Turkey Rice Soup

4.88 from 8 votes

This easy, one-pot recipe is comforting and classic. It’s a great use for leftover turkey in the days following Thanksgiving, or freeze it for later.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1

Total Time1 15

Course: Soups

Cuisine: American

Keyword: turkey rice soup

Servings:

Calories: 445kcal

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot minced
1 large leek sliced
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup uncooked rice see note
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth or homemade turkey stock
2 cups water
2 teaspoons dried herbes de Provence
3 ribs celery
3 medium carrots
2 tablespoons (28 grams) room-temperature butter
¼ cup (30 grams) flour
12 ounces cooked turkey
½ cup heavy cream optional (see note)

Instructions

In a large pot, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallot, leek, salt, and pepper and cook until beginning to soften, about two minutes.
Add rice, stock, water, salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence. If you're using white rice, add the carrot and celery now. If your rice cooks for longer, hold off until later.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for as long as suggested on the rice packaging. (For white rice, about 20 minutes. For brown and wild rice, about 45 minutes.) With 20 minutes left on the rice cooking time, add the carrot and celery.
While the soup simmers, make the beurre manié. In a small bowl, combine the room-temperature butter and the flour. Use a fork to mash it all together to form a thick paste. Keep going until it looks homogenous, with no dry flour remaining.
When rice is cooked, add turkey, cream (if using), and beurre manié. Stir very well until the beurre manié is fully incorporated.
Raise heat again to bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 8 minutes to thicken the soup and cook out the flour. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Notes

Use just the white and light green parts of the leek, and wash very well to remove any grit. I prefer to wash leeks in a salad spinner after slicing. I love the nuanced combination of shallot and leek, but you can substitute a large yellow onion if you don't have them.
I like to use a rice blend like this one, but you can use whatever you like — white, brown, wild, or a blend. Long-grain varieties are a better bet than short-grain, but you can use either in a pinch. The soup will be thicker if using shorter-grain rice.
The tender inner ribs of celery with leaves attached work well here. Use more than three if they’re small.
Traditionally, beurre manié uses equal parts butter and flour. But since the soup has other sources of fat, I've changed up the ratio here. You'll still be able to make a fully blended paste with these amounts.
To make this recipe gluten-free, use a measure-for-measure gluten-free flour blend like this one.
I use salted butter and lightly salted turkey stock, and the additional salt in this recipe is calibrated for that combination. When your soup has cooled a bit, taste for seasoning and adjust to your preference.
If you plan to freeze this soup, omit the cream. You can add it while reheating if you like, or leave it out entirely.
This soup is great as-is. It also loves vegetables as much as you do! If you'd like to add more veggies, here are my favorites: Mushrooms. Slice and sauté 8 to 16 ounces cremini or white button mushrooms in a bit of butter until nicely browned. Stir in at the end. // Frozen peas. Defrost and pour in a 10-ounce bag in the last few minutes of simmering. // Frozen corn. Defrost and pour in a 10-ounce bag in the last few minutes of simmering. // Broccoli or cauliflower florets. Stir in a few handfuls of small steamed florets toward the end of cooking. Fresh or frozen is fine. // Green beans. Toward the end of cooking, stir in defrosted 10-ounce package of frozen green bean segments, or a few handfuls of fresh steamed green beans cut into 1-inch pieces.
Once cooled, leftovers can be stored tightly sealed in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to a year.

Nutrition