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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Love the recipe, make it every week! Does the cooking time change when doubling the recipe?
So awesome it’s made your weekly roster! I find it cooks pretty much in the same amount of time. Maybe a few minutes longer depending on how soft you like your carrots.
I just realized I have never left a review for this soup, and it’s long overdue, because we have been making it for ages and it has become a staple recipe for us. Everyone who tries it loves it – even non-vegans! It is absolutely perfect as written, I don’t change a thing. WE LOVE IT. Thanks for such a winner of a recipe.
Thanks so much for the kind words. We’ve made tiny tweaks over the years and find it’s now *chefs kiss* perfect.
I know that cannelini are the creamiest beans, but have you ever tried it with garbanzo beans I’m wondering if it’s worth trying with what I have or if I should try and get some cennelinis before making this.
We haven’t but I think garbanzo would work okay. There’s so many other flavors that I doubt it would taste like hummus soup 😂If you don’t have a high-powered blender I would recommend removing the skins so it’s smooth.
Just made this, but didn’t have wild rice. Substituted a box of uncle Ben’s wild rice and used the seasoning packet in place of the spices. Turned out wonderfully. Thanks for the tip for the creamy base!
What a great hack!
A perfect recipe! My hubby and I are overseas and made this soup when we were hit with snow here and thinking about our home in Minnesota. It is theee best! Thanks so much!
So glad we could give you a taste of home!
My boyfriend and I have made this multiple times and it’s always amazing!! We don’t like mushrooms so we omit that and it still turns out great. We are both from northern MN so it truly hits the spot as vegans. Thank you for the great recipe!
Our pleasure! Lots of people skip the schrooms 🙂
Awesome recipe! Added slivered almonds and thought that I was back up north! Thank you!
Slivered almonds are an excellent addition, yum!
Is this gluten free? We just found out our daughter may have celiac disease and are adjusting our diets to match hers until we can get a confirmation of the diagnosis.
Thanks!
Only ingredient you’d have to check is the veggie broth. Otherwise no gluten. Hope your family enjoys!
This is one of our very favorite soup recipes for a snowy day, so rich, filling and delicious ! I’ve shared this recipe with friends, vegan and non vegan ad everyone loves it !
Thanks for sharing the love!
I just made this. Thank you so much for your recipes and tips! Did you actually mean a Tablespoon of Thyme? That seemed like a lot. I only put in half of a teaspoon and I think it was enough but everyone’s tastes are different. 😊 I couldn’t find just wild rice so I used a wild rice blend. It reminds me of a great cream of mushroom soup, which is my favorite and I’ve missed since going Vegan. So thank you!!
WOW. I am newly vegan, and thought I was giving up cream forever, but after trying this, who needs dairy!! I can’t thank you enough for sharing this recipe, it is absolutely a game changer. I can’t wait to experiment with new twists, and check out your other offerings. You are now my go-to Vegan Guru!
Well if that isn’t the best compliment we’ve ever received! We eat plant-based at home, but I still dabble in dairy when we dine out. Which means I am very particular about my substitutes tasting just as good as the real thing.
Disregard my question about freezing. I see in the older comments from October that you said freezing is okay but may need to add some broth which looks odd to start but smooths out when heated. Now I am going to mass produce because our little store just got mushrooms in stock!
Excellent. A freezer full of wild rice soup is the best. I made sure to stock up before welcoming each new baby so we had easy and healthy meals. Now it’s my go-to gift for other new parents too.
Have you ever tried freezing this soup? I live on the remote island of Little Cayman where mushrooms are a rare treat so when they are available I would like to mass produce this soup and freeze it because it is my husband’s favourite (also a Minnesotan!).
Tell your husband a move from MN to Little Cayman is just the best upgrade we could possibly imagine 😂
I’m interested in making this soup but I’m
not a fan of mushrooms. If I just omit the mushrooms, do you think that would change the taste of the soup?
Not at all. They are there for texture. Make it without 🙂
So i used black rice instead of wild rice this was a no no becuase I did not get the creamy color. Also had to use two cans of beans to get the thickness but in the end it did not come out the right color but the flavors were lovely. Also mine was a little more watery so next time less broth. Hopefully 2nd time around will be better for me
Wild rice really is the star in this recipe.
I have unsalted roasted cashews, will it still work?
You’ll certainly get the right consistency, might just have a slightly different taste but I think still good 🙂
This soup is absolutely delicious! To reduce fat, I substituted steamed cauliflower for the cashews. And I was able to chop the onions, carrots & celery in my A3200–unbelievably easy and fast!
That’s a great idea, we have never tried that substitute.
Just made this!
So yummy. Mine was a bit watery so I thickened it with some flour. But otherwise so good!!! If you haven’t made this…DO! It’s a proven recipe ill be remaking again for sure!!
Ours has turned out watery just a handful of times and it’s almost always because I didn’t take the time to dab the water off the freshly washed mushrooms. You can always make it with a cup less broth and add as needed as well. Glad you thought of a quick fix!
Hi, I made this soup tonight and followed the recipe to a T. I don’t know what happened but my cashew cream base did NOT mix in with the broth and veggies. It ended up curdling and looked and tasted awful… I’m not sure what I did wrong. Any suggestions?
Curdling would suggest that one of your ingredients has gone bad. When you first pour the “cream” into the hot soup base sometimes it looks like it separates for a few seconds, but after one good stir it should all come together easily.
Delicious!!!
We are from Minnesota (Bloomington) and know Byerly’s wild soup all too well! When we went WFPB it has been a struggle to find a creamy wild rice soup that we had grown to love from Byerly’s…..But we have now found it!!!! All 3 of my girls kept saying “this is awesome”. Thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe.
Yay! We love it when fellow Minnesotans agree that this soup rivals Byerlys’
A-MAZE-ING‼️🤩
I made this for the first time today, and at the table we kept making “YUM” sounds – like in the movie WHAT ABOUT BOB☺️
Then a friend came over, and my husband invited her to try our “new soup.” She has never understood our WFPB eating… but after her first bite, she asked for the recipe😋
I didn’t have mushrooms, so subbed frozen broccoli instead. (Will probably continue to do this, since I can’t imagine it tasting any better than this:))
What About Bob is such a classic, love it!