cream of mushroom and wild rice soup.
just a favorite soup of mine turned vegetarian; creamy, loaded with vegetables, and filled with soft wild rice, it makes for the perfect cozy fall soup.
Serves: 4 Prep time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 40 minutes jump to recipe.
Evan hates this story, but on our very first Valentine’s Day, he arrived at my doorstep with nothing other than a very large cup of chicken and wild rice soup. He worked at Panera at the time and had driven over after work, soup in hand, to enjoy the day together. We got Chinese takeout and napped, and as we laid in my tiny college bed, I considered breaking up with him.
That’s why he hates this story.
Obviously, we didn’t break up, and nearly 8 years later I find the gesture endearing. At the time, I was having an existential crisis: “Will this man gift me stolen soup for the rest of my life?”
Even if the answer is yes, I think I’d be pretty happy. I love soup.
Making cream of mushroom & wild rice soup
If you aren’t vegetarian, feel free to add chicken to the soup. You can brown the chicken first or just throw it in with the rice, then shred it once it tenderizes in the broth. Easy addition.
However, this soup is made for those with just a few spare veggies in the fridge. Carrots, celery, maybe a few mushrooms. Any mushroom will work.
You can even make this with water instead of broth, dried thyme instead of fresh, and coconut cream instead of heavy whipping. It’s pretty customizable, so don’t overthink it.
Some important things to consider, though, are sweating the veggies (better flavor), cooking the rice fully (better texture), and remembering the flour (to thicken it).
If you forget the flour or want this to be gluten free, use a cornstarch slurry at the end of cooking, instead.
Additions, substitutions
This soup is great as-is (in my humble opinion) but you can certainly switch things up a bit. Here are some suggestions:
add shredded rotisserie chicken
cook chicken breasts in the broth, then shred
add broccoli, zucchini, or spinach
swap the wild rice for orzo
add fresh herbs like rosemary and sage
swap the baby bellas for shiitake or king trumpet
swap the heavy cream for coconut cream, and the butter for vegan butter, for vegan
nothing beats fresh veggies - but feel free to buy these pre-sliced to save time.
cream of mushroom and wild rice soup ingredients
mirepoix: butter, celery, onion, carrots. You can just dice them all, slice them if you prefer, or like me, use a julienne peeler for the carrots. I love my julienne peeler for this purpose alone, and think it’s totally worth buying if you like little shredded carrots in your soup (or salad, to sweeten the deal). For reference, I use this OXO peeler.
garlic: Use plenty of it. Mince it up small or use a garlic press to press it into the mirepoix.
mushrooms: I recommend baby bella (cremini) mushrooms. These are simple mushrooms with plenty of umami flavor. You cannot go wrong with these. You can use white mushrooms, but the flavor won’t quite be there. If you want to swap or add mushrooms, I recommend shiitake. You’ll have a great deal of flavor with those. If you want to really get wild, try king trumpet.
flour: This will act as the thickener for the soup, which you need to make it “creamy”. The heavy cream does a lot of the work, but not all of it. If you skip the flour, you’ll have a pretty brothy soup - as in, it will be a thin liquid instead of the rich creamy texture. You can always use a cornstarch slurry to thicken it after cooking.
wild rice: There’s no reason to be picky about the brand, any wild rice will work. Rinse the rice a bit first, then just add it right to the soup pot. Cover with plenty of broth and simmer away until the rice cooks. Basically, you’ll want to simmer for as long as the package suggests, somewhere around 30 minutes. To make this part faster, you can use pre-cooked rice and simmer for a simple 5 minutes instead.
broth: To keep it vegetarian, use vegetable broth or stock. If you aren’t vegetarian, I highly recommend chicken broth for more flavor. If you run out of broth and the soup desperately needs more, use water and season with salt to taste.
thyme: I always use fresh herbs for soups so that the flavor develops over time and the sprig can be removed after cooking. Dried thyme will work just fine though, so feel free to swap as needed. I recommend 1 tablespoon of dried thyme - adjust as needed if you’d prefer stronger thyme flavor.
Make a roux by coating the butter-soaked veggies in flour. The flour dissolves, making a sort of thick paste.
this is what the soup should look like after adding the rice and broth.
cream of mushroom and wild rice soup pairing options
You all know by now that I’m a fan of soup-and-sammies. Here are some sandwich suggestions (inspired by my panera orders) as well as other good pairing options:
shaved steak and horseradish aioli panini
grilled white cheddar and turkey sandwich
tuna melt
chardonnay or dry sauvignon blanc
rice should be soft and visible by time you add heavy cream.
