chicken, wild rice and root vegetable soup

I am so glad so many of you enjoyed yesterday's post, showing the simple way to make bone broth. I love when you email me, letting me know you enjoyed the post, and that you are making your own batch! With the long weekend coming up, I wanted to also quickly share the soup I made with our bone broth. This recipe is a perfect use of root veggies that might be in your winter CSAs...

You can certainly make this soup with purchased stock, but if you have the time, bone broth is so nourishing that it's worth the extra effort. Plus, its' thick consistency makes any homemade soup that is rich and satisfying.

Chicken, Wild Rice, and Root Vegetable Soup

(makes 12 servings)

1 batch bone broth (or 2 quarts purchased stock)
3 lbs root vegetable, chopped*
1 cup chicken, shredded*
1 lb bag Lundberg wild rice
additional stock/broth (optional, if you like it thinner)

Put all ingredients in a large soup pot. Bring to a simmer, cover, and let rice and veggies cook for about 45 minutes, or until tender. Will keep in fridge for 3 days, or so, and in freezer for up to 2 months.

(You can see the goodness of the bone broth in action when the soup is chilled. It's almost solid...)

* A note on ingredients: Our local market had these 3 lb bags of assorted organic root vegetables from Harmony Valley Farm (pictured above) in the produce section. I picked a bag up on a whim one night, when I was trying to quickly get in and out of the market. The selection of veggies was wonderful, and it encouraged me to try some root veggies I don't normally purchase. If you are selecting your own root veggies, you'll simply want to pick out a 3lb combination of carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, celery root and/or sunchokes. As for the chicken, I estimated 1 cup of shredded chicken b/c that is what I had leftover from dinner the night before, but you can certainly include more in your soup if you want more meat!