Wild Rice and Turkey Soup, Trail Version
Dried mushrooms, instant wild rice blend, and pouched turkey rebuilt into one pot of thick soup.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 650 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Quick-cooking wild rice blend | 1/3 cup | parboiled, or it will eat an hour of fuel |
|---|---|---|
| Dried mushrooms | 1/4 cup crumbled | black trumpet or porcini, broken small |
| Dried mixed vegetables | 1/3 cup | carrot, celery, parsnip, onion |
| Chicken or turkey bouillon | 2 tsp | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | stands in for the cream |
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 2 tbsp | thickener, replaces the flour roux |
| Pouched turkey or chicken | 5 oz pouch | |
| Bacon crumbles | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable kind in a bag |
| Olive oil or ghee | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried thyme and a bay leaf | 1/2 tsp and 1 leaf | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 650 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the rice, dried vegetables, mushrooms, bouillon, thyme, and bay leaf.
- Simmer on the lowest flame you can hold, stirring now and then, until the rice is chewable. Twenty minutes for a parboiled blend, longer if you cheaped out.
- Pull the pot off the heat and fish out the bay leaf.
- Stir in the milk powder first, then the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it thickens.
- Add the turkey, bacon crumbles, and oil. Stir, let it sit two minutes, then salt it.
The home version leans on a butter-and-flour roux, a carcass stock, and half a cup of cream. None of that travels. Potato flakes do the roux’s job in ten seconds without a fat to cook, powdered whole milk carries the richness, and bouillon plus dried mushrooms build a stock that tastes like it simmered. The mushroom soak from the original happens on its own here, since the mushrooms rehydrate in the pot and their liquid stays in the soup instead of getting strained off.
Wild rice is the part to get right. Raw wild rice takes forty-five minutes and will empty a canister. Buy a parboiled or quick-cooking blend and check the package time before you leave home. Add the milk powder and potato flakes only after the heat is off, or the milk scorches on the pot bottom and the flakes turn gluey.
Packing
Rice, vegetables, mushrooms, bouillon, and herbs go in one bag. Milk powder and potato flakes go in a second bag, because they clump if they sit in hot broth-dust. Meat pouch and bacon ride loose.
Variations
- Swap the turkey pouch for a foil pack of chicken. Same weight, easier to find.
- Drop the milk powder and bacon and use a vegetable bouillon for a lighter, leaner pot.
- A splash of sherry from a small bottle at the end is not necessary, but it is what the original was doing.
https://foragerchef.com/turkey-wild-rice-soup-with-black-trumpets