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Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup

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This Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup is made with fresh seasonal vegetables and greens, hearty wild rice, and a deliciously zesty, creamy broth (made with either coconut milk or cream). Instant Pot and stovetop options included!

Who’s ready to warm up with a bowl of wild rice soup? ♡

This cozy autumn wild rice soup has become one of our readers’ favorite recipes here on Gimme Some Oven these past few winters and is also hands-down one of my personal all-time faves on the blog as well. It’s loaded up with lots of my favorite fresh seasonal produce, from sweet potatoes to kale, mushrooms, carrots, celery and onions. It’s made nice and hearty with the addition of wild rice, which just so happens to be lower in calories and higher in protein than many other rices. But best of all, it is made with the most irresistible broth, seasoned with garlic and “the bays,” as I call them, and made creamy with either the addition of coconut milk, cream or a roux-based cream sauce.

After having originally written this recipe with the cream sauce, I have to say that I — as well as so many of you readers — have become much more partial to the coconut version over the past few years, which I think adds the perfect hint of sweetness to the broth to balance out all of those savory flavors, and just so happens to make this recipe vegan too. So for any of you who haven’t tried that version yet, or this soup in general, I thought I would bump it back to the top of the blog today while we’re right in the heart of cozy comfort food season. I’ve included instructions below for how to make either the dairy or vegan versions, as well as instructions for how to make this soup in either the Instant Pot (my fave), Crock-Pot, or on the stovetop. And of course, if you’re craving some nostalgic chicken and wild rice soup, you’re always welcome to toss some shredded chicken in here as well.

More than anything, though, I just wanted to pop in and say how happy I am that so many of you have tried and loved this soup! It always means so much to me to read your comments and see photos of your dinner online. So cheers to the cozy recipes that keep us all warm this time of year…and now let’s make some soup!

Autumn Wild Rice Soup Recipe (Vegan Version) | 1-Minute Video

Wild Rice Soup Ingredients

Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few quick notes about the ingredients you will need to make this wild rice soup recipe:

  • Wild rice: I love using 100% wild rice in this recipe, which is different than a wild rice blend or black rice (which, look out, will turn your soup purple!). That said, though, you are welcome to use whatever type of rice you prefer in this soup. Just note that different varieties of rice will require different cooking times.
  • Vegetable stock: You could use either vegetable stock or chicken stock as the base for this soup.
  • Autumn veggies: A seasonal blend of sweet potato, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms and garlic.
  • The “bays”: I’m a big fan of using Old Bay seasoning and a bay leaf to season this soup. But if you don’t have Old Bay on hand, I have included some alternate seasoning options below.
  • Coconut milk or cream sauce: I prefer the vegan version of this soup made with coconut milk, which I believe adds the perfect touch of creamy sweetness to balance out all of those savory flavors. But alternately, you could choose to make a cream sauce (made from milk and thickened with a flour/butter roux), or you could just add in some half and half or heavy cream to taste.
  • Greens: I love adding lots of fresh kale to this soup, but baby spinach, collard greens, or any other soup-friendly greens that you have in the crisper drawer would do.
  • Salt & pepper: As always, for seasoning!

How To Make Wild Rice Soup

As mentioned, I have included detailed instructions below for how to make this wild rice soup recipe either in the Instant Pot (pressure cooker) or on the stovetop. But in general, the method is to…

  1. Cook the base of the soup. Whichever cooking method you choose, we will simmer the veggies and rice in the broth (sans cream) until the rice is completely tender.
  2. (Optional) Make your cream sauce. If you choose to use the cream sauce method, you can prepare the cream sauce in a separate saucepan while the soup cooks by melting the butter, whisking in the flour, stirring in the milk and cooking the mixture until thickened. (Or you can skip this step and add in a can of coconut milk or some half and half instead.)
  3. Add in the coconut milk (or cream sauce) and kale. Once the rice is ready to go, stir in the coconut milk (or cream sauce) and kale until combined. Then taste and season with salt and pepper.
  4. Serve. And serve it up nice and warm! I love serving this soup with some crusty bread and a simple green salad. Also, note that the soup will continue to thicken as it cools. So if it gets too thick, feel free to add in extra broth and Old Bay, to taste.

Recipe Variations

This recipe is quite flexible, so feel free to experiment with whatever ingredient variations sound good! For example, you could…

  • Add chicken: To make chicken and wild rice soup, you can either add pre-cooked diced or shredded chicken to the soup. Or you can poach a raw chicken breast in the soup while the rice cooks, then remove, shred, and add it back into the soup before serving.
  • Use a different seasoning: This soup would taste delicious with a variety of different seasoning blends (in place of Old Bay), such as Cajun seasoning, Italian seasoning or herbs de Provence.
  • Make it milder. Old Bay seasoning is mildly spicy, so if you prefer your soup with less heat, I would begin with just 2 teaspoons of Old Bay. Then you can always add more to taste later, if you would like.
  • Make it gluten-free: The vegan version of this soup is naturally gluten-free. But if you are making the dairy version and would like to thicken the broth a bit, I would recommend adding a cornstarch slurry (equal parts cold water and cornstarch mixed together) to the soup until it reaches your desired consistency.

More Vegetarian Soup Recipes

Looking for some more simple, cozy, vegetarian soup recipes this season? Here are a few more of our faves… ♡

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Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 978 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x

Description

This Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup features fresh seasonal produce, hearty wild rice, and a zesty creamy broth. The vegan version of the soup is listed here in this recipe, or see options below for the cream sauce version.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
  • 1 cup uncooked wild rice*
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 medium carrots, diced
  • 2 ribs celery, diced
  • 1 large (about 1 pound) sweet potato, peeled and diced
  • 1 small white onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
  • 1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk (or see cream sauce option below*)
  • 2 large handfuls of kale, roughly chopped with thick stems removed
  • fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper

Instructions

Instant Pot (Pressure Cooker) Method:

  1. Combine base ingredients. Combine vegetable stock, wild rice, mushrooms, garlic, carrots, celery, sweet potato, onion, bay leaf and Old Bay seasoning in the bowl of an Instant Pot pressure cooker.  Stir briefly to combine.
  2. Pressure cook. Cover and cook on manual (high pressure) for 25 minutes.  Let the Instant Pot rest and naturally release the pressure for 10 minutes.  Then carefully open the vent and quick release the remaining pressure.  Remove lid and discard the bay leaf.
  3. Add final ingredients. Add the coconut milk and kale to the soup, and stir gently until combined.  Taste and season with salt and pepper (plus any extra Old Bay seasoning, if you would like) as needed.
  4. Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!

Stovetop Method:

  1. Sauté the veggies. Heat (an extra) 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent.  Stir in the garlic and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.
  2. Add base ingredients. Add in the vegetable stock, wild rice, mushrooms, carrots, celery, sweet potato, bay leaf and Old Bay seasoning.  Stir to combine.
  3. Simmer. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer.  Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the rice is tender, stirring occasionally.
  4. Add final ingredients. Add the coconut milk and kale to the soup, and stir gently until combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper (plus any extra Old Bay seasoning, if you would like) as needed.
  5. Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!


Notes

Wild rice: I used 100% wild rice which I love and recommend for this soup.  Cooking time may vary if you use a wild rice blend or a different type of rice.

Alternate cream sauce recipe: In place of the coconut milk, you can either add 1 1/2 cups half and half.  Or you can make a cream sauce by melting 3 tablespoons of butter in a (separate) saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking in 1/4 cup flour for one minute, and then whisking in 1 1/2 cups milk until the mixture is smooth.  Let the sauce cook until it nearly reaches a simmer, at which point it will thicken, then remove from heat and add the sauce to the soup once the rice has completely cooked.

Crock-Pot (Slow Cooker) Option: I decided to remove the Crock-Pot option from the recipe instructions because we have unfortunately found slow cookers to be too inconsistent in making this recipe. Different brands/models have proven to vary dramatically in terms of the cooking time required to fully soften the rice and vegetables, and too much of the broth can evaporate if the lid is not fully secure. I recommend the Instant Pot or stovetop options instead. But if you want to cook this soup in a slow cooker, just follow the Instant Pot method and slow cooker (instead of pressure cook) the soup as directed in Step 2 until the rice and veggies are tender.

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1,471 comments on “Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup”

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  1. This was as good as it gets. Everyone who ate it was over the moon.

    I did add extra heat (smoked paprika and white pepper) and some miso paste and nooch…and this was one of the best soups I have ever had. Can’t wait for leftovers tonight! Thanks so much for this one!

  2. We love this soup. One of our favorites. The complaint from others that it’s too salty wasn’t our experience. But I use low-sodium vegetable stock and don’t add any salt to the dish. Love it!






    • Wonderful! I just made this in my pressure cooker and it’s awesome! The only thing I did different was I added some leeks. I did notice that the sweet potatoes pretty much disintegrated into mush, although, it worked out because it made the soup nice and thick! I served it with some sourdough toast and it was great! Thanks for the recipe!

  3. I just made this it’s sooo simple and yummy!!






  4. 1st time on site. Keep up the good work — both the site and the recipes look wonderful. The key — keep them simple, and don’t forget the Red Boat fish sauce, my go to magic ingredient.

  5. Just got to your “Life” column. Most hearty congratulations on the new arrival-to-be. My daughter and family had invitro triplets in 1996 (4th of July arrivals). They’ve been a Godsend ever since, God bless — I can just imagine the anxiety and every tummy roll from the kicks.

  6. I’ve learned a few things making this a few times now:

    – This recipe NEEDS Old Bay or generic Cajun seasoning. It won’t taste right without it, but taste/season as you go along….the recipe amount may be too much for you.

    – This is easiest in the InstantPot or pressure cooker, because you just throw everything in and walk away.

    – The recipe mentions not being sure about cook times for wild rice Blends. The 25/10 timing works fine.

    – If non-veggie version: use low sodium chicken STOCK and not broth or bullion cubes. I just tried with broth, and it was a little sad compared to stock. Stock has the most umami, which is what you want in this soup.

    – Use coconut milk, preferably full fat….It makes it creamier.

    Good ideas for adds at the end: frozen spinach if you hate kale, frozen corn, petite diced tomato (can), cooked chicken or andouille sausage, squeeze of lemon, extra mushrooms, a spoon or two of Thai curry paste, salsa.






  7. I love this recipe, especially with the coconut milk. My kids are a bit averse to vegetables so I make the rice on the side, blend the soup so they can’t make out what they are eating and then add the rice in. I skip the kale in theirs bc it isn’t super appealing to see it blended up but they love the soup otherwise as is. Thank you!






  8. Up up up, good

  9. great! did the pressure cooker method with a wild rice blend using the same amount of time to cook and it came out great. I also did this with regular potatoes as we dont like sweet potatoes and it worked just as well.
    the only thing is I would up the amount of mushrooms next time. Allover a big hit with my family though!






  10. I used butternut squash instead of sweet potato and it was delicious! Thank you!






  11. Love this soup! We add a little shredded chicken to it, delicious. Do you happen to have the macro breakdown for a serving?

  12. I made this recipe as is not knowing exactly what old bay seasoning is. As soon as I tasted it I realized there was cayenne pepper in it and I HATE cayenne pepper. It provides heat with no flavour. So this soup is hot and tasteless because the heat of the cayenne overwhelms the other flavours. I googled the ingredients in Old Bay seasoning and it said red and black pepper but I didn’t understand red pepper is cayenne.. Pioneer woman has a recipe for Old Bay seasoning and next time I will make it and leave the cayenne out. I think if I did that it would get 5 stars






  13. I made this using a crockpot and the potatoes were still extremely hard after 2 hours of cooking on high. That felt like a short time, as most crockpot soups take at least 4 hours. I’m having to finish it on the stove, but it’s been 30 minutes and they still aren’t as soft as they should be.

    It’s still on the stove as of now, but the flavor seems good so far(had to make an old bay substitute since I didn’t have any). I’m just confused by the timing accuracy of the crock pot version of the recipe!






  14. Absolutely delicious! Never had a flavor from soup like this before. Wouldn’t change a thing. I will definitely make again.






  15. This is my new favorite soup. I remember my mom using Old Bay Seasoning on fish when I was a kid. I never knew it cold make soup so delicious. The coconut milk put it over the top. You must use wild rice. White or brown rice makes the soup gummy. I used half wild rice and half Jasmine rice once and it was not nearly as good.

  16. A go to soup for us any time of the year! Making it tonight in fact and it’s May! We love the unique flavor the old bay adds to this soup and with me being lactose intolerant the coconut milk is exactly what I would use in it anyway. I have yet to change up the ingredients but might switch out the sweet potato for butternut squash or even a russet sometime. Thank you for sharing this one! We love it!






    • This is one of my favorite soup recipes. I’ve tried it with the coconut milk and the cream sauce. We usually use the cream sauce. Tonight I’m using half coconut milk because we have half a can open and half cream sauce. We’ve also tried it with our own diy “old bay” and real old bay. Both are good! Super hardy and filling and great with sour dough toast or naan. I think we e used beef stock instead of vegetable at times and that was good too.






  17. This recipe did not disappoint! I made the vegan version in my instant pot. I didn’t add any salt. I did add two teaspoons of old bay seasoning and about a teaspoon of herbs de Provence. The sweet potatoes do kinda disintegrate. I don’t mind though. It taste great and even better the next day. I will definitely make this again.






  18. Used brown basmati rice as I didn’t have any wild rice… and in case anyone is considering trying the same, I’ll warn you, it doesn’t really work…

    Tasty but the texture came out kind of like savoury rice pudding instead of soup!

    Will make again though, it’s yum – will just try harder to find wild rice for it next time!

  19. What if you don’t have a instapot or pressure cooker?

  20. Made this on the stove top, minced the mushrooms, added shredded rotisserie chicken, white pepper and smoked paprika. Best soup my family and I have ever had.






  21. I love this recipe! Wondering if you or anyone else has tried freezing it and how that comes out? I usually make the coconut milk version so maybe I would leave that out until I thaw it?

  22. This soup is AMAZING. I use the original recipe with the béchamel vs coconut milk, also I omit the mushrooms and add shredded rotisserie at the end with the kale. But I’m having a hard time finding wild rice. Would the IP cooking time be the same with a wild rice blend?

  23. I’ve made this recipe many times and I absolutely love it! Do you know if it freezes well?






  24. Could you leave how many carbs, calories, and sugars in this recipe

  25. I come back to this every single fall. I leave out the mushrooms, because yuck, but leave everything else the same. I always make a pot for my family and a pot for my staff and it goes QUICK. This has become a tradition and one we all look forward to.






  26. when I first printed this recipe on January 17, 2020, it give me two methods on how to cook this,
    pressure cooker or stove top method. I have used this recipe so many times that I need to print a
    new one, stove top method,
    can you please send me the recipe stove top method.
    pleases respond when you receive this message

    Thank you
    Jennifer

  27. Delicious! I made this for lunch today (eating it as I write this) and it is SO GOOD. I made the stovetop vegan version. I followed the recipe exactly, no substitutions, and I personally wouldn’t change a thing. This soup is perfect.

  28. The soup was delicious. I substituted butternut squash for the sweet potato which was good. However, when I substituted Jasmine rice for the wild rice, it didn’t work very well. After the leftover soup sat in the fridge overnight, the rice had swelled so much that it caused the soup to become mushy. Next time I make the soup, I will keep the rice separate rather than cooking it with the soup. Then I’ll add the rice to each bowl of soup upon serving.

  29. This soup is a regular in our house. We absolutely love it!






  30. This was so good! I can’t stop eating it! I added extra Old Bay.






  31. So good but I feel like my coconut milk “broke” so the coloring looks different from your pic. Any suggestions?

  32. Freakin’ A. MAZE. ING!!!! This will be in the rotation this Fall for sure. Thanks for sharing! ☮️✌🏼






  33. I’m vegan so I made as is but made my own coconut milk by using Vitamix to blend 1 cup water, 1/2 cup cashews and 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut. Less saturated fat this way. Added one sliced vegan sausage to half of it but prefer it without. Also added corn — I had one cob and cut the corn off of it. Very good and thick.






  34. Very disappointed in this recipe. First, the picture is photo shopped. I followed the recipe exactly and it doesn’t look anything like the photo. Second, the cooking time says 1-2 hours, and after 3.5 hrs, the rice isn’t cooked, the onions are not cooked, the squash is still hard as well as the carrots. I had to put this on high in order to eat it. Now, it’s 4 hrs later, and still not cooked properly.






  35. I added chicken thighs. Definitely will keep this in the rotation.






  36. Can you freeze this soup

  37. This is the first soup I make every fall and everyone in our family is OBSESSED with it! 😍 We switch it up between using sweet potato or butternut squash and the kids always gobble it right up. Thanks for such a great recipe!






  38. Can attest, this is one of my favorite soups…IN THE WORLD. I use Bragg’s 21 herb seasoning and have never looked bag. It is arguably tastier cooked on the stove than in the Instant pot, but totally scrumptious no matter how it’s cooked. Have been making this one for years now!

  39. Don’t get me wrong, the combination of vegetables was fantastic, but I cooked this for two hours and it was not even close to done. Like, the rice was still hard and the vegetables were raw. I ended up cooking it on low for several more hours to get everything cooked the way it needed to be.






  40. How many people will this feed?

  41. This soup. Wow! Our new fave for sure. It was so easy to make and made the house smell so good. I even took some to the neighbor to share but honestly there isn’t that much left because it’s so yummy. I added peas and used spinach instead of kale, and thought it came out great. I think it would be great with some andouille sausage and might try that next time. Seriously cannot get over how good this is.






  42. Wow. This is the best mushroom and wild rice soup I’ve ever made. Didn’t have Bay Seasoning so I substituted an Italian blend. Added some red pepper flakes. Delicious!






  43. When I look at the pictures is it a yam (orange flesh) or sweet potato (white flesh) in the soup??? Please advise!

  44. I made this for my book club. All a bunch of foodies. They all loved it. I did recipe to point 2.5 times and shredded a whole roasted chicken which I added in when I added veggies. Delish!






  45. Sooooooo goooooood. I could eat it every day.






  46. Mmmmm this was so delicious! I have seen many recipes call for Old Bay but never had it (I live in Canada and I don’t think it is as widely used) – so happy I ordered some! Thanks for a great cozy soup.






  47. Yum! Didn’t have Old Bay Spice so used my own, and subbed spinach for kale, but it was definitely a keeper! Thanks for a great soup recipe!






  48. This soup is amazing! I used sodium free stock and it didnt even need salt when eating! So flavorful!!!!! I cant wait to make it again!






  49. Surprised how delish this recipe turned out.
    It’s really versatile so you can kinda switch it up once you get the basics. I may try coconut cream next time vs coconut milk bc I was really wanting it to be creamier. But truly 5 stars.