rice as it takes the longest to cook, followed by the vegetables.
I lightly brown the mushrooms and onions before adding them to the soup as I prefer the colour and texture. If you prefer, skip this step, and add them in raw, along with the carrot and celery to cook in the broth.
Equipment
- Dutch oven or stock pot
Ingredients
For the Broth
- 1 duck carcass and any spare bones from a roast whole duck all fat pulled off & discarded (substitute chicken or turkey carcass)
- 1 large onion cut into quarters
- 2 celery stalks cut into 2-3 inch pieces
- 1 large carrot cut into 1-2 inch pieces
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 1 pkg dried porcini mushrooms
- 4-5 sprigs fresh Thyme
For the Soup
- 6-8 cups homemade duck broth
- 2 cups leftover duck meat
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 10-12 small white button or brown cremini mushrooms sliced
- 1 cup wild rice and brown rice blend (or use 1/2 cup wild,1/2 cup brown)
- 1 carrot diced
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Remove any leftover meat from the carcass and reserve.
- Prepare the BrothBreak up the duck carcass into 3 pieces and add it to a large pot with any remaining bones. Fill with water until the carcass is covered ( 6-8 cups or more). Add the onion, dried porcini mushrooms, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns celery and carrot.
- Heat the pan to a very gentle simmer, cover and leave to cook for two hours, occasionally skimming the scum from the top.
- Strain the broth carefully through a fine colander, or sieve. Discard the solids.You will need 6 -8 cups of the broth for the soup. If you have extra it can be frozen and saved for another use.
- Prepare the SoupIn a large Dutch oven or stock pot, heat the olive oil over med-high, Sauté the sliced mushrooms and diced onion until the mushrooms just begin to colour, about 5 – 7 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside.Note: You can skip this step and simply add in the onion and mushrooms raw when you add the other vegetables.
- Add another tablespoon of oil to the pot and add the brown and wild rice, mix through to coat with the oil. Add 6 -8 cups of stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add the diced carrot and celery, along with the reserved onions and mushrooms to the pot. Continue to cook until the rice and vegetables are tender, about 15-20 minutes.
- Add the duck meat and the thyme. Cook for 2- 3 minutes to warm through..
- Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper.