This fall soup has a delicious earthy flavor thanks to the wild rice, mushrooms, celery, carrots, Navy beans and thyme. Use any mushrooms you like, or half cremini and shiitake like I did. See the Notes for steps to make a creamy instead of light broth.
Note: For a more efficient preparation, chop and ready all of your non-rice ingredients while the rice is cooking in step 1. Or make the rice ahead of time for a speedy assembly starting in step 2.
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Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 6 to 8 (makes about 10 cups) 1x
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup dry/uncooked wild rice (see Notes)
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 ribs celery, sliced (about 1 cup)
- 2 medium carrots, sliced (about 1 cup)
- ¼ pound cremini or white mushrooms, sliced (about 1½ cups)
- ¼ pound shiitake mushrooms, sliced (about ½ cup)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic (3 to 4 cloves)
- 5 cups water
- 1 15-ounce can cooked Navy beans, rinsed (about 1½ cups)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add the wild rice and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 60 minutes (or according to your rice package instructions).
- Heat 1 tablespoon of water in a soup pot over medium-high heat. When the water starts to sputter, add the onion, celery, and carrot, and cook while stirring for 3 minutes, adding a little water as needed. Add the mushrooms and garlic, and cook while stirring for another 2 minutes, still adding water as needed.
- Stir in the 5 cups water, cooked wild rice (and any liquid remaining in the rice pot), beans, and tomato paste. Cover and cook on a low simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the fresh thyme during the last 5 minutes. Serve garnished with fresh thyme if desired.
Notes
For a creamy soup base: Many wild rice soups are made with butter, flour, and milk to create a creamy, rich base. If you’d like to do this, I have two suggestions. One is to simply stir in ½ to 1 cup of unsweetened nondairy milk at room temperature (like soy or almond) toward the end of step 3 (after removing from heat). Another way is to blend ¼ cup raw, unsalted cashews with ½ to 1 cup soup broth in a blender until smooth, and pour this back into the soup pot. A last suggestion, for a thicker soup base, is to blend 2 cups of soup broth and veggies/rice until smooth, then pour this back into the soup pot.
Shopping for wild rice: I have made this soup with a wild rice blend as well as black wild rice, but I much prefer the regular wild rice. So be sure when you’re shopping to get plain “wild rice” and not the black (called Forbidden or Japonica) or the blend (with brown rice), both of which can work as substitutions, but in my opinion, aren’t quite as delicious. Regular wild rice will look black/dark brown before cooking, then will pop open and look bi-colored.
Beans: Any kind of white bean can be used besides Navy, including cannellini or Great Northern.
Don’t like mushrooms? If you don’t care for mushrooms, you can leave them out or make up the difference with any vegetable you like or more rice and beans.
- Prep Time: 60 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
Above: The prepared onions, carrots, and celery. I cut my veggies on the small side, but feel free to cut yours however you like.
Above: The sliced mushrooms and finely chopped garlic.
Above: I love chopping my cloves of garlic in this chopper to avoid sticky (and stinky) garlic fingers!
Above: While cooking the vegetables and garlic, you should have very little liquid in the bottom of the pan, just enough to prevent sticking.
Above: Fresh thyme, Navy beans, and tomato paste. If you are salt-free, make sure to read your canned food labels and look for beans and tomato paste without added salt. You can also make your beans from scratch if you don't want to use canned.
Above: This shows the soup with the added blended cashews and water. (See Notes for ideas for a creamier broth.)
Hey Cathy, always a treat to try your recipes. It would be helpful to offer Instant Pot cooking times. Take care.
Thanks Jay! 🙂 I don't know why the IP has not caught on with me, but I agree, it would be helpful. I will look into this, thanks!
Hi Cathy: I would love IP times also-like IP times to throw everything in the IP (I carmelize onions first, then add garlic, mushrooms, celery, carrots, then veggie broth instead of water, tom paste, thyme, and some pre-soaked beans. How long to pressure cook this mix?
Thanks Jill! I'll have to play around with it a bit first. I'll get back to you. 🙂
@Cathy So you do have IP, I thought you avoid it altogether. I am basically like you, old fashioned, however, due to efficiency, the IP makes so much sense.
Hi Eran, I do have an IP but don't use it much; mainly for beans. 🙂
Five stars! I made it with white mushrooms and shitakes (I had a bag of frozen shitakes that I purchased at Sprouts and wondered how to use them. BTW: It worked perfectly.) I did not have fresh thyme, so used dried. I made the creamy version using the cashews.
This soup is so yummy! Tastes just like creamy wild rice mushroom soup I ate every winter growing up in northern Minnesota. I added black pepper to it, because, well that's how it was made in MN (don't you know 😁). Thanks for a great recipe, Cathy!
Oh great! Thanks Pam! 😉
I added zucchini and used basmati rice, 'cos that's what I had. Delicious!
It works! Yum! 😉
Great recipe, thanks! I made it with shiitake mushrooms and Bok Choi. I went for the cashew milk/broth option and half teaspoon of dried thyme. Delicious 😊
So glad to hear! 🙂 Thanks Angela!
I got to enjoy wild rice soup while living in Mpls. When I read your recipe, I decided to make a double batch since I'd have extra mushrooms left over. Boy am I glad I did - it is SOOO delicious! I didn't have fresh thyme and couldn't find my dried, so I used herbs de Provence. It's 29 degrees in WI, so this soup really hits the spot. Thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear that you liked it and make a double batch! 🙂 Thanks Colleen!
I made some tonight! Amazing! So hearty. Thankyou for such great recipes!
I made this recipe with organic baby portabello mushrooms. I used to hate mushrooms but this recipe has made me a fan. I didn't have fresh thyme so I used dried and it was delicious. Will definitely make this again.
Thanks Carmela! 🙂 Glad you're in the mushroom club now! 😉
I made this soup tonight and, as expected, it's fantastic. The combination of fresh thyme and mushrooms is perfect. I used shitakes and white button mushrooms. I did make the soup creamy - I blended a scant 1/3 cup of raw cashews with a couple of ladles of the soup - and I stirred in chopped baby kale at the end to wilt. This will go in my mental list of favorites. Cathy, your recipes never disappoint. Thank you!
Yum! So glad you liked this soup, Linda! Thank you so much! 😉
I tried this recipe for lunch today and it will definitely be a repeat. I used coconut water for the rice and for the 5 cups of water in the soup. Lots of fresh thyme.
One medium onion only yielded one cup chopped, not two. Was there an error in recipe?
The yellow onions I always use yield 2 cups, and I guess I consider it medium (since it's not like the larger white onions I often see). And chop size could also affect the measurement in cups. But it doesn't really matter, a little more or less in this case. After you taste your soup, if you think it needs more next time, feel free to add another onion of the size you used this time. 🙂