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Creamy Wild Rice Soup
Course: Popular, SoupsServings4
servingsPrep time30
minutesTotal time1
hourCalories338
kcalLenny and I grew up in neighboring Minneapolis suburbs but didn’t officially meet until adulthood in Chicago. Occasionally we’ll have one of those strange conversations where it’s clear we likely crossed paths. In this case, it would have been at Byerly’s, the local high-end grocery store. Why would we both be there? Well, both of us were too poor growing up to actually shop for groceries there. But as a treat, we’d make a special trip for their locally legendary, most delicious Chicken Wild Rice Soup. It was our favorite childhood soup. Twenty years later, we took on the challenge of making this soup dairy (and chicken) free. Using some of the things we’ve learned from previous kitchen experiments, we feel like we’ve hit the jackpot recreating this comfort food classic. Turns out in addition to being dairy-free, it’s also WFPB SOS-Free, which is wild given how legitimately rich and flavorful it is. Since creating it, this soup was featured in the Vitamix 100-year Anniversary Cookbook and is one of our most popular recipes. It’s creamy and hearty and full of flavor. It warms your soul. Beloved by folks across the spectrum of diets, it’s our Creamy Wild Rice Soup. Midwestern comfort food made vegan, though nobody needs to know. One pot, one blender, one very happy family. xoxo Shalva.
Ingredients
1 cup (125g) raw, unsalted cashews, soaked
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 cup (128g) carrots, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
64 oz (2L) vegetable broth
1 cup (160g) wild rice
1 Tbsp (4.3g) dried thyme, or to taste
2 whole bay leaves
2 tsp (5.69g) salt, plus more to taste
8 oz (225g) mushrooms, chopped
15 oz (425g) can cannellini (white kidney) beans
Directions
- Prep
- Soak cashews overnight if possible
- If not, soak in boiling water as soon as you can – the longer the better
- Prep Vegetables
- Chop celery, carrots, onion, and garlic
- Chop mushrooms and set aside
- Make the Broth
- Reserve 1 cup (8 oz) of broth and set aside
- Heat the remaining vegetable broth in a large pot over medium heat
- Rinse and drain the wild rice
- Add wild rice, thyme, bay leaves, and salt to the hot vegetable broth
- Add your prepped vegetables (celery, carrots, onion & garlic)
- Cover pot with lid and set a 30-minute timer
- Make the Cashew Cream
- Drain the soaked cashews and the liquid from the cannellini beans
- Place cashews & beans in blender container
- Add the reserved cup of vegetable broth
- Blend on high for 1 minute until smooth
- Combine Everything
- When your timer goes off, add the creamy blender mixture to your pot
- Add the chopped mushrooms
- Replace lid, lower heat, and set timer for 15 more minutes
- When the timer goes off, check if wild rice is done (should be a bit chewy)
- Remove bay leaves
- Serve piping hot and enjoy
Recipe Video
Notes
- Time-saving tip: Skip sautéing the vegetables first. We’ve tried both ways and there’s not much difference. Save yourself a step and add them directly to the pot.
- Creamy base: The blend of white kidney beans, soaked cashews, and vegetable broth creates an excellent creamy base that works well for other creamy soups too!
- Perfect pairing: Serve with our homemade cornbread for a complete meal.
- Serving size: When divided by 6 servings, each portion would be roughly 1.5 to 2 cups
- Nutrition notes: This is a reasonably moderate-calorie option for a hearty, filling soup. The protein from the beans and cashews, along with the complex carbohydrates from the wild rice, provide good nutritional value for the calorie content.
369 responses to “Creamy Wild Rice Soup”
Can we freeze this soup? And if so, how long will last in the freezer?
This soup freezes great! We try to eat it within 3 months or find that it gets too watered down by the ice crystals.
This is my favorite soup of all times! I make it for my single working daughter for her freezer so she has either a dinner she can fall back on or take to work for lunch. She loves it just as much as I do. Thanks for providing such a healthy delicious soup recipe!
Our pleasure! We love gifting this soup to people for easy/healthy meals too 🙂
The recipe calls for soaking the cashews overnight, but fails to stipulate what you soak them in or how much of that liquid you should use for soaking. Thanks in advance for your response.
Soak them in water until covered and then drain them before adding to the recipe.
Today is the 3rd or 4th time I’ve made this and I love this recipe. However I just noticed today that the text says 16oz mushrooms and the printed recipe says 8oz. Getting ready to add 8oz this time. Don’t remember what I used before. Which should it be? I’m sure it’s delicious either way. Also adding a handful of soy curl bits.
Actually now that I look at the recipe again I only see 8oz mushrooms. 🤷♀️ Anyway LOVE this recipe. Susan
Followed the recipe perfectly. I wouldn’t change a thing. The creamy sauce, was a new technique I learned. It was so delicious, and this will definitely be a repeat dish for me.
Heyhey! Thanks Janelle. Share it with friends (and tell ’em about our work!)
Very good soup! Instant Pot version, anyone?
This recipe is so quick and simple….the instant pot would only make it take longer.
Agree. We make this often and have only used the instant pot once to test if it would work or not. It did, but not worth the extra effort.
Just made this for my mom’s 60th and everyone loved it!
If it’s good enough for Mom’s birthday… you know it’s good! Happy birthday 🙂
Hi,
Love this recipe! I was just wondering if you had the nutritional information listed somewhere? (I’m sorry if I missed it)
So glad you like it! We don’t post nutritional info because our readers are global and we find that info for ingredients vary greatly from country to country. Your best bet is to throw your ingredients into an online nutrition calculator (that’s what we would do).
This was a delicious recipe! I am from Minnesota and this is one of my favorite comfort foods! I have been vegan for a long time and it was such a treat to find this excellent recipe so thank you! I started with a low sodium vegetable broth and then at the end I added a dash of onion powder, garlic powder, good sipping sherry, shoyu, umami powder and cracked black pepper.
Ooo, love all of those seasonings coming in at the end.
Also from the Twin Cities. I love this recipe! I added slivered almonds and shredded the carrots – like the original recipe – but truly you nailed it. Thanks so much.
Forgot the carrots were shredded! Might have to try it that way next time.
This soup is sooooo delicious! I made it while hunkering down inside away from the -35 wind chill/blizzard that just hit before Christmas.
We should rename this Blizzard Soup. I run to the store for these ingredients whenever the weather is about to get bad.
It was really yummy but mine turned out brown in colour, any ideas why that would have happened?
Hmm, did you soak your cashews for too long? Sometimes they turn brownish/purplish and that can change the overall color. Maybe also the darkness of the veggie broth you used?
I haven’t had wild rice soup since being diagnosed with Celiacs disease 7 years ago. I moved to Duluth after college and it’s a pretty big thing around here so I missed it. I also was intimidated by cooking with wild rice. I finally broke through and made this soup and it was great. All the familiar taste, texture and appearance. So good, thank you.
Wild rice is totally an intimidating ingredient but worth the effort, I think.
GREAT flavor! We did end up adding more salt & pepper at the table based on preference. I found myself wanting more veggies so I’ll prob double all the veggies next time. I only had a wild rice mixed blend so if that’s all I have next time I’ll double that as well but I think strictly wild rice would be fine. Love the broth! Feels like I’m cheating. Haha!
“Feels like I’m cheating” is perhaps the best compliment we could receive 😂
I made this today and man is it yummy. I added a little pepper in my bowl and think this recipe would be great with some black pepper. Otherwise, I loved it and will be freezing some because it made so much. I am also taking some to my CHIP (Complete Health Improvement Program) class tonight and handing out the recipe.
We always hit ours with a crack of black pepper too! Have you tried these awesome Souper Cubes? They make freezing soup really easy!
I have made this soup more than a dozen times. However, my daughter developed an allergy to cashews. Can I just use the cannelini beans with the broth for a thickener?
Oh no! I think it wouldn’t be as creamy that way, but would work. I would consider something like arrowroot powder or corn starch to thicken. Maybe even add cooked potato to the base and blend?
Oh my goodness. This is AMAZING!! We recently switched to a vegan diet for health reasons. We added 3 small potatoes and loved it. The best soup I’ve ever had. Thank you!
I’m so happy you liked it. Potatoes are a great way to “beef up” this recipe.
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