Ingredients
To Cook The Wild Rice
- 1/2 cup wild rice $3.50
- 1 1/2 cups water
For The Cashew Cream
- 1/2 cup raw cashews $1.04
- 1 cup water
For The Wild Rice Soup
- 1 cup carrots $0.20
- 1 cup celery $0.20
- 1 cup onion $0.21
- 2 cups potatoes $0.21
- 3 cups water
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast $0.38
- 1 ¼ tsp salt $0.01
Instructions
- Prep: Cut the onion, carrots, and celery into 1/2" or 1cm pieces. Cut potatoes½ into 1" pieces.
- Cook the wild rice: Add rice and 1 ½ cups water to the Instant Pot. Pressure cook for 20 minutes. Do a quick release when done. Drain the cooked rice and set aside.
- Make cashew cream: Blend 1 cup of water and ½ cup of raw cashews until very smooth.
- Add carrots, onion, and celery to the Instant Pot and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add potatoes, cooked wild rice, and 3 cups water to the sautéed veggies. Pressure cook for 10 minutes. Allow the Instant Pot to release pressure naturally for 10 minutes and then do a quick release.
- Gently stir in the cashew cream, nutritional yeast, and salt.
Video
Notes
- 1 cup of carrots is equal to about 3 medium carrots.
- 1 cup of chopped onion is equal to about 1 medium onion or 1/2 of a large onion.
- 2 cups of potatoes is equal to about 2-3 medium-sized potatoes.
- For the potatoes, I don’t peel them when I make this soup, since potato skins contain potassium, fiber, antioxidants, folate, and other minerals. But you can certainly peel them if you prefer.
- I make this wild rice soup recipe without oil. For a richer flavor, you can add 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, olive oil, or vegan butter when sautéing the onion, carrots, and celery.
- To make this soup on the stovetop, boil the wild rice and water for 45 minutes until tender, and simmer the combined ingredients for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.
Nutrition
Enjoy a delicious bowl (or two) of this creamy, hearty Vegan Wild Rice Soup that’s loaded with vitamins to keep you warm and healthy even through the coldest Minnesota winters.
In Minnesota you are never far away from a bowl of delicious wild rice soup.
We ate wild rice soup and other dishes made with Minnesota wild rice frequently when I was growing up. In fact, one of my uncles farmed wild rice up in northern Minnesota back in the 90s.
What Is Wild Rice?
If you’ve never had wild rice before, you might be surprised to know is that it’s not technically a rice like white rice or brown rice. It’s actually a type of grass!
In the Ojibway language, the word for wild rice is manoomin, which literally means “good berry.”
And wild rice IS very good for you. Along with protein and fiber, it’s also got vitamin B6, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, manganese. (source)
Wild rice is also rich in antioxidants, protein, and contains all the essential amino acids (source). So, eating wild rice and especially wild rice soup is a great way to keep your body healthy when the cold weather hits.
Another thing you can feel good about is the fact that this soup costs less than a dollar per serving. Scroll down to see a more detailed cost breakdown for this wild rice soup recipe!
Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup
Wild rice is the perfect soup to make in the Instant Pot because you need to cook the dry wild rice for a long time first, and then put the soup together. Using the Instant Pot makes the cook time shorter.
Using the electric pressure cooker means you don’t need to babysit a pot of boiling water on the stove and can finish preparing the other ingredients in the meantime.
The way that this soup is usually prepared includes frying small pieces of chopped bacon with onions first and adding butter and flour to create a roux for the cream-based sauce.
Sometimes you also see recipes that use things like a can of Campbell’s cream of potato soup (which in my opinion tastes a lot worse than just using cut potatoes), or people will add chicken or venison.
How To Make Wild Rice Soup Vegan
Traditionally, wild rice soup is made with cream and butter. Chicken meat and bacon are also frequently added to the recipe.
In my opinion, making wild rice soup without animal products still tastes really good. If you are a brand new vegan you might not be used to the taste of wild rice soup without meat. Let the flavors of the veggies take center stage!
Cashew Cream
I make the soup creamy by adding a small amount of cashew cream at the end.
I recommend using raw cashews since they have a very neutral flavor.
To make the cashew cream, simply blend the raw cashews with water until totally smooth.
Carrots & Celery
I also added carrots and celery to my recipe to give it just a little more nutrition and flavor.
Nutritional yeast
Speaking of nutrition, you can optionally add some nutritional yeast flakes to this soup to add a little bit of richness and to give it more B vitamins.
How Long Does It Take To Cook Wild Rice In The Instant Pot?
It takes about 20 minutes, plus a few minutes to wait for the Instant Pot to get to pressure and then to let off steam.
On the stove, I usually have to cook wild rice for about 45-60 minutes before it’s tender enough to eat.
The Instant Pot is a great time-saver!
This was delicious!
Thanks, Pete!
last time I had a really good wild rice soup was in minnesota. THis rivals that soup! it is really Creamy, comforting and a hearty soup. my question is do you think there is a way to convert this to a crock pot vessel for cooking??
Mary,
Thanks for your question, and I’m glad you liked the soup!
To be honest, I’m not a regular crockpot user and I haven’t tested this, but what I might try would be to put the wild rice, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, nutritional yeast, salt, and 4 cups of water in a crockpot for 6-8 hours. With the water maybe err on the side of less and add more if needed. I hope that helps!
I’ve never really cooked much with wild rice, but it is so easy to get the perfect texture with an IP. This dish is just delicious, and it is giving me all sort of idea for more wild rice dishes. 🙂
Yep, this is a winner! I love a good hearty bowl of soup and this Wild Rice soup is delicious. Glad you are using the instapot
This looks so hearty and satisfying! I love the idea of the cashew cream…sounds so delicious and so good for you too!
This was delicious! I am allergic to cashews so I used tofu instead, just did a 1:1 replacement and blended as the recipe states.