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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Just made this recipe last weekend! So good! I used cubed turnips instead of mushrooms because some of my family doesn’t like mushrooms but otherwise followed the recipe and loved how creamy it was and how well it warmed up the next day!
Have never thought to use turnips, sounds tasty!
Shut the front door…this soup is amazing! I never would have guessed it is vegan. Fantastic recipe! Thank you, thank you!
We’re so glad you liked it! It’s always our goal to make people say “no way is this vegan!”
I’m getting ready to make this tomorrow and noticed that you said it is now on the Vitamix website. Their recipe says use 1 Tablespoon Cannelini beans…just FYI….
I’ll be back to rate the recipe once I try it. Looks wonderful!
PS: Vitamix also says 3 Tablespoons of Celery and 1 Tablespoon of Large Carrots. Something got mixed up….
PS: Oh dear, the Vitamix also has the Bay Leaves wrong. Hope it didn’t make it into their book that way…
I would love to put this in my instant pot. Looking at other wild rice soup recipes in the instant pot thinking 25 minutes at high pressure? I have everything prepped to make tomorrow. I am anticipating a very delicious soup.
We rarely use our instapot but that seems like a good guess. Let us know how it turns out!
Oh goodness. We’ll check in with their chefs after the holidays. The cookbook is correct, we checked it MANY times 🙂
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.