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An easy wild rice soup recipe packed with vegetables and flavored with lemon and garlic. This soup is vegan, gluten-free and the ultimate comfort food. Perfect as a vegan meal prep recipe too!
this recipe
Relationships are all about compromise, right? One of the things I've learned from mine is that in order to get Matt on board with healthy eating, I can't just make the food I like all the time. I need to make things he likes, just with my own healthy twist.
This wild rice soup is a prime example of how we compromise.
I'm a creamy soup girl through and through (hello, creamy roasted pumpkin soup ????????). I'd so much rather have a soup that is blended and creamy that I can dunk toast into. But he doesn't. He's a brothy soup guy. And since he's also not 100% plant-based, this is something I can make that satisfies us both.
It's a rich, cozy, veggie soup, that is broth-based. It's a win-win!
One of the things I love about soup is that they're really easy to pack in a TON of veggies without really trying. You can kind of just toss whatever you have on hand/want into the pot, cook it down until it's tender and serve it up.
That's what I wanted when I made this wild rice soup – I wanted it to be veggie-packed, but also super flavorful.
Sometimes I find that vegetable soups are lackluster in the flavor department. So to amp things up, we're sauteing the vegetables with a LOT of garlic,and also stirring in some lemon zest and lemon juice. The end result is one of my favorite soups to date!
The Best Wild Rice Soup Recipe
Yes, that might seem like a super bold statement BUT it's also true. This is hands down the best wild rice soup I've ever made or tasted.
I love that we start by sauteing the vegetables which infuses them an almost roasted quality. Next the Italian seasoning. This is probably one of my favorite herb blends – you've got oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme. It's pretty much the ultimate soup blend! Then there's lemon zest which adds brightness, a bit of tang and rounds it all out.
I also love finishing my wild rice soups off with a cup of plant milk. It adds just a little richness but doesn't create an overpowering flavor. You could really use any milk you like – I went with unsweetened almond, but it would also be great with cashew, rice or even coconut!
The finishing touch? Some fresh spinach. You get that gorgeous contrast of color, you're able to boost the nutrition even more, it's great for digestion and who doesn't love sneaking in some extra greens where they can!?
If I had to make one soup over and over again this winter, this would be it. I loved it, Matt loved it and we enjoyed having leftovers all week long. That's saying a lot because he is NOT a leftovers guy and he actuallyasked me to pull it out of the freezer and reheat it for dinner a few nights later.
It's that good! And I know you're going to love it too ????
More Healthy Wild Rice Recipes
Wild Rice Quinoa Salad
Easy Vegan Green Curry
Lemon & Garlic Wild Rice Soup
4.2 from 86 votes
A flavorful wild rice soup that is packed lemon and garlic. It's nourishing, bright and makes the perfect cozy winter meal.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and saute until the carrots start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the seasonings and zest and cook another 2 - 3 minutes.
Stir in the wild rice and vegetable broth and bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce to simmer, cooking until rice has cooked, about 30 - 40 minutes.
Once the rice is cooked and soft, stir in the milk, lemon juice, and spinach. Stir until spinach is wilted.
Serve immediately and enjoy! Soup can be frozen and reheated as desired.
If you prefer to cook rice in your soup broth anyway, long-grain rice varieties like Basmati or Jasmine work best as they have an easier time retaining their shape. Be prepared to make more broth or stock since the rice will absorb quite a bit of the liquid.
If you add the rice too early, it may become overcooked and disintegrate into the broth. Here are some general guidelines: If your soup is already fully cooked and simmering, add the cooked rice towards the end, about 5-10 minutes before serving.
Avgolemono is a classic sauce of chicken broth, egg yolks, and lemon juice; the addition of a bit more broth, rice, and shredded chicken turns it into a satisfying soup.
Adding uncooked rice to a soup, stew, or casserole can stretch your meals farther. Add 1 cup uncooked rice and two cups of broth or water to your recipe before cooking. The rice will soak up the broth or water as it cooks on the stove top or in the oven.
And in his column for Food52 on the science of rinsing and the use of short-grain rice to make kanji/congee, he wrote: “While the starch dust might help thicken your soup, the rice should still be washed before cooking to remove any dirt, chemicals, and bugs that might be present.
Be sure to wait until the soup is cooled before adding the rice; this will minimize the amount of broth the rice soaks up as it sits. If it's at all warm, the rice will continue to cook as it cools. Or, you can precook the rice for 10 minutes, store it separately from the soup, and add it to the soup as it's reheating.
This issue makes for a soup lacking in appealing textures, but there is a quick and easy fix to this frustrating problem. To avoid a mushy mess, here's how you should be adding rice to soup instead: Cook your rice separately from the rest of the soup and add the grains directly into each bowl as you serve.
2. Add Rice. When you want to add a little heft to your broth—say, when preparing a chicken or vegetable soup—rice can do the trick. Simply throw a handful of any uncooked white rice you have into the broth as you cook the soup and let it simmer for at least half an hour.
Long grain white rice: Be sure to use long grain white rice like jasmine rice or basmati rice, vs a short grain rice like arborio rice or sushi rice. You CAN use brown rice, but you'll need to simmer it for much longer, and use more broth.
1 Cup Wild Rice. 1-2 cups water (texture will be par-cooked with 1 cup of water, very soft with 2 cups- I prefer 1 ½ cups of water for slightly chewy 'al dente' rice) ½ teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
It could not be easier- basically, you're making instant rice, but instead of water you use condensed cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth. That simple step is what transforms the rice into a creamy risotto-style dish.
Lemons are a chicken soup game changer. Why? They brighten up and balance the salty, rich flavors of the dish, and make all of the ingredients come into line.
Between a quarter of a teaspoon and a single teaspoon of juice is enough to stop the rice from clumping, without making it taste like lemon. It's not just the texture of rice that benefits from a few drops of lemon juice, either.
I suspect you're getting “pith” in your lemon, the white stuff under the yellow part. Most recipes for lemon call either for the zest (the yellow part of the peel) or the juice/flesh. Omit the pith and it should eliminate the bitterness.
In order to prevent the breakdown of any grain-based ingredients in your soup, it's best to store them separately from the liquid and add them in with each individual serving. Grains and grain-based ingredients are excellent at soaking up water.
Unlike wheat pasta, you don't need to boil rice noodles; the warm water is enough to cook them through. Once they are soft, you can drain them and add them to your stir-fry, soup, or another dish. Be sure to cook them thoroughly before eating, as uncooked rice noodles can be a bit chewy.
After cooking for the recommended period of time, if the rice is still hard or chewy, add a little bit of water to create more steam (for every cup of uncooked rice used, add about 2 tablespoons of water). Cover the pot tightly and place over very low heat for 5 to 10 minutes.
If your pureed soup is still too thin, thickening it further is simply a matter of adding a neutral starch: Use cooked potatoes, rice, stale bread, mashed potatoes, or frozen hash browns. Just simmer briefly to release the starches and then puree.
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