"Lighter" Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Chicken and Wild Rice soup is something of a tradition in the Kubitz/Mahannah household. The Luther cafeteria always had it for Sunday brunch and after a hearty night of drinking, this was some sort of comfort food for my dear Ryan. I didn't try chicken and wild rice soup until much later in life and have found that it's damn tasty stuff.

I found this recipe on Recipezaar and the person who posted this adapted it from Cooking Light magazine. I added a twist of my own and could think of a couple other ways to tweak this recipe for the better.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup Recipe

1 hour 15 min prep
SERVES 8
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking wild rice (** I had some leftover cooked wild and brown rice in my fridge, so I just dumped it in - it was about 2 1/2 cups worth)
1 T. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 grated carrots
3 cups reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth
1 1/2 cups cubed peeled baking potatoes (that's about 2 large potatoes)
3 cups 2% low-fat milk
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
10 oz. sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups chopped roasted cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 breasts)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cook rice according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil - saute for about three minutes. Grate carrots into the mixture. Add broth and potato; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until potato is tender.

Combine milk and flour, stirring well with a whisk. Add the milk mixture to potato mixture; cook 5 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add cheese, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in rice, chicken, pepper, and salt. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

A couple of notes ... the original recipe called for 10 oz. of light processed cheese (think Velveeta Light), but I didn't have any on hand so I used sharp cheddar. Which since I'm trying to avoid processed food, I thought this was a good call. Also - I think that you could use 1% milk and get similar results and further reduce your fat content. One more thing - I think that you could put chopped celery in the soup as well for additional veg.