Rice and Carrot Soup

October arrived and things steadied. The garden was winding down—I pulled the last of the tomatoes before the frost took them, made a big batch of roasted tomato sauce to freeze, cleaned out the beds and layered them with compost for next spring. The annual ritual of putting the garden to bed, which always has a particular satisfaction to it. A season accounted for. A pantry fuller than when it started.

Kai started second grade in a format that involved some in-person days and some at-home days, which he navigated better than the adults around him did. He has a practicality about accepting circumstances as they are rather than as he'd prefer them to be, which I find admirable and occasionally humbling. He brought home a worksheet about vegetables and family food traditions and spent twenty minutes interviewing me about what the Whitehawk family eats. I answered all his questions. He took notes very seriously and handed in the worksheet and got a star on it, which he showed me with quiet pride.

Fall hunting scouted well. I went out to the lease two weekends in October and saw good sign—tracks, scrapes, the rubs that tell you bucks are working the timber. I feel more at ease in that land now, more present in it as my own place rather than Danny's place that I'm permitted to use. That shift matters. I don't think Danny would mind. I think he'd be glad.

Made a wild turkey soup this week with stock I'd been working down for three days from the carcass I'd had in the freezer. Thick and rich and nothing wasted. Wrote the recipe down in the journal with more detail than usual. That one's worth keeping exactly.

The wild turkey soup I wrote about in the journal is its own recipe — one I’m still refining and not quite ready to share in full — but the spirit of it translates perfectly to this rice and carrot soup, which I’ve made a dozen times from whatever good stock I have going. It’s the kind of recipe that rewards patience and a well-stocked freezer: simple ingredients, a rich base, nothing wasted. Kai helped measure the rice the last time I made it, very serious about the level in the measuring cup, and I think he’d count it among the Whitehawk family food traditions if he thought to include it on a worksheet.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup long-grain white rice, rinsed
6 cups chicken or turkey stock (homemade preferred)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional, to finish)

Instructions

Sweat the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook one minute more until fragrant.
Add carrots and seasoning. Add the sliced carrots, thyme, and parsley. Stir to coat in the oil and cook for 2–3 minutes.
Add stock and rice. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the rinsed rice. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
Simmer until tender. Cover partially and cook for 20–25 minutes, until the carrots are fully tender and the rice is cooked through. The rice will absorb liquid and thicken the soup as it sits.
Season and finish. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Add a squeeze of lemon juice if you want a little brightness to cut the richness of the stock. Serve hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Rice and Carrot Soup — Nothing Wasted, Everything Kept