Wild Rice Soup

This winter my Mom went on a trip to Minnesota where she spent a little over a week visiting with friends, playing in the snow and cooking. One of the recipes she brought back was this great recipe for Wild Rice Soup. Most wild rice you will find in your local store comes from Minnesota and is a filling and healthy ingredient.

My Mom and her friends made some adjustments to the original recipe, using fresh mushrooms instead of canned and swapping a red bell pepper for green. Once I got a hold of the recipe I followed their changes as well as using low sodium mushroom soup and low sodium chicken broth. While not low in calories it is surprisingly not a heavy, thick soup. Next time I make this I plan on adding some fresh herbs to it, perhaps some Rosemary.

Makes 10 cups

1/2 cup wild rice
1 pound bacon
1 cup onion, chopped
3/4 cup celery, chopped
1/3 cup red pepper, chopped
1 large (32 oz) carton low sodium chicken broth
2 10 oz cans cream of mushroom soup (I used the Campbells version that is low sodium for casseroles)
10 oz fresh sliced mushrooms
1 pint half and half

Wash wild rice well and boil in water for 15 minutes, drain, rinse and set aside.

Cut bacon into 2 inch pieces and fry until crisp in a large pot. Remove bacon from pot, reserving 3 tablespoons of drippings. Saute onion, celery and pepper in bacon drippings until onion is transparent. Add rice, broth, soup, mushrooms and cooked bacon. Cover and cook over low heat for 1 hour.

Before serving, add half and half and heat through.