World's Best Comfort Food: Creamy Rice Soup
A Comforting Bowl of Creamy Rice Soup
The Easiest (and tastiest) Soup I Know
I love this easy soup and the flavor is incredible. What more could you ask for?
I always have the ingredients on hand, and I bet you do too: chicken stock, rice, lemons and eggs. That's all there is! Yet it is one the best soups I know of -- I make it all the time.
Read on for all the details.
Simple Ingredients You Always Have In The Kitchen
The Ingredients
5 cups of chicken stock (I use homemade, but canned chicken stock works, too)
1/3 cup of uncooked long-grain rice
3 eggs
juice of 1 1/2 lemons (slightly more than a 1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste -- sometimes I use more, sometimes less, depending on the acidity of the lemons)
How To Make The Soup
Bring the chicken stock to a boil, then pour in the 1/3 cup of rice. Don't increase the amount of rice (I tried that once and ended up with a mess.)
Lower the heat and simmer the rice for about 15 minutes. You'll know it's done when the rice is tender. Taste a spoonful to make sure the rice is cooked.
Into a separate bowl, squeeze the lemons through a strainer to prevent the pulp from getting into the lemon juice. Yes, you can use bottled lemon juice, but I think fresh tastes best.
Into the lemon juice, add in three eggs and beat with a fork. I usually beat this for at least a minute or two -- I want the strands of the egg white to fully liquify.
Now here's the part that seems difficult, but really isn't:
using a large spoon or ladle, add about 3 or 4 tablespoons of the hot soup into the egg/lemon mixture, then stir carefully for about 30 seconds. Once the hot stock has been fully mixed in, pour in another 3 or 4 tablespoons of hot soup into the egg/lemon mixture, and stir for 30 seconds or so. This process is called "tempering." The goal is to heat your eggs without causing them to curdle.
Here's the trick: pour the hot stock in s-l-o-w-l-y and in only small amounts. It usually requires three additions of hot stock (3 or 4 tablespoons each time) before the egg/lemon mixture is warm. You'll know it's warm enough when you can put your hands around the bowl of egg-lemon mixture and it has become warm.
Now, off the heat, pour the egg lemon mixture slowly into the hot stock, stirring constantly.
Don't let the soup come to a boil! This will cause the eggs to curdle.
Add in salt, then taste for seasoning. Sometimes I'll add a few more drops of lemon, or add more salt.
Serving The Soup, And Some Final Notes
I like to garnish the soup with chopped green onions on top, and serve it with crackers, or with hot bread and butter.
Why is this soup so incredible? It doesn't seem possible that just a few ingredients could make such a yummy soup.
Trust me: you're going to swoon when you try this, and it will become a standard dish you make many times. It's a keeper.
Enjoy!