Corn and Wild Rice Soup With Smoked Sausage

I was looking forward to cooking on the grill last night but then this happened (excuse the crappy mobile phone picture).


We have had some foul weather in East Tennessee the past week so I had my canopy up so I could cook. A wind storm damaged the frame earlier this week which caused the tarp to fit loosely. That allowed it to collect about 5 gallons of rain yesterday while I was at work, bending the frame even more. It's toast.

So...it's cold, rainy, and my outdoor kitchen is on the verge of a catastrophic meltdown. Damn. Soup it is. This one is from The Bon Appetit Cookbook that my brother gave me two or three years ago.

Corn and Wild Rice Soup with Smoked Sausage
The Bon Appetit Cookbook 2006

12 1/2 cups (or more) canned low-salt chicken broth
1 1/4 cups wild rice (about 7 1/2 ounces)
6 1/4 cups frozen corn kernels (about 2 1/2 pounds) thawed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces fully cooked smoked sausage (such as kielbasa), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 carrots, peeled, diced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups half and half
Chopped fresh chives or parsley

Bring 5 cups broth to simmer in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add wild rice and simmer until all liquid evaporates and rice is almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, blend 3 3/4 cups corn and 1 1/2 cups chicken broth in processor until thick, almost smooth puree forms. Heat vegetable oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage and sauté until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add carrots and onions and stir 3 minutes. Add remaining 6 cups chicken broth and bring soup to simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer soup 15 minutes.

Add cooked wild rice, corn puree and remaining 2 1/2 cups corn kernels to soup. Cook until wild rice is very tender and flavors blend, about 15 minutes longer. Mix in half and half. Thin soup with more chicken broth, if desired. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Soup can be prepared 2 days ahead. Refrigerate until cold; cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm soup over medium-low heat before continuing.)

Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with chives and parsley and serve.

I didn't have the full amount of wild rice, so I used a mix of long grain, wild rice, and red rice. I found the red rice at Sunrise Supermarket in Knoxville, an Asian grocer. It has a strong nutty flavor and cooks like brown rice.

Wasn't crazy about the sausage only because it had bits of mozzarella in it.....which melts when you saute it.

This is a hearty soup and Alexis agreed that it tasted quite good. Next time I'd dice the sausage into a finer dice, about the same size as the carrots. Plus, if this is "12 appetizer or 6 main course servings" as the cookbook says, those people are some piggies. It yields more than that.

So I'm off to shop for a new EZ-Up canopy. Because sometimes it rains in my outdoor kitchen.