One of our favorite soups! Midwestern comfort food made WFPB!
Update: There’s now an adapted version of this recipe on the Vitamix website. And! It’s featured in the Vitamix 100-year Anniversary Cookbook!
This might actually be the best thing we’ve ever made.
It’s creamy and hearty and full of flavor. It somehow warms your soul.
One pot, one blender, one very happy family. Make this creamy wild rice soup tonight, it’s an instant classic.
Experimenting with vegan "creaminess"
Creamy is kind of a difficult texture to create without using cream. But it’s not impossible.
The more you do it, the better you get at making vegan dishes that don’t leave you missing dairy. Since veganizing our household and website, we’ve had to get pretty creative.
To get “creamy” we’ve used tofu as a thickener for our vegan tzatziki and balsamic butternut squash soup. Cashews for our cashew queso and cauliflower soup. And most recently, we’ve been dabbling with Cannellini beans which were featured in our Thanksgiving vegan loaf.
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.
Our favorite childhood soup
Lenny 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 most delicious, pre-made soup: Chicken Wild Rice.
This soup tastes like childhood. Minnesota is freezing and this soup is the definition of comfort food.
Now that we’re married, and eat mostly plant-based, we took on the challenge of making this soup dairy (and chicken) free.
And I must say, we killed it! So, so, so, so, so, so, so good.
We used our Vitamix to create the perfect texture. We used our memories to create the perfect flavor.
This soup was consumed for both lunch and dinner and we just added wild rice back onto our grocery list. It’s one of those recipes you cannot wait to make again.
Start boiling some broth right now. You’ll have the perfect dinner in under one hour.
Recipe
Creamy Wild Rice Soup
One of the best, vegan soups ever
Cannellini Beans, Cashews, Celery, Mushrooms, Vegetable Broth,Ingredients:
- cashews (raw/unsalted) - 1 cup soaked (125 g)
- celery - 4 ribs chopped
- carrots - 1 cup chopped (128 g)
- onion - 1/2 whole chopped
- garlic - 4-6 cloves chopped
- vegetable broth - 64 oz (2 L)
- wild rice - 1 cup (160 g)
- dried thyme* - to your taste (we use 1 Tbsp. (4.3 g))
- bay leaves - 2 whole
- salt - 2 tsp. (5.69 g) + more to taste
- mushrooms - 8 oz chopped (225 g)
- cannellini (white kidney) beans - 15 oz can (425 g)
Instructions:
PREP
- Soak cashews overnight if possible
- If not, soak in boiling water as soon as you see this, the longer the better
VEGGIES
- Chop celery, carrots, onion, and garlic
- Chop mushrooms, reserve on the side
BROTH
- Reserve 1 cup (8 oz) of broth on the side
- Heat the rest of the vegetable broth in a large pot on medium heat
- Rinse and drain your wild rice
- Add wild rice, thyme, bay leaves, and salt to your hot vegetable broth
- Add your veggies too (celery, carrots, onion & garlic)
- Place lid on pot and set a 30 min timer
CREAM
- Drain soaked cashews and the liquid from the cannellini beans
- Place cashews & beans in Vitamix container
- Add the reserved cup of vegetable broth
- Blend on high for 1 minute until smooth
MIX
- When your timer goes off, add the creamy Vitamix mixture to your pot
- Add the chopped mushrooms
- Replace lid, lower heat, and set timer for 15 more min
- When the timer goes off, check if wild rice is done (should be a bit chewy)
- Remove bay leaves
SERVE
- Serve piping hot out of the pot
- Snap a pic and tag #lifeisNOYOKE
- Enjoy!
Useful tips for Creamy Wild Rice Soup
We like to save time by not sautéing the veggies first. We have done it both ways and to be honest, there is not much of a difference. Save yourself a step and throw 'em in the pot.
We blended white kidney beans, soaked cashews, and vegetable broth to create the creamy base of the soup. It works great for bases to other creamy soups too!
This soup is filling and rich. Before you ladle up a giant bowl, make yourself a mugs-worth. It catches up to you quick!
And if you're feeling up to it, serve it with this easy vegan cornbread.
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This. Is. So. Good. One of the best soups ever, honestly. My friend made this for us and even the non-vegans in attendance enjoyed. It can have ingredients easily added for non-vegans as well. I’ve also almost doubled the celery and carrots before and it’s just fantastic still. We make without mushrooms because apparently no one in my family except me likes them, haha. Five-star recipe without question.
I just looked in the older comments. The answer was already there.
Shalva Gale – October 2, 2023 @ 9:46 am
This soup freezes great! We try to eat it within 3 months or find that it gets too watered down by the ice crystals.
I will fill the containers completely and if any ice crystals have formed I will break them off when I take it out of the freezer.
Thank you so much.
Good plan! Plus now you have backup soup for dreary weather.
We love this soup. Even my carnivore husband doesn’t question “where’s the beef?” It is just thick enough. The seasonings are perfect. It is great whether I sauté the veggies or not. If I forgot to get the wild rice, chopped potatoes are yummy as well.
I have 1 technical question:
I made a huge pot full yesterday for an event this evening. The event had to be cancelled unexpectedly. If I break it down into 4 serving containers, can the soup be frozen?
We freeze it all of the time when we batch meals. Works great 🙂
Mmmm this soup is so good! I’ve made a similar soup in the past with my old blender and it still had cashew chunks in it. The vitamix gets it so creamy! Delicious. Thanks for the great recipe.
The Vitamix is definitely the MVP in this recipe!
As far as someone saying it wasn’t thick…mine is always thick with the 64 ozs of broth. In fact, sometimes I have to add a little more liquid after it sits. I am wondering if she cooked it for the additional 15 minutes after adding the canelini beans and cashews.
Also not a problem we’ve ever had. I find that ingredients vary so widely from region to region that some of our recipes need tweeks depending on where you buy groceries.
I’ve made this soup many times before and posted before but I just can’t help posting again! This is by far my most favorite soup of all times. Thanks so much for sharing it. The only thing different I do is add 3 x the carrots!
We do double carrots because one of our kiddos exclusively eats those out of the soup! 😂
Ooohhh my goodness. This is so good! We used to buy the wild rice soup at the grocery store too but it wasn’t as good as this. And it wasn’t as healthy and it was expensive. This is delicious and so easy to make. I love all of your recipes.
I feel like you could make an entire pot full for what one cup would cost!
It’s on the stovetop right now, and I’m loving it! So good:)
I love it when someone walks in the door and can smell exactly what’s on the stove!
This is the most amazing soup I have ever made. Even my non vegan family fell in love. I did not have mushrooms so I added a little coconut amino, it did the trick!
Coconut aminos sound like an awesome addition to this recipe!
Umm..I think the broth should only be 32 oz instead of 64 as written. It was very watery, not like the thick chowder-like pictures. I had to add potato flakes to thicken it up, which threw off the seasonings. Anyhow, I salvaged it. I will try again with 32 oz broth.
Interesting, have never heard that feedback before. Maybe start with 32 and then add to your prefered thickness?
SAVE THIS RECIPE! If you are reading this and wondering if you should make this, well don’t hesitate. Your guest will LOVE it! I entertain a LOT and have been a vitamix user for 17 years. This is a keeper and I know I will serve it for years to come. We served it with vegan lasagna last Saturday night to 16 guests. It was a big hit!
This is the best recipe review ever, thank you!